Understanding the implications of land grabbing for rural women in northern Ghana: Case study of the daire community in Savelugu-Nanton district

This research paper examined the gendered implication of land grabbing in northern Ghana focusing on the Diare community in the Savelugu-Nanton District. Over the past decades, land grabbing across Ghana have attracted scholarly research and policy debate on the adverse impact of land dispossession on local communities. However, despite the limited research the implication of land grabbing for livelihood of socially differentiated local communities may have been far more complex than often assumed. Using semi-structured interviews with purposively selected 12 participants, this study examined how and to what extent the lives and livelihoods of different women based on their marital status, age and class have been affected by localized process of land grabbing. The study identified that the current processes of land grabbing are characterized by forceful eviction and dispossession of women of their lands. As a result of land grabs, women reported experiencing a decrease in their food security, loss of livelihoods, and loss of incomes. As customary institutions that privileged men as owners of land remain crucial within the study community, women tend to be underrepresented in terms of negotiations in land deals. There exists a gendered power relation in the community that shapes women’s exposure to land grabbing. Women, however, experience the impact of land grabbing differently that helps them find alternative livelihoods. The study concludes that by intersecting with existing patriarchal gender relations, land grabbing in the Diare community further excludes and marginalizes women from access, control and transfer of lands and other resources.