The contribution of the new land law to the women's empowerment in Rwanda. A case study of Nyamasheke District, Western Province, Rwanda.

Abstract

xii ABSTRACT This study examined the contribution of new land law to women empowerment of Nyamasheke District, Rwanda. The specific objectives are to describe the socioeconomic rights enjoyed by women in line with the new land law, to assess the benefits of land laws in promoting women’s empowerment in addition to identifying challenges associated with the implementation of new land law for women, finally the study, proposed potential strategies to improve the implementation of new land law. A descriptive research design was used with both qualitative and quantitative approaches, the target population was women and local leaders of Nyamasheke District. The sample size was 348 women and 4 local leaders, purposive sampling technique was used for selecting respondents. Primary data was obtained using a questionnaire. Information was gathered, classified and coded for analysis. Findings were presented in form of percentage into tables. The study showed that, 147 (42.24%) of respondents, enjoyed alienation rights, which is the right to transfer, to sell and inheriting land. Furthermore, the findings deduced that there has been a significant difference in mean of income owned by women of Nyamasheke before and after the new land law, this proof women’s economic empowerment due to new land law. In addition, the new land law has contributed to the women social empowerment, because the findings confirmed that now the women’ s opinion and views are recognized in their family as well as in the whole society, and women are able to make life determining decision through different problems in the society. Findings showed that the likely challenges linked to the implementation of new land law for women are poor interpretation of the law and poor services delivered by land officers in local administration. In addition to that, the cost of land mutation services and land taxes are still high vis a vis women income capacity. Finally, the study deduced potential strategies to improve the implementation of new land law that are to increase land services awareness campaign, to harmonize the land services cost to its size, furthermore suggesting land officers to only charge taxes on land that is generating regular income.