Habitat Mozambique homeowner Regina has taken care of her children and her mother-in-law since her husband died, participating in the inheritance-planning program to ensure the security of their Habitat home, which is made of locally produced materials.

Mozambique
Protecting the property rights of women and children through education and inheritance planning

By Shala Carlson, Asanda Folokwe and Samson Nyam

Land has always been a challenge for Habitat for Humanity Mozambique. The Mozambican government owns all land and determines tenure; land cannot be owned by an institution or foreign national. Legislation states, “The land is the property of the state and cannot be sold or otherwise alienated, mortgaged or encumbered.” Instead, the national government grants a range of term leases, and local governments in rural areas provide approval for families to occupy specific plots.

For one important Habitat target group, however, land is not the major issue: participants in the ongoing Habitat Mozambique Orphans and Vulnerable Children program already have land allocated them by the government. According to a recent study conducted in four Mozambican districts international nonprofit Save the Children, however, widows and orphans are oft en stripped of belongings by family members.

And yet Mozambique’s civil code and family stipulate that when someone dies, their children spouse are first in line to inherit any goods or property and have the right to occupy any property left behind by the deceased. Legitimate heirs, however, lodge criminal complaints when relatives grab property because they fear retaliation or are simply unaware of their rights and of the institutions that help them.

“One of the biggest obstacles to decent shelter for poor families across Africa is security of tenure,” says Habitat for Humanity International’s area president for Africa and the Middle East Matthew Maury. “This issue is exacerbated for families in traditional systems which don’t honor the of wives and children to the family property aft father/husband dies.

“Land- and asset-grabbing from widows orphans remain huge problems. Habitat has it a core objective of its housing programs to ensure that inheritance rights for these historically and traditionally marginalized populations are secure.

“When inheritance rights are secure, we can be sure the transformational impact of improved shelter has a lasting impact for the families we assist.”

Habitat Mozambique has developed a two-day training that results in a family writing a will to ensure that family assets, including the house, are passed down to children. The training includes discussion of the laws and rights of Mozambicans and their children as well as discussion of traditional practices and their impacts — what happens, for instance, when a brother-in-law takes family land after his brother dies, removing the original family. Those trained learn their rights and are encouraged to create an official will and testament to suit their particular circumstance. Habitat arranges for a Mozambican government official and local neighborhood officials to be present.

“We work very closely with our government partners and provide training — and not just to our families, but to the community in general — so there’s awareness that there are civil codes in place to protect that home as an asset for the family,” says Habitat Mozambique national director Mark Estes. “They have a legal right to housing and actually work to create an inheritance plan. It’s a living will which will protect those children and that house to ensure that if the mother or caretaker passes away, that house will still be in security for the children to enjoy for years ahead.”