Is Women’s Increased Accessibility to Land a Path to Sustainable Development? The Case of Urban Maseru, Lesotho

Abstract

This study argues that unlike other parts of Africa where women are marginalized and excluded from accessing resources particularly land, women in Lesotho have been empowered through the Act that gives them access to land which had not been the case in the in the past decades. This has made women potential agents in driving the process of sustainable development in the urban echelon of Maseru. The specific objective of this study therefore is to show that women in Lesotho are important catalysts in the sustainable development of Maseru, the capital city of Lesotho. This has increased their ability not only to use land for settlement but also engaged in economic activities that contribute to Lesotho’s sustainable development. The study focused on three urban communities (Ha Foso, Sekamaneng, and Ha Matala) in Maseru. Purposeful sampling was engaged in selecting 80 female-headed households. It was discovered that women had both ownership and user rights of the land they occupied in their own capacity as household heads. The study has six sections: introduction, study objective, rationale, methodology, conceptual framework, study findings, conclusion.