Current Angolan municipalisation reforms present a unique opportunity to
affect local practice on how community and individual land-holder tenure
is administered and to protect women's equitable rights to land. Angola
is a post-war country, with weak land tenure legislation and limited
local government management capacity. Customary traditions are practiced
in the various regions a of the country do not respect women's rights of
ownership and inheritance. More than 62 percent of the population live
in informal settlements with insecure land tenure under the threat of
forced evictions. Families living in poor communities affected by the
expansion of cities and towns are particularly vulnerable. Of these,
families lead by women are the most at risk. Securing rights to land and
housing assets are important to livelihoods of women headed households
by permitting access to financing that they require to grow their
enterprises as well as for incrementally upgrading their housing.