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Legal Empowerment: Practitioners' Perspectives

A research project presenting a series of qualitative and quantitative studies on approaches to integrating justice and development in ways that benefit the poor and other disadvantaged populations. The studies are published in an edited volume entitled “Legal Empowerment: Practitioners’ Perspectives”, featuring articles on approaches to legal empowerment, justice and development.

Community Land Titling Initiative

Action-oriented research in cooperation with local partners in Uganda, Liberia and Mozambique, looking at ways to support the use of existing community land titling procedures, with a view to increase the land tenure security of the rural poor.

Enhancing Legal Empowerment through Engagement with Customary Justice

A combination of research-related activities aimed at identifying entry points and expanding the knowledge base on the relationship between the operation of customary justice systems and the legal empowerment of poor and marginalized populations.

Strengthening the Legal Framework for Girls in India, Bangladesh, Kenya and Liberia

A research project in cooperation with local partners in India, Bangladesh, Kenya and Liberia, looking at the legal protection framework for girls in seven key thematic areas: birth registration, access to education, access to property, child labor, child trafficking, commercial sexual exploitation of children and child marriage. Empirical research has been complemented by a pilot project on ways to prevent and combat child trafficking in India using legal empowerment strategies.

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, with in-depth research 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

Action-oriented research to empower selected communities in Kenya to protect their traditional knowledge and to develop community-based mechanisms - such as a traditional knowledge commons – to regulate the conditions under which knowledge is shared with non-traditional users.