This paper has been prepared for the Commission on the Legal Empowerment of the Poor and it argues for a particular focus on securing land and property rights for the poor in sub-Saharan Africa. It presents the key challenges faced in achieving such an objective and outlines proposals for action, combining the strong body of existing work underway across the continent with the added energy generated by the current Legal Empowerment initiative.

If 2009 was the end of the hinterland and the beginning of a new globalized forest era, 2010 was a year of pushback. Worldwide, the news was full of reports of forest communities and Indigenous Peoples pushing back at land grabs and shaping policy at the national and global levels, and of governments countering and trying to contain community rights. Some governments and private investors accepted or even embraced the new players at the table and began to promote fairer business and conservation models.

This lesson brief explores the struggles women face in benefiting from their customary rights. It is part of the Uganda module on the Focus on Africa: Land Tenure and Property Rights online educational tool.

This lesson brief focuses on four issues - compulsory acquisition uses; procedures for exercising this authority; compensation; and redress - which are central to balancing private land rights and compulsory land acquisition for public purposes.It is part of the Uganda module on the 

This lesson brief examines the law and practice of allocating land in the protected estate for private investment. It is part of the Uganda module on the Focus on Africa: Land Tenure and Property Rights online educational tool. Private investors need land to conduct their business.

This lesson brief looks at the history of customary land rights and examines the current conditions regarding Village Land and customary tenure arrangements in Tanzania.

This lesson brief follows the modernization of pastoral livestock production in Kenya. This lesson brief is part of the Focus on Africa: Land Tenure and Property Rights online educational tool. Rangelands and pastoralists in Kenya have received considerable attention from government.

This lesson brief explores the history of land conflicts in Kenya.

Strengthening women's inheritance and property rights can be an effective means of decreasing poverty and increasing gender equality, and thereby accelerating progress towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). This paper presents two case studies from Rwanda and Ethiopia to illustrate the potential impact that advocacy, legislative reform and law enforcement in this area can have on the achievement of the MDGs in developing countries.

Strengthening women's inheritance and property rights can be an effective means of decreasing poverty and increasing gender equality, and thereby accelerating progress towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). This paper presents two case studies from Rwanda and Ethiopia to illustrate the potential impact that advocacy, legislative reform and law enforcement in this area can have on the achievement of the MDGs in developing countries.

In the experience of GROOTS Kenya, HIV-positive widows are often thrown out of their matrimonial homes, their land grabbed by in-laws as they are blamed for their husbands’ deaths and/or feared to die within a short period of time. Due to a lack of awareness on land rights, as well as the importance of retaining legal documents to lodge court cases, the ability of widows and orphans to control land and other family assets in Gatundu district is threatened.

This paper reviews the literature on women's empowerment and suggests supporting empowerment both as an end in itself and a way to educational, economical and health development. It begins with a discussion of the various conceptual frameworks of women's empowerment, and then examines the ways in which women's empowerment projects have been implemented and measured, ending by stressing the positive development outcomes of women's empowerment.