In Southern Africa, women’s ability to access, own and control means of production such as land and livestock is severely limited by cultural practices and customary laws. This in turn has devastating impacts on their economic independence and ability to move out of poverty. Yet women’s access to land for food production is critical to the welfare of the entire region as it is women who are primarily responsible for maintaining households. Women provide 70-to 80 per cent of all agricultural labour and 90 per cent of all labour involving food production in the region. But they own only a fraction of the land, and constitute the majority of the population living in poverty.