Legal Empowerment and Access to Justice as Instruments for Good Land Governance
Christopher Tanner, Margret Vidar, Marianna Bicchieri
This paper looks at using legal empowerment to address poor land governance, and lay the foundations for participatory, rights-based and equitable land access and use. It presents a FAO programme in Mozambique, at the Legal and Judicial Training Centre (CFJJ) of the Justice Ministry. The programme integrates paralegal training in land, natural resources and environment for non-governmental organization (NGO) staff working at community level, and training for 'frontline' government administrative officers and justice services. This 'twin-track' approach empowers citizens by telling them about their rights, and gives them practical legal support. It also empowers local government officers by explaining the legal framework and how to use it in practice to respond to local needs; and it can also circumvent institutional and political pressures which favour fast tracking/ investment over participatory and equitable development. The result is greater local social accountability - citizens 'extracting' a better, rights-aware response from local public services and investors alike. Underlying causes of land conflict and injustice are replaced with new ideas and community-investor partnerships. The good governance of land and natural resources by district administrators and other local officials feeds into changing attitudes and policy orthodoxies higher up.
Event: Annual World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty 2015
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