Masters Dissertation

A Dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for a Masters in Women’s Law, Southern and Eastern African Regional Centre for Women’s Law, University of Zimbabwe 2010

This dissertation exposes the legal and other obstacles which prevent rural women, Zimbabwe’s traditional environmental stewards, from fully realizing their human right (HR) both to sustain their families from forest produce and help to preserve the country’s forests. The researcher’s deft use of several gender-focused methodologies and complementary data collection methods combine to present clear […]

The objectives of this study, conducted by a Zambian law enforcement officer, were to: (i) establish how women exposed to long-term domestic violence (DV) develop the   ‘baula’ reaction (i.e., slow anger reaction) resulting in their killing their abusive partners; (ii) investigate whether the defence of provocation discriminates against female offenders; (iii) interrogate whether judges […]

Two years after the horror of Kenya’s inter-tribal post election violence (PEV), the writer of this dissertation [a member of the Federation of Women Lawyers of Kenya (FIDA K)], courageously investigates why justice still eludes the female victims (ranging from   teenagers to grandmothers) of the widespread politically-motivated serial rapes (especially gang rapes) instigated by […]

Unable to satisfy the nation’s need for water, the Kenyan Government has, in the case of Nakuru, the country’s fourth largest city, embarked on two water privatisation projects with local profit-making companies, one to service its urban and the other its rural community. This dissertation analyses the extent to which both these communities dismally fail […]

Sustained and meaningful economic development remains beyond the reach of the majority of Tanzania’s poorer female citizens, especially those in the informal sector, because they lack collateral (i.e., ownership of land) to secure loans from formal financial institutions for their income-generating projects. This dissertation compares and contrasts 3 micro-financing models (two implemented by the Government […]

The writer of this dissertation, a local NGO officer, uses her inside knowledge of the Murewa Rural District Council (“MRDC”) to explore, through the increased participation of women councillors, the potential for their own personal development and that of the district, in general. She collects and analyses a wide range of data utilising several women-centred […]