Beyond Gender Responsiveness: Assessing Women's Land Rights in the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) and Economic Community of West African States Agricultural Policy (ECOWAP)

Abstract

Women in Africa continue to have unequal access to and control over agricultural land and feel insecure in their rights to it. This is one of the greatest hurdles for gender equality and for changing the face of agriculture in the continent. This study examines whether two key regional development programmes, the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) and the Economic Community of West African States Agricultural Policy (ECOWAP), address gender inequality in land rights beyond the rhetoric and actually challenge the patriarchal systems that limit women's rights to land. An adapted version of the Gender in Agricultural Policies Analysis Tool (GAPo) was used, but in this case, it was expanded to a more in-depth analysis of gender-transformative issues, including discriminatory social norms, patriarchal institutions, customary land tenure, inheritance systems, women's participation in land governance, and accountability mechanisms. The study evaluated the CAADP Kampala Declaration, in conjunction with the CAADP Ten-Year Strategy and Action Plan (2026-2035), and the ECOWAP 2025 Strategic Policy Framework on their own against 23 criteria. The results are quite clear and indicate a significant difference between the two. Gender responsive language on women's participation, empowerment, and access to land is included in CAADP, but there is relatively little language on women's ownership, control, land governance, customary tenure, and inheritance. ECOWAP is much less robust: 78% of the criteria were rated as being gender-blind and there are no provisions in ECOWAP that are specifically about gendered land rights at the framework level. Both frameworks fall short on all measures of being gender transformative. Most importantly, neither challenges patriarchy, customary land systems or inheritance rules, which are still perpetuating women's land inequality. To sum up, while the current regional agricultural policies are increasing women's participation and access, they do not question the institutions and power dynamics that shape land ownership and control. The study recommends more specific land-rights goals, disaggregated indicators by sex, gender-sensitive financing, harmonisation of statutory and customary law, and increased representation of women in land governance and improved accountability mechanisms in the implementation of CAADP and ECOWAP.