“Covid-19 is a widow-maker,” Karol Boudreaux, Chief Programme Officer at the land rights charity Landesa told a webinar organised by the Land Portal platform. “The virus exacerbates an already unequal situation for men and women,” Boudreaux said, citing a Tanzanian widow who was unable to stop the illegal sale of her property in another city due to limited land rights and Covid-19 travel restrictions. Although most African and Asian farmers are women, only 15 per cent of the world’s farmland is owned by women, according to Landesa. And this inequality is set to worsen with the coronavirus, land experts said. SEE ALSO: Dealing with lockdown loneliness - from keeping active to coping without hugs“Widows depend on their (deceased) husbands for their property rights.

Source: Standard Digital May 28, 2020 10:46 UTC