"I have a right" - women's land rights and empowerment in post-conflict northern Uganda

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“I HAVE A RIGHT” - WOMEN’S LAND RIGHTS AND

EMPOWERMENT IN POST-CONFLICT NORTHERN UGANDA

by

Hannah Sturm

Student Number: 11817720

A Dissertation

Submitted to Graduate School of Social Sciences

University of Amsterdam

In Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements

For Research Master International Development Studies

18.6.2019

Supervisor: Dr. Nicky R.M. Pouw

Second Reader: Dr. Mirjam A.F. Ros-Tonen

29,547 words

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Abstract

"I Have a Right" - Women's Empowerment and Land Rights in Northern Uganda

In Uganda, women have always been vulnerable to lose access to and control over land. Within a post-conflict setting such as Acholi in Northern Uganda, discriminatory land practices and customary gender roles act as a double-edged sword against women's social and economic empowerment, and increase tensions between formal and informal landholding structures, policy and practice. In the aftermath of the Lord’s Resistance Army insurgency, research explored drivers of gender inequality in land rights and developed strategies to empower Acholi women but missed out on a comprehensive conclusion about women’s heterogeneity of women’s experience and action as embedded in contextual, socio-cultural and institutional structures. This gap is addressed by asking: To what extent

are Acholi women empowered to advocate for their land rights within pluralistic tenure systems?

Based on primary field research using qualitative and quantitative means of data collection, we find that within a countervailing context of post-conflict trauma and cultural forces that sustain gender inequality, empowerment and change is observed on different societal levels, which also spills over to women's land rights. Women’s individual strategies to secure access to and control over land include accepting secondary land rights, formally securing shared rights and pursuing individual land ownership. On the community level, women expand their impact on land governance through collective action and massive awareness raising while claiming their rights through formal and informal justice mechanisms. This leads to the conclusion that women have increasing agency to fight their vulnerability and contest the structural constraints to realise their land rights in different ways. Based on these findings, the article closes with recommendations for building further on women-led initiatives, focussing on their strategies and establishing new links for participation in community and district level decision making on land policies.

Keywords: women’s empowerment, land rights, collective action, post-conflict, Northern Uganda

Word count: 288

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Acknowledgments

I would first like to thank my thesis supervisor Dr. Nicky Pouw. From the beginning, she gave me guidance and encouragement, she was always available for my small and extensive questions and she challenged me to stay structured and “substantial”. She consistently allowed this paper to be my own work but steered me in the right the direction whenever she thought I needed it.

I would also like to acknowledge Dr. Mirjam Ros-Tonen of the University of Amsterdam as the second reader of this thesis, and I am gratefully indebted to her for her very valuable comments on this thesis.

Finally, I would like to thank my colleagues from ActionAid Uganda for helping me to find my way in a foreign country, for embracing me with their incredible knowledge and for providing me with the support without which this research would certainly not have been the same.

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Preface

Uganda, Gulu, September 2018: I am sitting together with the Gulu wheelchair basketball players who are about to travel to Kampala for a national competition. As I tell them about my research on women's land rights they react outraged: "Why WOMEN'S land rights? Men also need land rights!" Of course, they are right. As disabled people, they know very well what it means to be side-lined by the society and in fact, both men and women experience land conflicts in Uganda.

Uganda, Nwoya, October 2018: I am sitting together with a community pastor. Reflecting on his work, he tells me that he is often asked "why are the projects of NGOs and churches all about children, youth and women? Why not men?" In the evening, we drive back to town, through one of the bumpy village roads where one pothole chases the other. Darkness is slowly falling over us, and I observe women on the roadside carrying heavy loads on their heads, jerrycans, firewood, baskets with cassava, beans, potatoes and whatever they are bringing home from the field or from the market. We pass small town centres where men are hanging around, some sitting on their motorbikes staring at the screens of their phones, others playing cards, drinking beer. Suddenly, we hear a woman screaming. A guy is brutally grabbing her arm. He is obviously drunk and keeps on dragging her. We stop the car and my colleagues intervene until the guy finally lets her go. She disappears, still crying, into the dark. We continue driving and my colleague says in anger: "See, this is why we need to empower women! They are so vulnerable, they are seen just as objects. People think they can do anything with them."

Uganda, Gulu, November 2018: I am sitting together with a group of women. We are sitting on the floor, eating peanuts that are handed round in a basket. All of them talk strongly and with much wisdom: “We came out with the idea why not standing out and say ‘no’, you too have the right to make the choice. Now we have to fight”. They tell me that leaders listen to them and respect them because they know what they talk about and they are reaching out to women in their communities teaching them that women are not just objects but that they CAN own land.

Uganda, Kampala, December 2018: I am sitting together with a Community Liaisons Officer at Uganda Land Alliance (membership consortium of national, regional and international civil society organizations). She tells me how women’s group are mushrooming in the whole country, how women are collectively demanding their land rights. But she also explains that in Uganda, all women are vulnerable regarding land. Even she who is educated: her father only gave property to her brothers. While those women who are educated can work and buy their own land, most women in the villages are not able to do the same.

The Netherlands, Amsterdam, January 2019: I am sitting alone at my desk trying to organise my thoughts. Memories of the last months are passing through my mind like snapshots. I met women who had experienced terrible violence, many of their stories moved me to tears. I met women who proudly showed me their land that they had fought over. However, one sentence, over and over: “women are not allowed to own anything, they are just objects!” While I do want to recognise the struggle of other marginalised groups and people, which includes men, this research looks at the specific challenges that women face: their vulnerability but also their agency to imagine pathways for equal rights, security and independence.

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Table of Content

Table of Content ...iv

List of Tables ... x

List of Figures ... xi

List of Text Boxes ... xii

List of Abbreviations ... xiii

1. Introduction ... 1

1.1 Background ... 1

1.2 Problem Statement ... 1

1.3 Research Location and Approach ... 2

1.4 Thesis Outline ... 3

2. Theoretical Frame ... 4

2.1 Introduction ... 4

2.2 Advocacy for Women's Land Rights - a Socio-Legal Approach ... 4

2.3 Advocacy - Activities and Purpose ... 6

2.4 Women's Empowerment - "Making a Choice"... 6

2.5 Land Rights - A Bundle of Rights ... 9

2.6 Pluralistic Tenure Systems - On 3 Layers of Society ... 10

2.7 Land Rights Advocacy in Pluralistic Tenure Systems - Some Approaches ... 11

2.8 Conceptual Framework ... 12

2.9 Conclusion ... 13

3. Research Context ... 15

3.2 Acholi-Land and People ... 15

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3.4 Land Rights in Acholi – Customs and Regulations ... 18

