|
Land ownership security in Malawi
Greenwell Matchaya
Leeds University Business School, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK. Leeds
University Business School, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK.
E-mail:
greenwellmatchaya@yahoo.com . Tel: +44(0)7810202942.
Accepted 23 December, 2008 |
|
This study examines factors that determine land ownership
security among households in the rural areas (customary
tenure sector) in Malawi. A framework for understanding land
ownership security in the customary sector is proposed and
using empirical data from different parts of Malawi,
logistic regression analysis shows that the developed
framework helps to explain land ownership security in
practice. Though land ownership insecurity is almost
negligible in the studied areas, this study has found that
households that are categorized by the framework as
non-indigenous (the weakest category of the four) are
associated with a higher likelihood of feeling land tenure
insecurity than the other categories (indigenous, weakly
indigenous, absolutely indigenous). The modes of land
acquisition, years that one resides in a community and
gender of the household head also do determine land tenure
security and women are found to be relatively land tenure
secure than men. This study argues that outcomes from
studies seeking to examine the link between land tenure
security and land use efficiency in Malawi may become
clearer if the developed framework or its variants are used
to model the influence of customary land access systems on
land ownership security because titling/no titling dummy
variables do not say much about land ownership security in
areas where customary systems dominate. Since women have a
higher probability of feeling land tenure secure in
matrilineal systems, development projects should endeavour
to empower them as well so that they may equally participate
in household level decision making as this would help them
effectively use their land even in cases where their
husbands feel land tenure insecure and hence withdraw their
expertise from production. Again, the traditional system of
land transfer is found to be resilient and this leads to
questions about whether land titling could be an urgent need
for people in the studied areas.
Key words: Customary systems, Land tenure,
matrilineal systems, Malawi, land ownership security |
