Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Women’s Bigger Burden: Disparities in Outcomes of Large Scale Land Acquisition in Sierra Leone

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Gender Issues Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Women farmers make up a majority of small-scale food producers in sub-Saharan Africa. Despite their important role in the food and livelihood security of their households and communities, women continue to face substantial challenges in their rights of and access to land resources in the region. In a number of countries such as Sierra Leone where large-scale land acquisition is ongoing, we posit that women’s predicament may further deteriorate. Using data drawn from a survey of household and livelihood activities, focus groups and interviews we examine the outcomes of large-scale land acquisitions on women at the local level in two districts in Sierra Leone. We found that first, women depend more on land-based natural resources that directly affect the day-to-day welfare of households (such as firewood and medicinal plants) than men. Second, land acquisitions have led to a significant fall in the incomes of women and men. The effects of the fall of women’s income have more direct and profound consequences on household wellbeing compared with men. Third, men tend to rank the effects of land acquisitions on women lower than women do. We conclude that current social and cultural norms and women’s role in rural societies is complex and predisposes women to negative livelihood processes and outcomes associated with large-scale land acquisitions. Policy interventions designed to address local and national challenges to socio-economic and cultural development should recognize the crucial role played by women and be responsive to their special needs.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. ActionAid. (2011). How supporting women’s rights and gender equality makes the difference. In L. Ferguson, & Z. Moosa (Eds.), Farming as Equals (p. 44). Brussels: ActionAid International.

  2. ActionAid. (2013). Broken promises: The impacts of Addax Bioenergy in Sierra Leone on hunger and livelihoods (p. 16). Johannesburg, South Africa: ActionAid International.

  3. AfDB. (2011). Sierra Leone Country Gender Profile (p. 48). Abijan, Côte d'Ivoire: Gender and Social Development Division, African Development Bank Group.

  4. Agarwal, B. (1994). A field of one’s own: Gender and land rights in South Asia (Vol. 58). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  5. Agu, M. N. (2013). Application of ICT in agricultural sector: Women’s perspective. International Journal of Soft Computing and Engineering, 2(6), 58–60.

    Google Scholar 

  6. Akyeampong, E., & Fofack, H. (2013). The contribution of African women to economic growth and development in post-colonial Africa: Historical perspectives and policy implications.

  7. Ali, D. A., Deininger, K., & Goldstein, M. (2014). Environmental and gender impacts of land tenure regularization in Africa: Pilot evidence from Rwanda. Journal of Development Economics.

  8. Behrman, J., Meinzen-Dick, R., & Quisumbing, A. (2012). The gender implications of large-scale land deals. Journal of Peasant Studies, 39(1), 49–79.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. CEDAW. (2014). Concluding observations on the sixth periodic report of Sierra Leone (p. 13). New York: United Nations Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).

    Google Scholar 

  10. Collett, K., Gale, C., & Walker, S. (2009). Training for rural development: Agricultural and enterprise skills for women smallholders (p. 78). London: City Guilds Centre for Skills Development.

  11. Collins, A. M. (2014). Governing the Global land grab: What role for gender in the voluntary guidelines and the principles for responsible investment? Globalizations (ahead-of-print), 1–15.

  12. Cresswell, J. W. (2006). Qualitative inquiry & research design: Choosing among five approaches (2nd edn., p. 395). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

    Google Scholar 

  13. Creswell, J. W. (2012). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  14. Croppenstedt, A., Goldstein, M., & Rosas, N. (2013). Gender and agriculture: Inefficiencies, segregation, and low productivity traps. The World Bank Research Observer, 28(1), 79–109.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Dittoh, S., Bhattarai, M., Akuriba, M. A., & Hanjra, M. (2013). Micro irrigation-based vegetable farming for income, employment and food security in West Africa. In M. A. Hanjra (Ed.), Global food security (pp. 178–199). New York: Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

    Google Scholar 

  16. Doss, C., Summerfield, G., & Tsikata, D. (2014). Land, Gender, and Food Security. Feminist Economics, 20(1), 1–23.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Duflo, E., & Udry, C. (2004). Intrahousehold resource allocation in Cote d’Ivoire: Social norms, separate accounts and consumption choices (p. 52). National Bureau of Economic Research, Yale University Economic Growth Center.

  18. Englert, B., & Daley, E. (2008). Women’s land rights and privatization in Eastern Africa: Boydell & Brewer Ltd.

  19. FAO. (2011). The state of food and agriculture: Women in agriculture—Closing the gender gap for development. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

  20. Fofack, H. (2014). Celebrating the contribution of African women to development in Africa. Abidjan, Ivory Coast: African Development Bank.