3.5 Culture and Gender Roles in Transition ... 19

3.6 Gender Inequality in the National Context ... 20

3.7 Women's Empowerment in Acholi – Actors and Approaches ... 21

4. Research Methodology ... 23

4.2 Research Questions ... 23

4.3 Epistemology ... 24

4.4 Mixed Methods - Definition and Research Design ... 25

4.5 Data Collection ... 27

4.5.1 Sample / Participants ... 27

4.5.2 Qualitative Data Collection ... 27

4.5.3 Quantitative Data Collection ... 29

4.6 Data Analysis ... 30

4.6.1 Qualitative Data Analysis ... 30

4.6.2 Quantitative Data Analysis ... 31

4.7 Study Limitations and Ethical Considerations ... 32

5. Women’s Land Rights in Pluralistic Tenure Systems ... 33

5.2 Laws and Institutions: The Statutory System ... 34

5.2.1 Women’s Land Rights in the National Framework ... 35

5.2.2 Women’s Land Rights: Contested Legislations ... 36

5.2.3 Statutory Justice on the Local Level ... 36

5.3 Laws and Institutions: The Acholi Customary System ... 37

5.3.2 Customary Land in the National Context ... 38

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5.3.3 Customary Justice Mechanisms on the Local Level ... 39

5.3.4 The Customary System – Dynamic and Changing ... 40

5.4 Concretised Social Relationships ... 41

5.4.1 Women’s Land Rights on the Ground - Some Stories ... 41

5.4.2 Policy and Practice - Closing the Gap ... 42

5.4.3 Changing Dynamics after the War ... 43

5.5 Underlying Beliefs ... 44

5.5.1 Beliefs on Women in the Society ... 44

5.5.2 Women’s Roles in their Families ... 45

5.5.3 Discussions around Cultural Beliefs ... 45

6. Women’s Land Rights Advocacy – Motivations, Means and Strategies ... 47

6.1 Introduction ... 47 6.2 Motivations ... 47 6.2.1 A Space to Live ... 47 6.2.2 A Ground to Feed ... 48 6.2.3 A Place to Raise ... 48 6.2.4 A Field to Be Free ... 49 6.3 Resources ... 50

6.3.1 Intellectual Resources - Knowledge and Education ... 50

6.3.2 Social Resources – Support Systems ... 51

6.3.3 Spiritual Resources - Religion and Faith ... 52

6.4 Individual Strategies ... 53

6.4.1 First Reaction: Relocation or Confrontation ... 53

6.4.2 Claiming Land Rights: Sitting Together or Moving Up ... 55

6.4.3 Securing Rights: Planting a Tree or Signing a Paper ... 56

6.5 Collective Strategies ... 58

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6.5.2 Supporting and Mediating ... 59

6.5.3 Organising and Networking ... 60

7. Women’s Empowerment - A Process of Change ... 61

7.2 Individual Achievements ... 62

7.2.1 A Bundle of Land Rights ... 62

7.2.2 Raised Capacities ... 65

7.3 Collective Achievements ... 67

7.3.1 Peace and Harmony ... 67

7.3.2 Women “Rising Up” ... 68

7.4 Women’s Empowerment - A Socio-Legal Change Process ... 69

7.4.1 Social Contestation – Experience and Action ... 70

7.4.2 Legal Response – Policies on the Local Level ... 71

7.4.3 Socio-Legal Change on the National Level ... 72

7.5 Countervailing forces ... 72

7.5.1 Embodied Beliefs – Perpetrated and Reproduced ... 73

7.5.2 Harmful Practices – Violating and Discriminating ... 74

7.5.3 Weak Institutions – Struggling for Power and Authority ... 76

8. Conclusion ... 78

8.1 Acholi Women Standing Up for Their Land Rights ... 79

8.2 Approaches and Methods – A Critical Reflection ... 81

8.2.1 Reflections on the Theoretical Frame ... 81

8.2.2 Reflections on Methodology ... 82

8.3 Recommendations ... 83

8.3.1 Research Recommendations ... 83

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8.4 Added Value – The Contribution of this Research ... 85

References ... 86

Annex 1 Operationalisation Table ... 92

Annex 2 Survey Questionnaire ... 94

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List of Tables

TABLE 1 FORMAL LEGAL STRUCTURES OF LAND RIGHTS JUSTICE AND LAND ADMINISTRATION AT

LOCAL LEVEL 36

TABLE 2 THE CUSTOMARY LEGAL STRUCTURES OF LAND RIGHTS JUSTICE AND LAND

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List of Figures

FIGURE 1 CONCEPTUAL SCHEME 13

FIGURE 2 MAP OF ACHOLI SUB-REGION 16

FIGURE 3 MIXED METHODS RESEARCH DESIGN 26

FIGURE 4 PLURALISTIC AUTHORITIES THAT WOMEN TURN TO (N=90) 56

FIGURE 5 LOGO WOMEN IN ACTION FOR DEVELOPMENT 60

FIGURE 6 WOMEN'S CONTROL RIGHTS OVER AGRICULTURAL PROCEEDS (N=90) 63 FIGURE 7 WOMEN'S PARTICIPATION IN DECISION-MAKING ABOUT LAND DIVISION (N=90) 64 FIGURE 8 WOMEN'S PARTICIPATION IN DECISION-MAKING ABOUT LAND SALE (N=90) 65 FIGURE 9 WOMEN'S COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION (N=90, MULTIPLE ANSWERS) 69 FIGURE 10 ALCOHOLISM IN ACHOLI COMMUNITIES - FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF A CHILD 75

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List of Text Boxes

TEXT BOX 1 LOSS OF THE WHOLE BUNDLE OF RIGHTS 41

TEXT BOX 2 ABUSE OF CONTROL RIGHTS 41

TEXT BOX 3 SHRINKING USE RIGHTS 41

TEXT BOX 4 LACK OF TRANSFER RIGHTS 42

TEXT BOX 5 WOMEN'S LAND LOSS AFTER THE WAR 43

TEXT BOX 6 RAISED ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT AND INDEPENDENCE 66

TEXT BOX 7 WOMEN'S CONTESTATION OF NORMS 70

TEXT BOX 8 MAKING BY-LAWS 71

TEXT BOX 9 COMMUNITY ACTIVISM 71

TEXT BOX 10 COOPERATION BETWEEN AUTHORITIES 71

TEXT BOX 11 POVERTY 74

TEXT BOX 12 ALCOHOLISM 75

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List of Abbreviations

CARE – Cooperation for Assistance and Relief Everywhere CBO – Community Based Organisation

CCO - Certificate for Customary Ownership CSO – Civil Society Organisation

FAO - Food and Agricultural Organisation FGD – Focus Group Discussions

FIDA-Uganda – Ugandan Association of Female Lawyers GBV – Gender Based Violence

GID - Gender, Institutions and Development GoU - Government of Uganda

IDP - Internally Displaced People LC – Local Council

LRA - Lord's Resistance Army MP – Member of Parliament

NGO - Non-Governmental Organisation NLP – National Land Policy

OECD - Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development PAF - Poverty Action Fund

PEAP - Poverty Eradication Action Plan

PPRR – Principles, Practices, Rights and Responsibilities SDGs - Sustainable Development Goals

SIGI - Social Institutions and Gender Index VSLA - Village Savings and Loan Associations WIAFD – Women In Action For Development ZOA – Zuid Oost Azie (Dutch for South East Asia)

