| Livelihoods |
| |
- HIV/AIDS narrows livelihood options with land becoming more important. But is land an effective option? What can be done to make it more effective?
- Assess the possibility of the state providing some of the needs that households are selling off their assets to meet, for example education and health care.
|
| Land Use |
| |
- Support the use of agricultural techniques suitable for low labour input households.
- Review current land use and support land use appropriate to different localities.
- Ensure affected households have the necessary resources to implement optimum land use for their situation.
|
| Malawi |
Change extension policy from demand driven to include support for affected families.
|
| Land tenure / rights |
| |
- Consider including a land chapter in the bill of rights.
- Provide for preferential / affirmative land allocation to widows / single women (quota system)
- Legalise leasing to ensure effective use of land taking account of specific local contexts.
- Be aware that laws do not always change local practices.
- Address land tenure and use issues under different land tenure regimes, namely statutory, freehold and customary tenure.
|
| Land policy and administration |
| |
Land policy needs to address HIV/AIDS and HIV/AIDS policy needs to address the land issue.
Policy focus should go beyond prevention and treatment to deal with the effects of the pandemic.
Mainstream HIV/AIDS in land policies and address the issue specifically.
Land related departments and ministries must adopt an intersectoral approach that can address legal,
economic, social and cultural issues and coordinate the provision of services like health care,
education, water and sanitation.
To strengthen legal/ administrative system the following issues need attention:
- Joint ownership of plots guaranteeing equal access
- Amendment of Marriage Acts
- Succession plans prepared before parents die
- Access to legal systems / aid to protect widows, for example an ombudsman, women’s groups, community based organisations
Policy recommendations need to strengthen government support for basic needs.
Governments need to recognise that they are losing personnel to the pandemic and take steps to ensure
they have the capacity to implement policy.
Support participation of HIV/AIDS affected / infected in policy processes
Policy framework needs to address the growing impoverishment of rural people
Laws need to be based on the situation on the ground so that administrators do not have to
circumvent them to display compassion.Emphasis on commercialisation and economic growth should not
prejudice. subsistence use where alternative livelihood options are limited or non-existent.
Ask affected people what they need.
Ensure land reform programmes address the needs of HIV/AIDS affected households.
|
| Malawi |
Need stronger integration of HIV/AIDS into the PRSP.
Remove ‘those with the ability and resources’ from all land related legislation and regulations.
The land bill should secure access for HIV/AIDS affected households.
Laws that marginalise women should be changed, this includes the constitution, land policy, gender policy, PRSP, wills and inheritance laws, and
the land bill.
Mainstream HIV/AIDS in all development planning.
|
| Kenya |
Need to push for protection of women’ rights to land in the constitution. The need is clear and does not need to wait for quantification.
|
| Gender and age |
| |
- Governments need to secure women’s rights to land and deal with the marginalisation of women and women’s issues in the government system.
- Information campaigns need to address the fact that women are frequently blamed for the
infection and carry much of the stigma attached to HIV/AIDS.
- Policies and programmes need to address problems women face including:
- land grabbing
- decision making about land use without consultation
- uncertainty about inheritance
- no formal wills and
- polygamous marriages.
- Policies and programmes need to address the issue of women competing with women for land and other resources, for example wives and mother in laws.
- The situation of orphans needs to be investigated and ways devised to protect and
support them.
|
| Community / local support structures |
| |
Policies and programmes need to
- Support community based institutions that assist affected households as a way of building social capital, these include churches and voluntary associations.
- Protect the land rights of vulnerable groups, including provision for secure leasing, incentives for guardians to care for orphans without usurping their land rights and innovative coping strategies at community level
- Review local culture and practices with a negative impact on HIV/AIDS affected households and infected individuals and look for ways to address them.
- Build local social capital through supporting local structures that can assist households. This could include public hearings on land for orphans and inputs to assist them with production.
- Look for ways to support micro finance institutions to improve support to affected households for land use
- Provide services that meet the needs of infected people and affected households.
- Any measures introduced need to be publicised through radio and other means so that people know and understand their rights.
|
Related documents