13th May 2026
Recognising monetary and non-monetary contributions when dividing matrimonial property is essential for achieving economic justice in Africa
10 min read
Equitable distribution of matrimonial property is central to economic justice for women in Africa. Across sub-Saharan Africa, women spend three to five times more hours than men on unpaid care and domestic work.
On average, this means four to six hours each day, and in some rural areas, even up to six to eight hours. Their work includes childcare, managing households, collecting water and firewood, and supporting livelihoods in agriculture and informal businesses.
Women work hard every day to build their households and earn income, both in the formal and informal economy. Yet, when marriage ends, non-monetary contributions are overlooked.
This is why Article 7(d) of the Maputo Protocol is important. It requires joint property to be divided equitably during dissolution of marriage, whether by separation, divorce, or annulment.
General Comment No. 6 on the Maputo Protocol: The Right to Property During Separation, Divorce or Annulment of Marriage (Article 7(d) (hereinafter GC 6), strengthens this by calling for a gender equality approach to dividing property, recognising the challenges women face from patriarchal practices, unequal power, and discriminatory social norms.
General Comments are authoritative interpretations issued by treaty bodies and mechanisms to clarify the meaning, scope, and implementation obligations of specific treaty provisions. They provide comprehensive guidance for states on how to comply with their legal obligations and suggest approaches to the implementation of the treaty’s provisions or thematic issues in question.
GC 6 explains how women’s rights should be protected during separation, divorce or annulment, ensuring both men and women have the right to an equitable sharing of the joint property deriving from the marriage.
It also details what states must do to implement these rules, including situations in which women focus solely on home responsibilities, work in the formal economy, or contribute substantially to the acquisition of property while still managing unpaid household responsibilities.
When the Solidarity for African Women’s Rights Coalition (SOAWR) reviewed the Maputo Protocol’s impact at its 20th anniversary in 2023, we found that general comments have played a key role in driving gender-focused changes in laws, policies, and court reform at the national and regional levels.
Even with the progressive framework enshrined in the Maputo Protocol, Equality Now’s Gender inequality in family laws in Africa: An overview of key trends in select countries Report (the Africa Family Law Report), shows that women in Africa continue to face challenges related to unpaid work within the family setting and discrimination in property distribution upon divorce, separation, or annulment of marriage.
On 21st April 2026, Equality Now and the Initiative for Gender Equality and Development (IGED-Africa), together with the Solidarity for African Women’s Rights Coalition (SOAWR), the Africa Family Law Network (AFLN), and the Global Campaign for Equality in Family Law (GCEFL) launched a simplified toolkit and an animated video on GC 6.
The toolkit is designed to make General Comment 6 , which is written in complex legal language, easier to understand and use for advocacy. At the launch, Honourable Commissioner Janet Ramatoulie Sallah-Njie, the current Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Women in Africa, and Honourable Lucy Asuagbor, former Special Rapporteur who helped adopt GC 6, gave keynote speeches lauding the development of the toolkit and committing to collaborate on advocacy and dissemination efforts.
The simplified version seeks to support and encourage the operationalisation of GC 6 into practice by making its core provisions easier for everyone to understand. It emphasizes that both monetary and non-monetary contributions should be considered when determining property rights upon divorce; and that courts should evaluate all contributions made during the marriage, not just financial contributions.
At the launch, Dr Faizat Badmus-Busari from the Strategic Initiative for the Horn of Africa (SIHA) Network explained that this framing means asking not “who paid for the asset,” but “what roles enabled that asset to exist?”
The simplified toolkit and animated video are available for engagement and can be downloaded from the SOAWR website. Physical and digital copies will be shared with duty bearers, lawyers, and policymakers at local, national, and regional levels. The materials will also target rights holders empowering women across Africa to use the toolkit to claim their equal property rights under the Maputo Protocol.
Ensuring equal matrimonial property rights, including recognition of non-monetary contributions, is challenging in a continent where plural legal systems exist and are heavily influenced by religious and cultural barriers.
Often, gender-neutral laws are used in unequal social and marital contexts, leaving women destitute upon divorce or separation. According to the Africa Family Law Report, Kenya, Malawi, and South Africa recognise both monetary and non-monetary contributions, but courts often do not apply a substantive equality approach, which leads to women receiving lower allocations in matrimonial property distribution cases.
There is no clear-cut mathematical formula for the distribution of matrimonial property, particularly non-monetary contributions, because unpaid care work is difficult to measure. As Caroline Criado Perez says, “If something is not measured, it is ignored, and what is ignored becomes invisible.” This highlights the need for the development of continental judicial guidelines for equitable valuation and distribution of non-monetary contributions.
Several approaches have been suggested, such as the market replacement cost method, which estimates what it would cost to pay someone to perform the same work; the opportunity cost method, which estimates the income a spouse could have earned in paid work; and the dissolution of partnership approach, which sees marriage as an equal economic partnership wherein the financial contributions of one spouse are deemed to be the contributions of both.
It is therefore possible to ensure monetary and non-monetary contributions are recognised, valued, contextualised, and measured to guarantee equitable distribution of matrimonial property.
The casual sexist stereotype of “What do women bring to the table?” needs to be extinguished and transformed to “What don’t women bring to the table? ”
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