GENDER activists have suggested the need for policies and procedures reformation to access financial resources as a move to relieve women of poverty.

In separate interviews, some of the activists noted that women are actively engaged in productive sectors but once they want to boost their economic activities they are denied to get support from financial institutions because of lacking collateral as the house they live in is owned by men.

“This I think is very wrong, so I would suggest that women need to have their own arrangement so that they easily access loans and polish up their business undertakings,” said Najma Hussein Haji, the Executive Director of Zanzibar Women Chamber of Commerce.

Najma, who is also a member of the Generation Equality Forum Advisory Committee, said that women contribute significantly to the national economy. She cited women and youth who make up a large portion of the micro-economic sector achieve little or no progress in entrepreneurial activities due to the fact that, the present financial services and institutions do not provide a friendly environment for women to excel.

“This includes access to loans and financial aid which demands women to have collateral in terms of immovable assets like land, hence resulting in women’s failure to access funds and services in order to expand their capital and business,” she said.

The activist noted that in the cultural aspect, movements that are channeled into helping women economically have been viewed as a threat to male dominance.

A point, she has stated is a result of the misrepresentation and misinterpretation of what women’s empowerment is all about, and pointing out that the use of the word ‘Gender’ is not sided to women alone, but it’s a reference to all sexes, male and female.

“Thus, as a result, women in communities have been forced to remain home with no means to generate income but rather depend solely on their spouses as the key breadwinners.

In the likelihood when disaster strikes and the husband dies, the woman and her family become vulnerable to losing their inheritance to the husband’s relatives and become financially crippled and homeless.”

Dr Monica Magoke-Mhoja, Outreach Director -Africa Landesa (Member of the National Advisory and Coordinating Committee on GEF) outlined that, Land is foundational to the human rights to housing, food, livelihood, a clean and healthy environment, cultural participation, and even to life; and land rights determine how women, girls, boys and men access, own, control, and bequeath land and other natural resources.

“Progressive and comprehensive land rights help women break the cycle of poverty and improve not only their own lives, but those of their families and communities. The benefits of women’s land rights multiply in crucial ways both at home and in communities — when women have secure rights to land, spending on children’s education, land production and household nutrition increase,” she said.

Land serves as a foundation for security, shelter, income and potential gender equitable livelihoods.

However, land rights are not equitably distributed to all—and this is especially true for women in Tanzania.

Patriarchal land ownership systems in Tanzania can mean that women are often dependent on men for access to land. Tanzania has ratified international treaties such as the Conve ntion on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), and introduced national laws seeking to address gender inequalities, but the prevailing customs are often discriminatory along gender lines,” she added.

Dr Monica stated that the already existing interventions should be continuous around awareness rising through usage of all available media channels on the land-related gender inequalities so as to have ongoing engagement, target and reach a range of stakeholders in order to spearhead cultural change.

She believes by doing so, a changed culture can help women have the required support to assert their rights as well as build on from prevailing customs that will help identify new opportunities to respond to new pressures on access to land as a resource, plus, create laws on equal rights to develop gender sensitive interventions.

Hassan Hamisi Juma, Executive Director of the Association of Non-Government Organizations in Zanzibar (ANGOZA) also stated that there are already initiatives that are geared to help women gain access to land ownership.

He however said the problem is that most individuals fail to observe this economic right for women and therefore the perpetrators get away without being held accountable.

The fact that such laws and regulations to protect women’s rights are not observed is a major hindrance to realizing gender equality and the reforms that intend to help more women have access to and control of resources.