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1. Introduction

"Strengthening land rights for women, indigenous peoples and local

communities goes hand in hand with the realization of development objectives related to poverty alleviation, food security, advancing women's

empowerment and environmental stewardship." (IUCN 2015, 2)

1.1 Background

Women's land rights are counted among the fundamental human rights (OHCHR 2013, 1). The topic further gained space in development practice: Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) include indicators (1.4.2 and 5.a.1) that promote the improvement of tenure security and gender equality. While in many parts of the world, women have a major role in agricultural production, only a small percentage owns their land (ibid, 6). Strengthening land rights for women as highlighted in the quote above is thus both urgent and relevant. An OECD study found that in Northern Uganda, 70% of registered land owners were men while 54% of respondents declared women and men should not have equal rights to land (Uganda-SIGI Survey 2014). Here, the aftermath of violent conflicts between the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and the Government of Uganda (GoU) saw a wave of land wrangles in the sub-region (Wielders & Amutjojo 2012). These came down particularly harsh on women who bear responsibilities of child rearing and food production while lacking means of physical violence to legitimise their claims (Burke & Kobusingye 2014). A large framework of statutory laws promotes their equal land rights. However, uncertainties due to legal pluralism, weak institutions and discriminatory practices under customary tenure make women vulnerable to land loss (OHCHR 2013). This inequality is perpetrated by both, traditional gender roles of patriarchal societies (Kabahinda 2017), and new understandings of individual ownership that favour men (Hopwood 2015, 402). In 2018, 10 years after the end of the war, land conflicts have slightly cooled down and the empowerment of women and changing gender roles is promoted by development agencies (Kwekudee 2013). This raises questions about women’s agency to rise from their vulnerable situation and claim their rights.

1.2 Problem Statement

The LRA conflict has not only attracted a high number of development agencies to Northern Uganda but also academics and researchers, which resulted in a large body of literature on women's land rights in post-war Northern Uganda: Literature notably discusses post-conflict peace building (Rugadya & Kamusiime 2008) and identifies weaknesses in land holding systems (Burke & Kobusingye 2014) as well as gender discriminatory customary practices (Kabahinda 2018). Literature spells out

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recommendations on how to make the Ugandan land tenure systems more gender inclusive and how to empower women in Acholi communities (Hopwood 2017). Now, 10 years after the LRA conflict, scholarly attention has ebbed away, and little research has been done on how women themselves embrace this process of empowerment and, in this process, how they use the variety of options available to them to negotiate, claim and advocate for their land rights. It misses out on comprehensive analyses of women’s agency within a legal jungle of norms and changing gender roles in the Acholi society. With the purpose to close this gap and thus contribute to the discussion on women’s land rights as embedded in the process of women’s empowerment in Uganda, this research aims to explore the variety of approaches women use to navigate through this "jungle" of legal pluralism (Benda-Beckmann 1983, 241), and their strategies to secure their land rights through individual and collective action. By exploring the heterogeneity of experiences, strategies and motivations as embedded in institutional structures and the historical, socio-political and cultural context, this research aims to enlarge understanding on women’s empowerment and land rights in developing countries and inform development agencies in the field to support these in a new way. Furthermore, it informs policy makers to newly approach the harmonisation and gender inclusiveness of legal systems in pluralistic contexts.

1.3 Research Location and Approach

During a period of 14 weeks, I carried out fieldwork in three districts in Acholi sub-region in the greater Northern Region of Uganda. Based in Gulu town, the commercial and administrative centre of the sub-region, I travelled to different rural communities. Main parts of the Acholi population live in rural areas and carry out self-subsistence farming. In geographical distance to the capital of the country, the sub-region had been neglected by the Ugandan government and marginalised from state justice since colonisation (Bunting 2017). The 20 years long civil war against the LRA hit Acholi particularly hard and led to the displacement of great parts of the rural population, who resettled only in 2008 (Rugadya & Kamusiime 2008). In this context of post-conflict trauma and dispersed settlement pattern, I linked up with a local organisation that supported me to access the field and identify research respondents.

I approached the concepts of this research from a socio-legal perspective according to Eugen Ehrlich (1936), which complies with the research focus on social action in legal structures. Further theories that were used to approach the different concepts are Naila Kabeer’s (1999) dimensions to assess empowerment (resources, agency, achievements) and Benda Beckmann et al.’s (2006) layers of society, on which land rights are defined (legal-institutional, concretised relationships, ideologies). However, existing theories provide limited knowledge on women’s experience of their rights and

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justice option and miss out on their hidden pathways of land rights advocacy. It further lacks relevant, gender disaggregate, regional statistics, which suggests an explorative research approach. Based on a pragmatic paradigm, this involves the collection of qualitative and quantitative data according to an exploratory, sequential mixed methods research design. Results are combined and synthesised in an iterative process of grounded analysis. The driving research question in these processes is: To what extent are Acholi women empowered to advocate for their land rights within

pluralistic tenure systems?

1.4 Thesis Outline

The next chapter (2) discusses relevant theories on advocacy, women's empowerment, land rights and legal pluralism, and presents the conceptual framework of this research. Chapter 3 explores the research context, notably considering historical developments, land governance structures and gender roles in Acholi sub-region. Chapter 4 presents the research questions and methodology, which involves epistemology, the mixed methods definition, explanations of data collection and analysis procedures, and limitations and ethical considerations. Chapter 5 analyses women’s land rights in a pluralistic context on three layers of society, which involves regulations and institutions, concretised relationships and practices, and beliefs and ideologies. Chapter 6 explores women’s land rights advocacy based on their motivations, resources and (individual and collective) strategies.

Chapter 7 discusses individual and collective achievements as part of a broader socio-legal process of

change. Based on these analyses, Chapter 8 gives a comprehensive discussion of the main research question and concludes by reflecting on the research approaches and giving recommendations.

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2. Theoretical Frame

2.1 Introduction

This chapter frames the research theoretically and gives conceptual clarification. For this purpose, a systematic literature review was undertaken, including the work of scholars, whom have contributed significantly to the conceptual, theoretical and empirical understanding of land rights and women in development in the last decades; policy reports as well as contemporary studies. Analyses feed into a conceptual framework that systemises the knowledge, reflects the thinking throughout the whole research process and specifies connections between the concepts to be studied. However, as this research employs an explorative research approach, which stays open to surprising findings and new ideas, final thoughts might differ from the theories as presented in this chapter.

The following section (2.2) elaborates on the socio-legal approach to the concepts that is taken in this theoretical frame. Sections 2.3 and 2.4 reflect on different approaches to the concepts advocacy and

women's empowerment. Section 2.5 discusses approaches to land rights and section 2.6 engages with

definitions of and thoughts on legal pluralism. Section 2.7 discusses some of the common approaches to land rights advocacy in this pluralistic context and section 2.8 explains the conceptual framework. Section 2.9 concludes.

