Govt to empower women with secured land

Sun, 02 Jul 2017 10:49:58 +0000

By ANNIE ZULU

GOVERNMENT is committed to empowering women through land acquisition as many of them did not have access and control over land, Lands Minister Jean Kapata has said.

Ms. Kapata said government was aware of fact that the majority of women in the country, especially in rural areas did not have access to land but that might soon be a thing of the past as government would give priority of land acquisition to women.

“The affirmative programmes to support women’s access to land administration services were underway because land was a form of security and collateral for women. It also builds women’s resilience, food security while promoting their social status as well as dignity in society,” she said.

She said the Patriotic Front (PF) government under President Edgar Lungu’s administration was devoted to its promise of ensuring that 40% of women had access to land.

 “Access to land still remains a challenge to women, but that will no longer continue because the PF government under the leadership of President Lungu is determined to empower women through land acquisition to ensure that women have access to land just like men,

“We are more interested in empowerment and attainment of gender equality as a pre-requisite for attainment of sustainable social and economic development of the country,” Ms Kapata said.

She noted that in Zambia only about 20% of women had access to secured land and that government would ensure that at least 40% of the land in the country went to the womenfolk and that the rights to acquire land was  protected and promoted in the country.

She observed that having access to secured land would help to empower women both individually and collectively.

Ms Kapata further said that having access to land meant that women would have access to financial assets such as credit and savings adding that it would also reduce the poverty levels among women in Zambia because poverty had a feminine face.