Gender, Land, and Security

Name of the project:

Gender, Land, and Security - The Gendered Processes and Impacts of Large-scale Land Acquisitions in Northern Sierra Leone

Collaborators/Participants

Dr. Caitlin Ryan ( c.m.ryan rug.nl ). This project is funded by a grant from the Folke Bernadotte Academy. Dr Caitlin Ryan is partnering with Njala University in Sierra Leone for field research.

What are you currently working on? And how is a gender and diversity perspective important in your research?

Large-scale land deals for agribusiness are increasing in states where a majority of the population relies on subsistence agriculture.  There is a consensus that secure land tenure is essential for rural women’s physical, economic and social security, however, the gendered impacts of these land deals are under-researched. While strictly economic analyses of the impact of access to land are aplenty, they lack the inclusiveness a feminist perspective would bring. Rural women use land in a wide variety of ways that are not easily quantifiable, including for subsistence farming and cash crop production, firewood and medicine. There is also a relationship between land and social practices such as marriage, and decision-making power in the community. These uses and practices, and particularly the gender dimension behind them, are often absent from analyses of land deals. Furthermore, existing research shows a link between land disputes and the outbreak of violent conflict. If large-scale land deals produce gendered insecurities for women this will decrease the potential for meaningful, sustainable and equitable development, and may increase the potential for conflict.

This project will collect context-specific data on the gendered insecurities of land deals in Northern Sierra Leone. In-depth empirical research is crucial to identify and understand the specific impacts of these deals and how they influence women’s daily life. Moreover, different women will experience land deals differently for many reasons, such as whether or not their families own land. Such variables need to be identified and a qualitative ethnographic data collection project is crucial to such purpose because of the difficulty in quantifying complex power relations. The project will collect ethnographic data through several different qualitative methods.