Land Inequality, Gender Land Disparity and Poverty in Rural Zimbabwe
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Date
2022-06
Authors
Pindiriri, Carren
Zwizwai, Benson
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Abstract
Zimbabwe has redistributed vast quantities of arable land to the landless, women
and poor communal farmers in order to reduce inequality, yet poverty and gender
disparity in land ownership is still discernible. This paper explores the relationship
between poverty, gender disparity and land inequality using a combination of
descriptive statistics, regression discontinuity and a simple regression. The results
reveal a gender gap in land ownership and larger land inequality among female headed households. In female-headed households, the proportion of poor is smaller
and per capita consumption is higher than in male-headed households. The results
further reveal that the transfer of arable land to women will only reduce poverty and
promote equality if it targets women without land and those at the lower end of land
distribution. Spatially, poverty can be reduced by increasing the share of women who
own arable land in regional districts. The main policy implication is that there are
substantial spillover benefits from addressing gender inequality in land ownership
if land redistribution policy targets women at the lower end of plot size distribution.