INTERSECTION OF AGRICULTURAL FINANCE LAWS AND WOMEN'S REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH: AN EMPIRICAL ASSESSMENT IN RURAL SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

Abstract

In Sub-Saharan Africa, customary land laws and strict collateral constraints in agricultural credit legislation systematically lock women from access to institutional credit. This empirical study investigates how financial access by rural women impacts access to reproductive health services. Using a mixed-methods approach involving collection of quantitative data from 450 female farmers in three predominantly agrarian districts, together with qualitative key informants, analysis showed that banking institutions typically require registered ownership of land for loans; a condition under which merely 11.3% of the female farmers qualified. As a result, non-borrowing women suffer liquidity problems leading to prohibitive out of pocket payments on health services. Formal financial access by women correlated positively with visits to antenatal care clinics, use of modern contraception, and facility based delivery. The legislative reforms that support non-land as well as gender friendly jointly owned land title would strengthen female empowerment in financial transactions and would, consequently, improve women access to reproductive healthcare services for most agrarian rural women in the sub region even in this day and time.