Conclusiones  sobre  la  terminología  utilizada  por  Aristóteles  para  referirse  a  la

Blandford (2013) points out that traditionally, ethics has been concerned with the avoidance of harm, and most established ethical clearance processes focused on this. She posits that a useful mnemonic for the main concerns should be Vulnerability, Informed consent, and Privacy (VIP). Where vulnerability take into consideration particular care when recruiting participants from groups that might be regarded as vulnerable such as children, the elderly, or people with particular conditions (due to illnesses, addictions, etc.); Informed consent is where possible participants are informed of the purpose of the study and their right to withdraw at any time; and Privacy and confidentiality must be respected in data gathering, data management and reporting.

All necessary ethical conditions for primary data were met before any data collection could commence. An ethical clearance form was logged with, and approved by the University of Witwatersrand’s Ethics Committee (Annexure B). Hence, participants were guaranteed confidentiality to the information they provided. Some of the

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personal information gathered is confidential like age, sex, etc.: this information will never be disclosed to, or used by anyone except for the purposes of this study. Moreover, only participants who freely and willingly participated were considered for selection, and each one was duly requested to complete a consent form (Annexure E and F) expressing their willingness to be participants. There are minimal concerns on ethical issues surrounding secondary data. The user of such data is expected to acknowledge the data sources and meet the conditions under which the data is issued to him/her because this is an ethical obligation.

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CHAPTER 2

THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS AND LITERATURE

REVIEW

2.1INTRODUCTION

This chapter is dedicated to a discussion on existing theoretical perspectives and some of the discourses that have taken place, or are currently taking place within the broader debates on land reforms, gender, women empowerment and rural livelihoods. The chapter reviews theoretical debates of land reform, women empowerment and rural livelihoods that underpin this research and outlines the concepts needed to understand the relationship between land reforms and sustainable livelihoods as well as mechanisms and challenges faced by the marginalised people, especially women. These concepts included, land allocation, land access, tenure and land rights, gender and power relations, women empowerment and rural livelihoods. Engaging in the discussion of these theoretical perspectives and concepts was important to provide a sound foundation and tools to carry out extensive research and analysis as well as test the application of these theories. Current arguments on land reforms emphasises equity, environmental productivity and sustainability, poverty eradication, provision of adequate support services and legal tenure and ownership among other issues.

Extensive research has been conducted on how land reforms and control over economic resources, empower the poor (especially women) resulting in positive effects on households’ well-being and a range of developmental goals in the developing world – poverty reduction, economic growth and gender equity (Shumba 2011; Tinyane 2009; Farnworth 2013; Makura-Paradza 2010; Weiderman 2004; Allendorf 2007; Rosenkrantz 2014; Deere and Leon 1998). Allendorf (2007) found that women’s land rights promote empowerment and child health in Nepal. In Asia, Ronsenkrantz (2014) attested that changes in land rights were making a positive difference to the poorest people in the Pacific. These positive outcomes were supported by Studwell and Jochnick (2016) who argued that after World War II, land reform progress in Taiwan, South Korea and Japan redistributed vast swathes of land to the poor tenant farmers and agricultural labourers, thereby ending extreme poverty and hunger. In Colombia land redistribution programmes in the late 1990s improved women’s land rights by mandating joint titles for couples instead of exclusive titles for male household ‘heads’ (Deere and León 2001). They also found out that, women in Colombia received nearly one-third of the land titles that were distributed to individuals rather than couples.

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In some instances, land reforms adversely affected women, resultantly worsening their status and negatively affecting their and their family wellbeing. During Kenya’s 1960s land reforms, women were negatively affected as freehold tenure rights were registered in the husbands’ or other male relatives’ names (Weiderman 2004). However, these problems are being addressed as women have formed watchdog groups as strategies to hold leaders to account (African Women’s Land Rights Conference, 2011), and Kenya’s 2010 constitution addresses women’s plight to land ownership and creates necessary legal and institutional frameworks to ensure full realisation of women’s plight to land and other related resources (Odeny 2013). In Northern Uganda, after 20 years of conflict and 5 years of post-conflict, there were increases in land boundary disputes during the resettlement and return of the Internationally Displaced Persons (IDPs). These disputes severely affected around 46 per cent of women because traditionally they accessed land through male members of the households (most of whom died during the conflict) and therefore had no formal claim to the land, and worse still, had also lost their social networks through which they accessed land (African Women’s Land Rights Conference 2011). In El Salvador, the 1980s land reform transferred titles from landlords to tenants, this actually had the effect of worsening women’s (already inferior) position: women comprised only 10 per cent of the beneficiaries, but they accounted for 36 per cent of those whose lands were expropriated, the latter being mostly ‘elderly widows and single women who did not work the land directly themselves, but rather share- cropped it or rented it out’ (Deere and León 2001, 98).

This chapter is divided into six (6) sections of which this is the first section. Section 2.2 provides a critical review of land reforms and women empowerment and section 2.3 discusses theories and concepts on land reforms, women empowerment and rural livelihoods. Global debates on how land reforms empower women, thereby positively affecting their livelihoods are discussed in section 2.4. A discussion on land reforms and women empowerment with particular focus on the Southern Africa region and Zimbabwe is provided in section 2.5, while section 2.6 focuses on the gaps in knowledge and the justification of this research.