This program aims to advance practical knowledge on means of addressing the legal needs of the poor in developing countries. IDLO intends to use the knowledge generated to strengthen the evidence base for mainstreaming legal empowerment in poverty reduction, and economic and social development strategies.
This program is being implemented by the IDLO Unit for Research, Policy and Strategic Initiatives and is being supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (www.gatesfoundation.org) as part of IDLO’s broader research program.

The project has six components.

Legal Empowerment and Justice for the Poor
A series of qualitative and quantitative scholarly articles on approaches to integrating justice and development in ways that benefit the poor and other disadvantaged populations. The articles will be published in an edited volume and on the IDLO website as an online working paper series.
See a range of full text articles here: www.idlo.int/ENGLISH/External/IPLEWP.asp

Community Land Titling Initiative
Action-oriented research in cooperation with local partners in Uganda, Liberia and Mozambique into how best to support communities to make use of existing community land titling procedures, and thereby increase the land tenure security of the rural poor.

Enhancing Legal Empowerment Through Engagement with Customary Justice Systems
A combination of research-related activities that aims to provide insights into how it may be possible to improve the functioning of customary justice systems and identify entry points for how they can be used as vehicles for the legal empowerment of the poor.
Activities include field research in Namibia by the Van Vollenhoven Institute for Law Governance and Development at Leiden University, provision of 4-6 small grants for independent action-based research and a call for papers by academics or practitioners to be published in an edited volume.

Strengthening the Legal Protection Framework for Girls
Research in cooperation with local partners in India, Bangladesh, Kenya and Liberia into the legal protection framework for girls in 7 key thematic areas: birth registration, access to education, access to property, child labor, child trafficking, commercial sexual exploitation of children and child marriage. This will be followed by pilot work by local partners responding to recommendations arising out of the research.

Consumer Protection in the Microfinance Industry: Loan Agreements, Dispute Resolutions and Debt Collection Practices
A comparative study of the state of consumer protection laws, regulations and administrative practices in relation to microfinance borrowing by the poor, many of whom are financially if not functionally illiterate. Survey of law and practice in 20 countries focusing on contracts for microfinance loans, microfinance dispute resolution mechanisms and debt collection practices; more in-depth research of these issues in Kenya, Egypt, Cameroon, India (Tamil Nadu) and Colombia.

Protection of Traditional Knowledge and Cultural Heritage of Indigenous Communities with a Special Focus on the Agricultural Sector
Selected communities in Kenya will be encouraged to learn about their legal rights to protect their traditional knowledge and to experiment with the development of new community-based mechanisms (such as a traditional knowledge commons) that will enable them to set the conditions under which they share such knowledge with non-traditional users.