Women and Land in Ghana: The Cost of Corruption

Ghana’s dual system of customary and statutory land management creates both gaps and overlaps that corrupt actors can exploit for their own advantage. Women are thought to bear a greater burden from corruption in the land sector, but few studies have established a clear connection. On behalf of Transparency International and its local affiliate Ghana Integrity Initiative, the workshop team developed three case studies in southern Ghana to demonstrate how malfeasance in land administration has a disproportionate impact on women. The results show that corruption limits women's economic opportunities and perpetuates their exclusion from patriarchal decision-making structures, among other negative outcomes.