2.2 Advocacy for Women's Land Rights - a Socio-Legal Approach

The concepts of this research have been approached by academics with different disciplinary backgrounds: Women's empowerment can refer to their social, economic or political empowerment (Golla et al. 2011, 2) and the concept land rights has been approached by scholars from different disciplines: sociologists, political and legal scientists, economists, anthropologists (Benda-Beckmann et al. 2006, Tidwell and Zellen 2016). At the same time, this research considers legal pluralism, as a relevant social and legal context, in which land rights and empowerment are embedded, and focuses on the ‘empowerment to advocate’. The processes that are central to the research question consist thus mainly of social and legal experience and action within a plural context of policy making and cultural practices and beliefs. Therefore, a socio-legal approach is taken as an approach that connects the different concepts in a way that approaches to the research question. Below, I consider different definitions of the socio-legal approach and discuss the application of it in this study.

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Socio-legal approaches were developed during the twentieth century with a wide range of disciplines starting to promote non-doctrinal legal research (Kennedy & Fisher 2006). While there is no agreed definition of this approach, socio-legal research centres came up with their own conceptions: Oxford Centre for Socio-Legal Studies was set up "to study law in society, encompassing both empirical and theoretical research on law, and its place and role within society" (in Blandy 2014, 3). Other institutions such as the Law and Society Association of Australia and New Zealand promote "scholarship broadly focusing on the interactions and intersections between law and society" (LSAANZ), and the Canadian Association for Law and Society is interested in "the place of law in social, political, and cultural life" (ACDS 2009). These descriptions of socio-legal research clarify that it includes both theoretical and empirical work, finds its application in often interdisciplinary contexts and combines doctrinal with non-doctrinal analysis to develop theory and practice (Blandy 2014, 4). While this kind of interdisciplinary research was criticized by scholars that considered it as "amateurish dabbling with theories and methods" (Wick 2004, 165), it was embraced by others as an "alternative paradigm" to traditional disciplinary approaches (Cowny 2004) and as fostering scholarships across the apparent boundaries (McCrudden 2006), which is something pursued by this research as well.

The application of a socio-legal approach is further recommended to be driven by the specific aspect and the question that the researcher is interested in (Blandy 2014, 4). The question of this research brings us to Eugen Ehrlich who is regarded as one of the primary founders of the sociology of law (ibid., 2). The Austrian legal scholar promoted the research of real-life experience and legal and social norms, which are developed by people with each other (Ehrlich 1936). Some consider Ehrlich's work as outdated saying he romanticises "the law-creating role of customs, habits and practices in small-scale rural communities" while the global world relies on "cold technical processes not on warm communal bonds" (Teubner 1997, 4). However, instead of promoting a strong thesis of legal pluralism and ethnic self-determination, Ehrlich points to the way in which “law-like norms are created in everyday life” (Nelken 2008, 9). Although processes of globalisation and modernity are of relevance in this research, the research question focuses on activism rooted in real-life experience that is taking place at all layers of society notably influencing everyday life. Therefore, the socio-legal approach according to Ehrlich is a crucial starting point for the theoretical frame of this chapter and shapes theoretical choices regarding the following conceptualisations.

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2.3 Advocacy - Activities and Purpose

Advocacy can be directly linked to this socio-legal approach as it also entails the notion of people’s influence on norms and codes of conduct: It is broadly seen as “the activity of individuals and groups to influence decisions of institutions” (NP Action 2010). While the term advocacy is used in different settings and disciplines, it often targets public policies to meet social needs of marginalised people and is thus frequently used in relation to empowerment (ibid). The following presents academic discussions around advocacy as well as its application in this study.

Academic discussions on definitions and approaches to advocacy focus primarily on activities that are included in advocacy with discussions around the interchangeable use of advocacy, lobbying and campaigning: Coates and David (2002) refer to advocacy as the different tactics that are employed during a campaign. Davies (2001) includes lobbying and campaigning in his definition of advocacy while excluding capacity building and awareness rising and Shimmin (2007) defines campaigning as broader than advocacy while including capacity building and communication activities.

In this research, however, advocacy is being looked at first by its purpose - what motivates women and what goals do they have to advocate - before looking at the processes and the strategies they use. This is built on the rational that experience and action are equally intrinsic to a process of change (Brown 2004). Focussing on real life experience as suggested by Ehrlich (1936), and the individual and collective action that result from it, enhances hereby a dynamic understanding of advocacy. To stay open to the findings that arise from the data, individual strategies and emerging paths, the conceptualisation of advocacy at this point is left relatively open. However, as the use of advocacy in this research is closely interlinked with empowerment, it is important to note that advocacy in some cases can disempower victims or include actions of a system that advocates oppose (McDermott & Garofalo 2004). This calls for increased theoretical attention to the concept of empowerment as well as the social contexts of advocates' work. Both are done in the following sections.

2.4 Women's Empowerment - "Making a Choice"

Land for women has to do with survival, for men it has to do with power… the men will be the first ones to oppose our participation in land tenancy. (Deer & de Leal 2014, 6)

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This quote shows how much women's land rights are tied to power issues, which is why this research focuses on women's empowerment regarding their land rights. The following reflects on the gender awareness approach in development practice, discusses how empowerment is defined and approached in academic literature and explains the framework of empowerment that is used in this study.

Women's empowerment has been a flagship of development practitioners and scholars and was promoted as a "weapon against poverty" (DFID 2006, 1). From the 1970s onwards, notably inspired by the work of Ester Boserup (1970), scholarly attention shifted from focussing on ‘women only’ to ‘gender awareness’, which recognises the socially constructed identities, roles and relationships between women and men (Lourdes 2011). While men and women in rural Africa are equally dependent on secure land rights, women’s rights are often less secure due to socio-cultural gender roles and responsibilities (OHCHR 2013). Thus, a focus on women’s empowerment in this context does not neglect the rights of men but focuses on women’s disempowerment regarding decision-making power, rights and responsibilities while looking for processes that promote gender inclusiveness in land governance.

The term empowerment gained popularity after being discussed by Paolo Freire (1996) in his book

Pedagogy of the Oppressed (in Rahman 2013, 5). Scholars turned their interest towards women's

empowerment with increasing interest in issues of redistribution of power (Moser 1993). Hereby, literature agrees broadly that empowerment refers to a process, in which marginalised (disempowered) people (e.g. women) are included in decision making processes about matters, which are important in their lives (Mosedale 2005, 2). In this process, different aspects are focused on: Rahman (2013, 5) approaches the concept by first defining different forms of power. Another frequent focus in development studies has been put on economic empowerment defined as "having access to and control over the means to make a living on sustainable and long term basis, and receiving the material benefits of this access and control" (Carr 2000, 2). While issues of power as well as differentiations between access and control have their space in this study and will be referred to in the conceptualisation of land rights, this study goes beyond that by looking more broadly at processes of socio-cultural and legal change: Mosedale (2005, 3) emphasises that empowerment is a process of change, which starts with a state of disempowerment, encourages active decision making and involves two levels (individual and collective) of action. When specifically turning towards women's empowerment, it is broadly recognised that the reasons for women's disempowerment are many (ibid, 4). Naila Kabeer highlights that as women they are all constraint by "the norms, beliefs, customs and values through which societies

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differentiate between women and men" (Kabeer 2000, 22). These "structures of constraint" (Cornwall & Edwards 2010, 2) are not of their own choice and affect the active decision making that is seen as inherent to empowerment. Kabeer (2005, 17) notes that if there is a real choice there must be alternatives of being and doing that are imagined in the first place and then seen as possible to be

executed. These observations are highly relevant for this study as they consider the societal (and legal)

structures that disempower women as well as their strategies to break out of these structures.