    Google Scholar 

  21. Karmel, T., & Jain, M. (1987). Comparison of purposive and random sampling schemes for estimating capital expenditure. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 82(397), 52–57.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Khalif, A., & Nur, A. (2013). The African Farmer and the challenge of food security in Africa. Development, 56(2), 257–265.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Kiptot, E., Franzel, S., & Degrande, A. (2014). Gender, agroforestry and food security in Africa. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 6, 104–109.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Lewis, J. L., & Sheppard, S. R. (2006). Culture and communication: Can landscape visualization improve forest management consultation with indigenous communities? Landscape and Urban Planning, 77(3), 291–313.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. MacIntyre, B. D. (2009). International assessment of agricultural knowledge, science and technology for development, IAASTD. Washington: Island Press.

    Google Scholar 

  26. Montello, D., & Sutton, P. C. (2006). An introduction to scientific research methods in geography. Thousand Oaks: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  27. Oakland Institute. (2011). Addax & ORYX Group Bioenergy investment in Sierra Leone. Understanding land investment deals in Africa. Oakland, CA: Oakland Institute. http://www.oaklandinstitute.org/sites/oaklandinstitute.org/files/OI_Addex_Brief.pdf.

  28. Oakland Institute. (2012). SOCFIN land investment in Sierra Leone. In F. Mousseau, E. Schaefter, & A. Mittal (Eds.), Understanding land investment in africa. Oakland Institute: Oakland, CA.

  29. Onwuegbuzie, A. J., Dickinson, W. B., Leech, N. L., & Zoran, A. G. (2009). A qualitative framework for collecting and analyzing data in focus group research. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 8(3), 1–21.

    Google Scholar 

  30. Paradza, G. (2013). Land tenure, gender and globalization: Research and analysis from Africa, Asia and Latin America. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 40(1), 311–314.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Ragin, C. C., & Amoroso, L. M. (2010). Constructing social research: The unity and diversity of method (p. 235). Thousand Oaks: SAGE.

    Google Scholar 

  32. Simbizi, M. C. D., Bennett, R. M., & Zevenbergen, J. (2014). Land tenure security: Revisiting and refining the concept for sub-Saharan Africa’s rural poor. Land Use Policy, 36, 231–238.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. Sturgess, P., & Flower, C. (2013). Land and conflict in Sierra Leone: A rapid desk-based study., Evidence on demand London: Climate, Environment, Infrastructure and Livelihoods Professional Evidence and Applied Knowledge Services (CEIL PEAKS).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  34. Teddlie, C., & Yu, F. (2007). Mixed methods sampling a typology with examples. Journal of Mixed Methods Research, 1(1), 77–100.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  35. Thomas, A. C. (2010). Population profile of Bombali District and Makeni Town (vol. 2004, census publication series-3). Freetown, Sierra Leone: Statistics Sierra Leone.

  36. Tongco, M. D. C. (2007). Purposive sampling as a tool for informant selection. Ethnobotany Research and Applications, 5, 147–158.

    Google Scholar 

  37. UNDP. (2013). Sierra Leone—Human development report 2013., The rise of the south: Human progress in a diverse world Nairobi: United Nations Development Programme.

    Google Scholar 

  38. Verma, R. (2014). Land grabs, power, and gender in East and Southern Africa: So, what’s new? Feminist Economics, 20(1), 52–75.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We sincerely thank all communities of the Makeni and Pujehun Districts of Sierra Leone that participated in this study. We also thank Green Scenery, Sierra Leone and the Sierra Leone Network on the Right to Food (SiLNoRF), the Rural Agency for Community Action Programme Sierra Leone for their support during this study. Our appreciation goes also to Zainab Kamara for help with our activities in Makeni and Hawa Massaquoi (Gender Representative for the Pujehun Council) for information on the gender situation in the Pujehun District. We greatly appreciate support from the Swedish Research Council VR (Contract No. 2013-187: Unintended implications of climate policies—Large scale land acquisitions) under which this study was carried out. This research was carried out within the framework of the Linnaeus Centre LUCID (Lund University Centre of Excellence for Integration of Social and Natural Dimensions of Sustainability). We gratefully acknowledge the financial support to LUCID from the Swedish Research Council Formas.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies, Room 209, Josephson, Fingatan 10, 223 62, Lund, Sweden

    Genesis Tambang Yengoh

  2. Department of Geography, Social Science Centre, The University of Western Ontario, 1151 Richmond Street, London, ON, N6A 5C2, Canada

    Frederick Ato Armah

  3. Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies, Room 221, Josephson, Fingatan 10, 223 62, Lund, Sweden

    Karin Steen

Authors
  1. Genesis Tambang Yengoh
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Frederick Ato Armah
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Karin Steen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Genesis Tambang Yengoh.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Yengoh, G.T., Armah, F.A. & Steen, K. Women’s Bigger Burden: Disparities in Outcomes of Large Scale Land Acquisition in Sierra Leone. Gend. Issues 32, 221–244 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12147-015-9140-7

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12147-015-9140-7

Keywords

Search

Navigation