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Reclaiming rights - reclaiming livelihoods: A brief on secure land and property rights for women in sub-Saharan Africa in the era of AIDS
Kaori Izumi, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
June 26, 2009

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Secure property rights and sustainable means of livelihoods for women are pre-conditions for food security, poverty alleviation, HIV prevention and gender equality. Emergency support is urgently needed for women who have lost their property and are evicted from their homes.

The Situation: HIV and women's property rights

Worldwide, 15.5 million women aged 15 years and older are living with HIV- 55.6% of the global total. Three quarters (77%) of all HIV positive women live in sub-Saharan Africa, where women comprise 63% of adults living with HIV. In sub-Saharan Africa, nearly three out of four (74%) young people aged 15-24 years living with HIV are female.

HIV is a widow-creating disease. HIV-affected people are stigmatized and stigmatized people are often more likely to be abused and less capable of defending their rights. Families accuse widows of being responsible for their husbands' deaths, claiming that they are "witches" and "prostitutes." Property confiscation takes place not only because of material greed but also to punish widows.

Recently, growing numbers of children and women in Africa have been evicted from their homes and land and have been refused their inheritance and property rights. The extended family support systems that used to function as social safety nets for widows and orphans have weakened as a consequence of changes in cultural and social norms, which have been caused by economic development, migration and urbanisation. This situation has been further exacerbated by the AIDS pandemic, which has substantially increased the number of widow-headed households as well as the number of orphans and child-headed households. Instead of protecting orphans and widows, relatives often confiscate the property and assets that a widow and her children should have inherited. Valuable resources, such as land, housing, bank savings, pensions, furniture, cattle, farming equipment, cooking utensils and clothing are taken away, leaving the widow and children without access to their previous livelihoods and shelter, exposing them to various forms of hardship, abuse and exploitation.

Many of these widows are themselves HIV positive when they lose their shelter, property and livelihoods. Married women are often blamed for having infecting the husband when he finds out his HIV positive status, which can expose women to domestic violence. Defending their property rights could indeed put some women's lives at risk. As a result, a humanitarian crisis is slowly building as thousands of women are becoming destitute as a result of property grabbing by their husbands' families. These women are often left without adequate support for temporary shelter, food, antiretroviral treatment (ART) and livelihood options.

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