To assess women's empowerment in this research, one framework will be used that conveys particularly well the processual component of empowerment. It leaves space for heterogeneity of experience, structural embeddedness and contextual specificities. Naila Kabeer (1999) presents empowerment as the "ability to make choices" along three related dimensions: resources, agency and achievements. "Resources" are the preconditions of the whole process. Kabeer highlights the difference between access to and control over resources. I will refer to this difference between access and decision making, the power to "control" further below as it also plays a role when talking about land rights. This is closely related to the second dimension "agency", the process itself, which she narrows down to "decision-making agency" (ibid 6) and which in this research looks at how different forms of change are imagined and executed (through advocacy). The third dimension "achievements" is broadly being referred to as the outcome of empowerment linking back to the other two dimensions by taking into account for example improved decision making power in different areas of life.

While Kabeer's framework is valuable to assess how women get empowered to advocate for their land rights, it could go one level deeper and highlight the real-life experience that has been emphasised before. Therefore, I would like to enrich her approach with an aspect brought forward by Cornwall and Edwards (2010) who suggest looking for "hidden pathways" that surpass the individual level but extend to "collective action and institutionalised mechanisms that are aimed at changing structural relations as well as individual circumstances" (p.1). This is at the same time the heart of the meaning “advocacy” as described above and plays a central role in regard to women’s land rights. According to Cornwall and Edwards, to find these hidden paths, we must look at both, women’s real-live experience and the broader context (social, cultural, economic and political environments), in which the women act. To better understand this context, in which women advocate for their land rights, the following sections discuss further the concepts land rights and legal pluralism as relevant socio-legal structures.

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2.5 Land Rights - A Bundle of Rights

As mentioned above, land rights have been subject of academic discussions in different disciplines. Throughout history it has been the centre of intellectual, economic and political struggle (Benda Beckmann et al. 2006, 2). It is thus not surprising that it has been a common research subject in socio-legal studies (Blandy 2014). With the socio-socio-legal approach in mind, this section discusses which rights we are considering and how these are legitimised.

One common metaphor, which is often referred to by both practitioners and academics is the "bundle of rights" metaphor (Baron 2014). This metaphor conveys that land rights encompass different rights as for example rights to access, use, own, inherit, manage, and decide over land (OHCHR 2013, 8). As this metaphor had its origins in legal studies, it has been criticised by others for failing to apprehend that "property is a holistic system made up of interactive components" (Smith, in Baron 2014, 4). This complexity is also reflected in Benda Beckmann et al.'s (2005) definition of land rights: According to them, property is not just an economic good governed by law but "the ways in which the relations between society’s members with respect to valuables are given form and significance" (p.14). Baron (2014) argues, nevertheless, that a bundle-of-rights analysis is useful for specifying these relations in simple and complex property situations, and can help to make other links as for example to assess human relationships. This is done by Sikor and Lund (2009) who refer to the bundle of rights distinguishing between access and ownership rights, while pointing to the social dynamics of property: They consider legitimization processes and discuss the dynamic of land rights relationships that always involve power and authority. In allusion to the "bundle of rights" metaphor, they see property also as a "bundle of power" bringing together perspectives of power and authority relations and relating them to questions of ownership and access.

Considering these two bundles (rights and power) is particularly relevant for understanding women's land rights advocacy as they cover both social and legal dynamics, decision making power and the broader context. Furthermore, research on women's land rights in Africa refers often implicitly to these two bundles as for example Burke & Kobusingye (2014), who point to a strong correlation between decision making power and the type, quality and quantity of land rights (p.25). I am referring to power issues and decision making throughout my approach to empowerment as presented above, as well as legitimisation processes related to advocacy. Regarding the bundle of rights, the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO 2002, 9f.) suggests looking at the following rights considering the background of

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customary tenure: use rights ("rights to use the land for grazing, growing subsistence crops, gathering minor forestry products, etc."), control rights ("rights to make decisions how the land should be used including deciding what crops should be planted, and to benefit financially from the sale of crops etc.") and transfer rights ("rights to sell or mortgage the land, to convey the land to others through intra-community reallocations, […] and to reallocate use and control rights"). In this research, we further consider ownership rights as these constitute an inherent part of land rights discussions in Acholi.

In situations of legal pluralism and customary systems, land rights are especially defined by practices on the ground, traditions and ideologies. These have often different approaches to terms like ‘ownership’ or ‘control’. The following sections elaborate thus on pluralistic tenure systems and what the plurality implies for land rights advocacy.

2.6 Pluralistic Tenure Systems - On 3 Layers of Society

Legal pluralism is a phenomenon, which has significant legal and social implications, as pointed out by Gordon Woodman (2011) who defines legal pluralism as "the class of situations in which a population observes more than one law" (p.2). He describes it as a socio-legal phenomenon, which has its historical roots in the times of colonialism. He further illustrates how the colonising powers imported their legal systems to the African continent as superior to the local systems. However, local practices especially regarding resource management resisted and were eventually recognised which gave rise to state law pluralism. Legal systems that exist next to the formal national systems are local customary and religious systems, and international frameworks and regulations (ibid). While the definition and roots of legal pluralism as describe above are broadly agreed on (Benda-Beckmann 1981; Barzilai 2003; Nwapi 2016), academic debate has focussed on approaches to and terminology of legal pluralism. These debates are explored below, before turning to the framework used in this research.

Benda-Beckmann (in Nwapi 2016) sees legal pluralism more as an attribute of a social group than as a "legal system". He refers to it as a "jungle" to highlight the complex ways in which people are influenced by the different legal conceptions. Kabahinda (2017) states "local practices are varied, as are people's opinion of what is "customary" in specific situations" (p.5). In this context, the term "customary" has been criticised since understandings of what is customary might differ. Burke & Kobusingye (2014) suggest "socially determined land use rules" (p.18) as a more accurate description. Other concerns have been raised about the implied binary of ‘formal’ and ‘informal’, or ‘statutory’ and ‘customary’ rights: the distinction is not always clear especially in countries where legal recognition to customary rights is

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provided formally. ‘Informal’ further implies the misleading notion of ‘insecure’, which is not always the case (FAO 2002, 10). Being aware of these objections, this research uses the terms "statutory" referring to written law on the national level and "customary" referring to local and context specific norms and regulations. However, it is recognised that there may be overlaps between these two systems.

