Women’s Spaces is a multi-country project focused on women’s rights to land, housing, and livelihoods across sub-Saharan Africa. The project’s ultimate outcome is to reach : “Enhanced implementation of women’s equitable rights to and control over land, housing and livelihoods in urban environments in Sub-Saharan Africa.”
The project’s theory of change focuses on the reality that even when women’s and girls’ rights are protected formally by law, widespread discrimination remains a barrier to their practical enjoyment of equal rights to land and housing in sub-Saharan Africa.
In sub-Saharan Africa a large gap in gender equality remains - implementing women’s legal rights in the face of entrenched patriarchal attitudes and practices. Through this initiative the implementing partners: Mazingira Institute based in Kenya, Shelter, and Settlement Alternatives (SSA) based in Uganda, Development Workshop based in Angola and the Socio-economic Rights Institute (SERI) based in South Africa will develop sustainable responses to these challenges. This multi-cultural nature of this project allows for the sharing of experiences involving active partnerships between government officials and civil society aimed at securing g gender equal rights.
Each implementing partner has personalised and nuanced project activities under the umbrella focus of Women’s specific rights to land, housing, and livelihoods. The research, advocacy and activities of the project has a lifetime of five years.
SERI, facilitating the South African portion of the project has a distinct focus on policy. Overall, the South African project will focus on thematic areas of social tenure, the family home, informal settlements, systemic property system reform and the formal property system. The written outputs produced under this portion of the project will include work research reports, working papers, a legal and practical guide, op-eds as well as various forms media advocacy which all carry the common trait of having gender responsive methodologies, findings, and recommendations.
The project funding comes from Global Affairs Canada and the project is managed by Rooftops Canada.
RESEARCH
[PUBLICATION] SERI launches new women's spaces publication offering a gendered analysis of family homes in South Africa.
On Tuesday, 6 August 2024, the Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa launched a report entitled A Gendered Analysis of Family Homes in South Africa. This report interrogates the concept of the family home through a gendered lens. The report finds that women and children, who are often the primary occupants of family homes are disproportionately affected by family home related disputes. Accompanying the reports are a series of fact sheets, which are topic specific summaries of different areas of the larger report.
The report consists of an intersectional analysis of family homes, which often fuse customary beliefs around property with private title. It traces the historical origins of family homes to the permit-based land rights systems used in township areas during the Apartheid era. Notably, the study finds that family home disputes often share similar circumstances, where male relatives leverage both formal property and customary law systems in their favor, gaining access, control, and often ownership of the property. The report also details how courts have approached family home disputes; the lack of understanding of the family home concept and how overlapping legal systems contribute to disadvantaging women from tenure security.
The report suggests a variety of potential interventions that could address the key issues in family home disputes such as recognition of the family home concept, amending procedure for administration of deceased estate and transfer of ownership such as section 18 (3) of the Administration of Deceased Estate Act. The significance of the family home report is to close the gap between the concept of a family home and the legal concept of ownership.
The guide is also accompanied by a series of information sheets. Access the information sheets below.
- Fact Sheet 1: Understanding the Family Home.
- Fact Sheet 2: Family Home Before the Courts - Moving Towards Legal Recognition?
- Fact Sheet 2A - Custodianship and Rights Inquiries as Useful Remedies.
- Fact Sheet 2B - Validity and Enforceability of Family Rights Agreement.
- Fact Sheet 2C - Reconsidering Family Rights Agreements and Moving Towards Legal Recognition?
- Fact Sheet 3: Family Homes in Law and Practice.
- Fact Sheet 4: How Do Family Home Disputes Affect Women?
- Fact Sheet 5: How Can You Protect or Strengthen Your Claims to Your Family Home?
- Fact Sheet 6: Policy Recommendations.
[PUBLICATION] SERI launches new women's spaces publication offering a gendered analysis of informal settlements in South Africa.
On Tuesday, 6 May 2025, the Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa launched a report entitled 'A Gendered Analysis of Informal Settlements in South Africa'. This report explores land and housing through a women's equality lens by focusing on women's equal access to, use of, and control over land and housing in an informal settlement context.
The report accepts, as a point of departure, that inequalities in informal settlements are systemic in nature and that systemic inequalities are a form of structural violence, particularly infrastructural and environmental violence, and that experiences of systemic inequality are gendered. The report explores how these forms of violence intersect with gender inequality, creating barriers to women’s access to basic services, livelihoods, participation, and tenure security. The report seeks to provide an evidence base for policy advocacy by proposing policy interventions that promote gender equality in informal settlements and ensure women’s rights to land and housing are recognised, protected, and enhanced.
The report is accompanied by four fact sheets that distill the contents of this research report:
- Fact Sheet 1- Bringing a gendered lens to informal settlements;
- Fact Sheet 2 - Highlighting the gaps in legislation and policy;
- Fact Sheet 3 - Key findings: Women's experiences in informal settlements;
- Fact Sheet 4 - Recommendations: Proposed pathways for gender-responsive
This report forms part of a series that includes analyses of the ‘family home’ (Report 1), the formal property system, and rental tenure. Together, these reports aim to provide a comprehensive understanding of women’s rights to land and housing in law and practice across various contexts.
Community Advice Office Fact Sheets
SERI has produced a new series of community-focused factsheets on which form part of our ongoing work to make legal processes more accessible, particularly for women and vulnerable households who are often most affected by insecure tenure and inheritance practices.
The materials are being developed for use by Community Advice Offices and grassroots organisations, with a strong emphasis on practical examples and women’s lived experiences. They aim to support informed decision-making, reduce family conflict, and strengthen the ability of communities to claim their rights within the deceased estates system.
- Fact Sheet 1 - Understanding the Pros and Cons of Wills | English | IsiZulu
- Fact Sheet 2 - Understanding Wills | English | IsiZulu
- Fact Sheet 3 - Intestate Succession | English | IsiZulu
- Fact Sheet 4 - Administration of a Deceased Estate with a Value of Less Than R250,000 | English | IsiZulu
- Fact Sheet 5 - Administration of a Deceased Estate with a Value of More Than R250,000 | English | IsiZulu
- Fact Sheet 6 - Property ownership and title deeds | English | IsiZulu
- Fact Sheet 7 - Women's Property Rights in Marriage | English | IsiZulu
- Fact Sheet 8 - Women's Property Rights in Cohabiting Relationships | English | IsiZulu
- Fact Sheet 9 - Women's Property Rights in Divorce | English | IsiZulu
- Fact Sheet 10 - Women Resisting Evictions | English | IsiZulu
- Fact Sheet 11 - Gender-Based Violence and its Impact | English | IsiZulu