Africa

The feminization of poverty in Sénégal seems largely related to women's difficulty in accessing resources, notably land. Patrilinear modes of social organization persist despite the existence of laws protecting the rights of women. Several studies have attempted to explain the persistence of gender-based injustice. However, they provide only a partial understanding of the plurality of situations and specific conditions of women. This project seeks to produce knowledge that will be used to advance the effectiveness of women's economic rights in Sénégal.

This paper analyzes the new role rural Senegalese women play as moneylenders in their agrarian communities. The shifting terrain of local credit institutions parallels contemporary trends in rural development: state-led agricultural cooperatives, which were introduced in 1960, formerly bolstered the position of elite farmers who lent out cash and grain to poor farmers during the dry-season months of scarcity.

This is the final report of a study that sought to assess the social and economic impacts of land titling and home ownership programmes in urban and peri-urban areas of developing countries. These programmes have been widely promoted by governments and international agencies despite limited empirical evidence of their benefits / impacts. Following a literature review, case studies were undertaken in Senegal and South Africa.

This study analyses the important role played by women in the Senegalese economy through their contribution in agriculture, which remains the key activity and the target of development policy. Such analysis shows that although their contribution is extremely important, it is invisible and not taken into account. Although they toil in the land, women have no right to own it. Land is the property of men. Even when most of the rural men immigrate to developed countries and stay there for many years, they still control the land cultivated by women who are in charge of the families welfare.