In this research, legal pluralism as the context, in which women’s empowerment and land rights advocacy is taking place, is assessed by applying Benda-Beckmann et al.'s framework (2006). This framework picks up on different social and legal dynamics that are also relevant in this research: They argue that property is defined and negotiated within different layers of society. Three different layers of social organisation that are distinguished include the "legal Institutional layer", which legitimises and organises property issues and relationships; "concretised social relationships", which are characterised by specific relationships between e.g. property holders that are in negotiation and often embedded in wider social networks, and the layer of "ideology", which means ideologies like possessive individualism or communism that often underpin legal frameworks (ibid, 13ff). These layers maintain a flexible understanding of statutory and customary tenure systems and leave space for recognising their dynamic interaction in each layer of society. The layers are not only crucial to understand how land rights are defined, they also help in analysing how women experience their rights differently and how they realise, contest and claim them on different levels.

2.7 Land Rights Advocacy in Pluralistic Tenure Systems - Some Approaches

Literature shows a strong tension in assessing the ability of customary/statutory systems to protect women's land rights. Some point to a root of women’s discrimination, embedded in the introduction of individual ownership by Western colonizers: In pre-colonial Africa for example, customary law regarding land tenure was inclusive towards women as the well-being of the community was the main goal. (SIDA 2015). Others focus more on the extent to which nowadays customary systems promote patriarchal structures and violate fundamental human rights standards (Dancer 2017; Kabahinda 2017). Again others, see up- and downsides of both statutory and customary systems (Burke & Kobusingye 2014). Hence, approaches to advocate for women’s land rights in situations of legal pluralism differ greatly: some see the key in the formalisation of land rights in customary communities (Ikdahl et al. 2005) while others aim to strengthen women's rights within customary systems (Wojkowska 2006). A third approach that I would like to highlight is presented by Chopra and Isser (2012): They begin with understanding how women use and experience the justice options available to them and how they experience the

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different rights they hold. Based on this experience, advocacy should embrace processes of social change, which would in the end also bring legal change (p.12). This ties back to the socio-legal approach to advocacy, land rights and empowerment, which looks at how real-life experiences are being acted on and how this influences legal norms and institutions. Hence, instead of looking at common approaches and theories, this research looks for the diverse, hidden pathways of empowerment and how these individual and collective ways of acting are embedded in or exceed institutional structures and the broader context.

2.8 Conceptual Framework

The different concepts and theories presented above are synthesised into a conceptual framework that serves as an analytical tool in assessing how women advocate for their land rights in the context of legal pluralism. It connects the theoretical concepts and axioms with the research purpose. The following section gives some additional reflections on the connections between the concepts, that were analysed above and explains how these connections are visualised in the conceptual scheme.

The socio-legal approach to the research topic, which considers real life experience and social and legal norms as the result of individual and collective action, holds together the approaches to the different concepts employed in this research. This approach notably looks at action as embedded in but also as reconstructing structural relations and individual circumstances. I would like to link these approaches to the structuration theory of Giddens (1984) who explained the interplay between structure and agency, which was then linked to empowerment by Chow (2008): She noticed that this interaction (structure, agency; person, society) is fundamental to women's empowerment. This interaction is also an integral part of the conceptual framework.

The conceptual scheme (see Figure 1) reflects this dynamic interaction between agency (Land Rights

Advocacy) and structure (Pluralistic Tenure Systems) in which the process of Women's Empowerment is embedded. The structures that are observed in this research are the layers of societies on which land rights are defined in pluralistic tenure systems. They are both “medium and outcome of reproduction of practices” (Giddens 1979, 5), which is clarified by the arrows. These practices are further linked to women’s empowerment to advocate for their land rights, in which notably their resources, agency (to imagine and execute advocacy) and achievements will be analysed. Achievements are not seen as an end goal but equally part of the process of change, which is visualised in the conceptual scheme below

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(Figure 1). An operationalisation table that specifies on how these dimensions are assessed is found in Annex 1.

2.9 Conclusion

This chapter introduced the socio-legal approach that connects the different concepts. It promoted a dynamic approach to advocacy which, in this research, is characterised above all by its purpose, real-life experience and action. The conceptualisation of women's empowerment also picked up on action by focusing on women’s agency as well as resources and achievements as cornerstones in the process of empowerment. Power dynamics were further referred to in the discussion around land rights, which were defined as bundles of rights and power. The relevant socio-legal context, in which this is embedded, legal pluralism, was analysed as involving three layers of society. While a variety of positions and approaches was recognised throughout, the approaches, that were synthesised in the conceptual

Women's Empowerment Agency Resources Achievements Layers of Society Land Rights Advocacy

Pluralistic Tenure Systems Enabling/ Restricting Enabling/ Restricting Contesting/ Claiming Controlling/ accessing/ Figure 1 Conceptual Scheme

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framework, are the ones that comply best the research purpose (see Chapter 1), with each other and with my pragmatic worldview (see Chapter 4). In order to fully apprehend these concepts in the context of the research location Acholi sub-region, the following chapter concretises on the research context.

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3. Research Context

3.1 Introduction

Cornwall and Edwards (2010) highlight in how far "context is crucial in making sense of empowerment" (p.2) and they stress the importance of the realities of women's lives and their contexts, that play a role when looking at the enhancement of their rights. Therefore, this chapter gives a contextual background of the research location Uganda and Acholi sub-region. It explores contextual aspects that are crucial to determine the research methodology and to understand and interpret the results of this research: cultural history, legal and institutional regulations, social structures and gender roles, relevant policies and non-governmental actors. The chapter draws on literature from a variety of sources, whereas a great part of it consists of grey literature published by Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and development practitioners notably within the last five years.

Section 3.2 provides general background information on Acholi sub-region and its population. Section 3.3 highlights some historical aspects most notably on Uganda's colonial past and recent conflicts. The following sections explore how these developments influenced legal and institutional frameworks on land rights (3.4) and social structures and gender roles (3.5). Section 3.6 discusses the national context of gender inequalities and relevant policies in this regard. Section 4.7 analyses how development agencies in Acholi advocate for women's empowerment and their land rights and Section 4.8 concludes.

3.2 Acholi-Land and People

Acholiland in Northern Uganda includes the districts of Agago, Amuru, Gulu, Kitgum, Nwoya, Lamwo, Pader and Omoro. It covers 28,500 km² and has an estimated population of 1,500,000 (2014 census in: Eberhard et al. 2019).

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16 Figure 2 Map of Acholi Sub-region

Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

The abundant and fertile land, as well as favourable climatic conditions allowed for diversified livelihoods, which were pursued with shared gender responsibilities: self-subsistence farming was mainly carried out by women while the holding of cattle and hunting (which men were responsible for) complimented agricultural production. The variety of food that was grown included millet, maize, sorghum, "simsim" (sesame), groundnut, amongst others (Kwekudee 2013).

