GENDER-BASED LAND ACCES AND WELLBEING IN CAMEROON

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to highlight the determinants of women land access in Cameron and appreciate its effects on wellbeing trough income and consumption. We use the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to capture land access determinants and a Simultaneous Equations Model (SEM) to put on evidence the implications on wellbeing in Cameroon. From data of the World Development Indicators of the World Bank, our main results show that land access for a woman is determined by her status in the household, that is as household head or being able to participate in main decisions (own health care, major household purchases, and visiting family). The more women are literate the more they advocate for their land tenure security and find ways to purchase or acquiring land. Women who were first married young that is aged 18, hardly get access to land. In addition, the number of female children employed in agriculture, of female contributing as family workers also increase the probability of women to have access to land in Cameroon. Moreover, land possession by female-headed households has a relevant impact on the wellbeing of the household as a whole in term of income and consumption. And that being landless increases the probability of being poor with low income and consumption, and vulnerable. This study is important for stakeholders since, among other things, if even attention to gender and land governance is not new, it has not always been acted upon. So that land tenure security and full and equal access of women to ownership, property rights and land titles in Cameroon could be seen not only as an assets as others but also as an engine for economic growth that can be engaged in the post-2015 development agenda.

Keywords

• Land
• gender
• poverty
• Cameroon.