Land policy reform: the role of land markets and women's land rights in Malawi

This study looks at the on-going land policy reform process in Malawi. This process is formalising customary rights to land by creating individually held land titles.

The authors look at:

• the emerging market in land
• the impact of land reform on women’s land rights (with special emphasis on the distinction between matrilineal and patrilineal inheritance systems that coexist in Malawi)
• the theoretical, political and empirical basis of the reforms

The authors's find that:

• active land rental markets are emerging in central and southern Malawi in response to increasing land scarcity, the skewed distribution of land, and imperfections in non-land factor markets
• the transaction costs of formal land sales are very high in Malawi, but there is scope for cost reductions
• the rights of women may become increasingly marginalised, not only in the informal family and lineage negotiations over rights and access to land, but also in the bargaining processes related to the implementation of land reform policies and programmes
• special mechanisms that protect women against direct discrimination and more indirect processes of marginalisation should be established
• great care is needed for such resettlement projects to succeed and to prevent that severe disputes occur as a result
• the establishment of local land committees and land tribunals for conflict resolution are important to create more democratic and transparent local management of land resources