The Acholi people, an ethno-linguistic group, are descendants of a Luo speaking group that came centuries ago from what is now Southern Sudan (Kuiper 2015). Their traditional socio-political order revolved around chiefdoms that had several villages each made from patrilineal clans. Those chiefdoms were headed by "Rwodi" (Rwot means ruler) who ruled through a council of clan elders in a way that would restore harmonious and peaceful life (Kwekudee 2013). According to Latigo (2008, 102), prior to colonialism, the Acholi People had structures of settled case law that were deeply rooted in beliefs,

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norms and customs and a philosophy of life that accounted for peace and stability in the sub-region. These structures were executed by the traditional chiefs; the rwodi moo.

However, the last two centuries saw many developments that brought this stability out of order: Colonisation brought a new legal system into the country and decades of conflicts left the sub-region in pieces of traumata and violence which, as shown in the following, affected notably gender roles and land governance.

3.3 Colonialism, Conflicts and the Camps

As the British began colonising endeavours in Uganda in the late 19th century, indigenous resistance came notably from the Acholi. As a result, they were often stigmatised as "primitive, warlike and comparatively less evolved than people in the south" (Bunting 2017). As they were seen as a martial people, many were forced to join the military. After independence (1962), due to this association, Acholis were severely persecuted under president Idi Amin (1971-79) who systemically executed their men (Kuiper 2015). After few years of peace, the 1980s saw a rise of new conflicts in the region: Northern Uganda was particularly shaken by the conflict between the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and the government of Uganda (GoU), which started in 1986 and is being described as the "worst forgotten humanitarian crisis in the world" (ACCS 2013, 14). The consequences of the conflict were far reaching: the civilian population suffered severe violence employed by both, the LRA and the GoU, an estimated 25,000 children were abducted and over 1.1 million people were displaced, many of whom were forcibly moved into Internally Displaced People's (IDP) camps. While, allegedly this was for their protection, these camps had high mortality rates with AIDS and malaria as main diseases causing death (Wielders & Amutjojo 2012). At the same time, the refugees fell victim to raids by both rebels and government forces (Kwekudee 2013). While peace was established between 2006 and 2008, most people had resettled back by 2009. The resettling process, however, was accompanied by a new wave of conflicts, in particular related to land. Most vulnerable in these conflicts were single women/mothers, orphans and former abductees (Wielders & Amutjojo 2012). Many respondents referred to this period, when talking about land conflicts.

To better understand these land conflicts, the next paragraph explores how land is governed, from a social and a legal perspective, and how the developments that were described above play a role in this.

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3.4 Land Rights in Acholi – Customs and Regulations

When we look at the bundle of land rights in Acholi, it is important to note that, traditionally, land in Acholi is not "owned" by individuals but communally held under custodianship and passed from generation to generation. People's understanding of land rights and their attachment to the land traditionally depended rather on cultural and social dynamics than on legal regulations, which made land governance much more varied and flexible (Wielders & Amutjojo 2012). As mentioned above, Acholi communities are patrilineal, which means that land is passed down from generation to generation from father to son and administered by the elders who are usually men. These clan heads used to hold control and transfer rights of the land within the community. They were at the same time responsible for protecting the rights of all family members, especially the rights of the vulnerable, and for resolving conflicts (Adoko & Levine 2009). This is how the use and access rights of women, through their relationship to men, were protected as well and how they used to be secure as long as there was an abundance of land and social and traditional justice systems were working.

When the British came into the country, they brought in their legal system and the notion of individual land ownership. The British legislation resulted into a situation of legal pluralism, a situation of more than one legal system as defined by Woodman (see Chapter 2). Customary tenure was kept as a non-registered form of land-holding, while non-registered forms of land holding were introduced (Rugadya & Kamusiime 2013). On the legal institutional layer of society, we see how these different tenure systems were formalised later in the Constitution 1995 and the Land Act 1998. While I will expand on these documents in Chapter 5, I want to note at this point that the Land Act emphasizes that land, which is held under customary tenure should be managed according to customary law and by customary authorities. At the same time, it prohibits any customary practice that discriminates against gender. This legislation was a radical break with the past when customary claims where not recognised (Oduku 2006). In this situation of legal pluralism, land governance should be enhanced through decentralisation politics, as formal institutions were brought to the local level, while traditional authorities kept their responsibilities (Adoko & Levine 2009). Positive effects of these reforms however, remains limited as it fuells in some cases competition between state and non-state actors and considers local authorities only limited scope and capacities (Leeuwen 2017).

At the level of concretised relationships, it was observed that practices changed especially after the return from the IDP camps when people started to fight over land. Post-conflict trauma, population

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growth and the situation of scarcity brought the bundle of power to the fore: the power base of tenure shifted from the clans to the heads of the household, who started to consider themselves as "owners" of the land (Rugadya & Kamusiime 2008). The authority of traditional chiefs had weakened, and land sales became common without the approval of the clan. Under these conditions, power and status became central to legitimise access to and ownership of land as described in the model of Sikor and Lund (2009). In this way, many women lost the protection of their land rights by the clan; they are nowadays counted amongst the most vulnerable to land loss (Burke & Kobusingye 2014). To better understand this vulnerability, the next section shows how cultural ideologies and beliefs shaped traditional gender roles in Acholi and explores how these roles are undergoing a process of change.

3.5 Culture and Gender Roles in Transition

"Without culture you are no one, without culture you are dead"~Paramount Chief of Acholi, David Onen Acana II (in Kwekudee 2013)

The central role of culture in the lives of Acholis shows how important it is to consider cultural factors when considering gender roles. In the previous paragraph, it was argued how far the formal legal structure de jure protects the rights of women. However, it is most of the times administered by local leaders who most often rule in favour of customary laws and local norms. Moreover, de facto land ownership by women is very low since they lack the financial resources and entitlements to obtain land titles. These "norms" refer to cultural beliefs, behaviours and practices (World Bank 2012, in Kabahinda 2018). Hence, the third layer of society - ideologies, beliefs, traditions has a huge impact on women's land rights on the ground, on practices and on institutions.

As mentioned above, the Acholis have always been a patrilineal society with power and control rights lying in the hands of men. Especially traditional justice mechanisms used to rely on male elders. Women were expected to "respect and care for the men" (Kwekudee 2013, 5) and their roles and responsibilities were seen mostly in the domestic area and often reduced to their reproductive roles. The gendered division of labour gave them major roles in agricultural production as well as, child rearing, cooking and cleaning (ibid). However, their land rights were most of the time secondary.

While women's land rights still used to be protected by the strong social systems of extended families, the war led to a transformation of these social systems. It also transformed gender roles and responsibilities in the household and community, which created imbalances: while men were not able

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anymore to carry out their productive roles during camp times, women were still carrying on with their reproductive roles and household duties. Their burden even increased as they had to care for orphans and sometimes became head of the household. After the war, women had taken over large parts of responsibilities including feeding the family and other areas in which men used to be responsible. Social systems that used to protect their rights lost their functionality after the war, so women became increasingly victim of Gender-Based Violence (GBV) and rights abuse with limited access to justice mechanisms (Kasande 2010).

