Access and Security to Land Through Cooperatives: Insights from Eswatini Women on Drivers, Barriers and Strategies

Eswatini women face considerable barriers in their pursuit of land ownership, which are deeply rooted in a complex interplay of socioeconomic and cultural factors. As such, this paper aims to fill the knowledge gap regarding how cooperatives can act as mechanisms to improve women's access to land. A quantitative methodology was employed, with structured questionnaires distributed to 92 women from seven cooperatives, and the data were analyzed through descriptive statistics and chi-square tests. The paper adopted a quantitative approach and administered questionnaires to women in seven cooperatives. The paper established the critical role that land acquisition plays in enhancing women's economic status, as driven by various factors, such as the need to acquire land to embark on entrepreneurial initiatives that emerged statistically significantly. However, several barriers (statistically significant) hamper the possibility of crowdfunding to enhance women’s economic status. The findings reveal that while land ownership is closely associated with economic empowerment, food security, and asset accumulation, women face considerable challenges such as insufficient income, lack of collateral, and restrictive land tenure laws. The study concludes that specific reforms, especially supportive legal frameworks, financial innovations like crowdfunding, and gender-sensitive cooperative models, are essential for promoting women's land rights and empowerment in Eswatini. Financial assistance programs tailored to women's unique needs can also play a crucial role in providing the necessary resources for land acquisition and sustainable development.