3.6 Gender Inequality in the National Context

This vulnerability of women in Acholi further happens in a national context of gender inequality. This section points out how gender inequality in Uganda is assessed and ranked by international assessment standards, notably the Gender, Institutions and Development (GID) index and the Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI), which reflects in how far social institutions reproduce women’s and girl’s access to rights and justice. It measures discrimination on four dimensions: on the family level, restricted physical integrity, access to productive and financial resources and civil liberty. The section further discusses how the GoU addresses these inequalities through policy-making.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD) SIGI notes a considerable reduction in gender gaps in the last years of growing economic and social development as well as relative political stability. However, it points out that there is still a wide gender gap in Uganda, which notably includes gaps in control of assets, employment and health (OECD 2015, 4). Major concerns hereby are: the wide acceptance of early child marriage, the high prevalence of domestic violence, women's restricted access to justice and their restricted resources and assets (ibid). The Mid-Northern region (which Acholi is part of) hereby ranks particularly high in the level of discrimination in social institutions with a high index of 0.651_{, which lies significantly over the national average of 0.47. The GID}

database further shows that the sub-indexes discriminatory family code and restricted access to

resources and assets show greater gender inequalities in the Mid-Northern region than in the national

average (OECD Development Centre 2014).

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As the Government of Uganda strategically aims to address poverty in the country with mechanisms such as the Poverty Eradication Action Plan (PEAP) or Poverty Action Fund (PAF), these policies miss out on long-term solutions to gender equality in rural areas (Brown 2011). Policy changes in this regard are slow although a general political willingness has been expressed: the 2014-2017 Gender Equality

Strategy: Investing in Gender Equality for Uganda's Socio-Economic Transformation addresses drivers of

the gender gap (UNDP Uganda 2014), and the Uganda Gender Policy of 2007-2017 outlines the State's commitment to gender mainstreaming at all levels (Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development 2008). Groups further advocate for the amendment of clauses in the constitution, that are highly contested as they are found to be inadequate to promote women's equal rights. Two relevant bills have been reviewed and are currently being amended with plans to enact them into law in 2019: The Marriage and Divorce Bill would prohibit the practice of widow inheritance and allow a woman to pursue a divorce (FIDH 2012), while the Succession Amendment Bill would guarantee a woman's right to inherit her husband's land (Hannay 2014). While gender inequalities in ownership, access and management of land and resources are continuously brought on the policy agenda also by the 2013 National Land Policy (Land Policy 2013), concrete changes in policy and practice come only slowly. Plans and budgets to ensure the implementation of these laws and policies are found to have only limited success (UWONET 2018). The government hereby relies heavily on support from donor and NGO communities (Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development 200), which are highly present in Northern Uganda. Many of them are advocating for women's land rights and empowerment in Uganda.

3.7 Women's Empowerment in Acholi – Actors and Approaches

The long lasting LRA insurgency brought a high number of humanitarian and development organisations to Acholi sub-region and many of these were involved in peace building and development assistance (Rugadya & Kamusiime 2008). Many of them are also working towards women's empowerment seeing the necessity to advocate for their land rights (Reinke 2016). It follows the earlier described trend of development agencies to refer to women as ‘weapons for development’ (see Chapter 2).

Approaches pursued by Non-Governmental and Civil Society Organisations (NGO, CSO), that are active in Acholi, differ greatly, which also reflects different approaches to advocating for women's land rights in contexts of legal pluralism as presented in Chapter 2: The Ugandan Association of Female Lawyers (FIDA-Uganda) provides legal education and legal aid, notably by helping women getting justice through

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formal justice mechanisms (FIDA). ZOA (for Dutch: South-East Asia), an international relief and recovery organisation, promotes the introduction of Certificates of Customary Ownership (CCO) and the formalisation of land rights in customary communities (ZOA 2017). ActionAid pursues an approach to strengthen women's rights within customary systems through alternative dispute mechanisms and the training of community paralegals, to give advice and mediate land disputes (ActionAid 2019). Cooperation for Assistance and Relief Everywhere (CARE) international brought in the model of Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLA) that aim to empower women economically (CARE 2018). At the same time, women increasingly take agency to form their own groups and apply for leadership positions. These projects show great improvements in women's access to justice and the enforcement of their rights: Hopwood (2015) argues that women in Acholi are no longer marginalised from the customary land regime due to these efforts. However, others are less optimistic classifying the situation as still fragile, with many communities still suffering from trauma and violence, with new drivers of pressure on land (international investment, climate change, etc.) and continued gender discriminative attitudes and mechanisms in social institutions (OECD 2015). Therefore, this research is looking at the ‘hidden pathways’ that were brought forward by Cornwall and Edwards (see Chapter 2) and explores the variety of approaches women are imagining and pursuing to advocate for their rights to land.

3.8 Conclusion

This chapter presented the complex historical, socio-legal and cultural context of Acholi sub-region: It showed in how far the research context, which is most notably a post-colonial, post-conflict setting with transforming social and legal structures, is important to consider when approaching the research topic. Statutory laws protect women's land rights formally but with a limited impact in rural Acholiland. This is due to an imbalance of social and customary structures after decades of neglection, violence and displacement. Women’s difficulties to access land justice are further embedded in institutional weaknesses as well as discriminatory gender role locally and in the whole country. While gender and women's rights were brought on the policy agenda, sustainable changes in policy and practice happen slowly. This slow process of women's empowerment is supported by a high number of development agencies. However, the context-specificity, institutional embedding and heterogeneity of women’s experience of justice options visible and available to them, their strategies to advocate as well as the connections between socio-legal structures and women’s agency is still unexplored.

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4. Research Methodology

4.1 Introduction

After having explored relevant theories and specified the research problem to the context of Acholi, this chapter explains the methodological approaches and procedures that were implemented. The chapter aims to make the research process more transparent by explaining underlying epistemology, methodology, research methods and field-research decision-making.

Section 4.2 presents the research question and sub-questions. Section 4.3 explains my worldviews, epistemologies and ontology in relation to the socio-legal perspective of this research and the empowerment and layers of society theories. These also motivate the research design, as elaborated in section 4.4. Section 4.5 explains the selection of qualitative and quantitative data collection methods. Section 4.6 elaborates on the concurrent phase of data analysis and integration. Section 4.7 discusses the study limitations and ethical standards of this research. Section 4.8 concludes.

4.2 Research Questions

The thorough discussion of relevant theory and exploration of the research context narrows down the focus of this research. It results in the formulation of a research question, exploring which requires diving more deeply into (1) the structures that define women's land rights on different layers, (2) the motivations, resources and strategies they use to advocate for their land rights, and (3) the achievements and challenges in this process of empowerment.

Main Research Question:

To what extent are Acholi women empowered to advocate for their land rights within pluralistic tenure systems?

Sub-Questions:

SQ1: In how far do statutory and customary tenure systems as well as socio-cultural structures restrict or

enable Acholi women's rights to use, control, transfer and own land?

SQ2: How do women advocate for their land rights and what are their motivations, resources and