Legal Empowerment of the Poor Knowledge Bank

From the World Conference of Religions for Peace, this paper looks at Islam's perspective on legal empowerment of the poor through Qur'anic verses and Hadith.

Assessing and measuring legal empowerment of the poor - some important considerations

Dan Banik reviews the relationship between legal empowerment and povery reduction and suggests that while LEP can be a tool to support poverty reduction, it does not address all causes of poverty.

This paper provides guiding principles and advice on how Business Economy Reform programs might contribute to the needs of the poor by reducing informality and encouraging informal business to start operating formally. Of particular concern is avoiding policies that increase formalization but concomitantly are likely to increase poverty.

Former Commissioner Naresh Singh's presentation 'Making the Law Work for Everyone: Moving Towards Implementation'

This paper advocates for a greater understanding of the complexities in 're-empowering' communities to regain control over Common Property Resources (CPR)

This presentation examines cases from the Philippines and Nepal.

Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor sponsored note on financial sector development and expanded access to credit

Analysis of gender equality laws (GEL) from around the world, to identify those that represent good practice from a CEDAW-informed perspective. Based on the good practice examples identified, the review analyses the strengths and weaknesses of enacted and draft GEL in five countries, namely Indonesia, Lao PDR, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.

Steve Golub reviews 4 papers on the Commission's work and offers'steps forward' for the international community, including, investments in civil society, creating incentives for government to support LEP, and making LEP a focus for a development goal.

Green jobs are often heralded as the solution to the twin challenges of lowering our greenhouse gas emissions and bringing down unemployment. However, very little has been said about what new green jobs might look like – who will be doing them, how much might they pay and where will they be located?

When it comes to migration from poorto rich countries, however, labor flows are rarely bidirectional, making reciprocity moot and leaving labor importers with all the bargaining power.

The process of migration, and how that can be gender-differentiated, is discussed with particular reference to the various types of female migration that are common: marriage migration, family migration, forced migration, migration for work. These can be further disaggregated into legal and irregular migration, all of which affect and the issues and problems of women migrants in the process of migration and in the destination country.

ActionAid's report declares women’s rights to land and natural resources as the missing link in the analysis of the food crisis, and as critical to achieving the MDGs. 

IDLO Working Paper. This  paper draws on material and preliminary lessons from the Legal Tools  for Citizen Empowerment program with a view to providing insights for international consideration of legal empowerment.

The authors argue that increasing women's land security requires working with existing positive values, rather than focusing on formal reform or embracing informal practices. Instead they advocate 'the sociocultural value systems that determine which behavior, arguments, and actions are legitimate in a community.'

This concise paper examines the effect, real and potential of legal empowerment

UNDP RCB, RIPP Programme Coordinator Chandra Roy - Land Rights and Indigenous Peoples

The United Nations Secretary General's report to the 64th General Assembly: 'Legal Empowerment of the Poor and Eradication of Poverty'.

A series of papers by LEP practitioners covering areas from land rights for MDGs, to LEP and social accountability theory, transitional justice, non-state justice systems, legal identity and more.

"Legal Empowerment and Poverty Reduction: The Conceptual and Empirical Challenges Ahead"

This paper poses questions to generate ideas, stimulate discussion and seek input from the dialogue participants on how key challenges surrounding legal empowerment can be addressed and how best to take the LEP agenda forward in the region.

The Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor Report, Vol 1

UN Resident Representative Kamal Malhotra - 'Merits of a Regional or Sub-Regional Approach to LEP'

This overview does not seek to cover the full range of the
mapping toolbox; rather, it seeks to frame how technology-assisted community mapping is related to the broader goal of
empowering rural people, a central objective for many of ILC’s partners. This paper seeks to show how mapping can facilitate community empowerment, but also how it must be employed with care, being mindful of the risks for ommunities that such activities can entail.

This brief highlights some issues when considering LEP as an agenda to enahnce poverty reduction, MDG achievement and rights-based development

This volume of Sharing Innovative Experiences presents 18 case studies from 15 developing countries on their efforts to develop and implement a social protection floor.

United
 Nations 
Department 
of 
Economic
 and
 Social
 Affairs

(UN‐DESA) 
and
 the 
United
 Nations 
Development
 Programme
 (UNDP)
 organized
 a 
Special 
Event 
on
 “Legal 
Empowerment 
of 
the 
Poor 
and 
Eradication 
of 
Poverty”.  

The 
special 
event 
– 
held 
on 
16
 October 
2009
 at 
the 
Second 
Committee  
of 
the 
64th 
session 
of 
the 
General
 Assembly
– 
was 
aimed
 at
 generating 
greater
 awareness
 and
 understanding 
on 
legal 
empowerment 
of 
the
 poor
 among
 the
 member
 states
 of
 the
 United
 Nations.


Thai language version: Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor's report 'Making the Law Work for Everyone: Vol 1'

The Current Economic Crisis and Its Impact: An Opportunity for Legal Empowerment of the Poor

While efforts to develop RoL are essential and must continue, law cannot carry the hopes of economic development or the progressive package. Functional alternatives to law should be supported or created when state legal institutions persistently fail.

This Statement of Common Understanding specifically refers to a human rights based approach to the development cooperation and development programming by UN agencies.

Vietnamese language translation of the report of the Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor - Volume 1

UNIFEM's 'good practices' for empowering migrant women workers

The recent turmoil in financial markets worldwide has emphasized the need for adequate consumer protection and financial literacy for long-term stability of the financial sector. This Working Paper aims to summarize key lessons from reviews of consumer protection and financial literacy in nine middle-income countries -Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, the Russian Federation and Slovakia.

SEWA's Experience with legal empowerment assisting informal workers in India

Based on the results of qualitative and quantitative research  this report focuses on identifying the key justice-related issues affecting citizens at the village level and the steps taken to resolve them.  Addresses formal and informal justice systems.

Report on the national consultation on Legal Empowerment of the Poor held in Indonesia 2006

Director of Law and Human Rights at BAPPENAS outlines the Indonesian National Strategy on Access to Justice

University Kabangsaan Malaysia, Denison Jayasooria - Forest Based Communities and Land Rights

A joint research team from the Pacific Financial Inclusion Programme and the International Finance Corporation took a close look at how a mobile money system might take hold in Papua New Guinea.  Despite all of the challenges in providing financial services, there is a great opportunity for mobile phone based financial services to increase people's financial and physical security in PNG.

Poverty Reduction in Thailand

This report presents the Timor Leste Survey of Living Standards extension survey's findings related to land and property. It begins by presenting a context for land and property in Timor-Leste, goes on to discuss East Timorese perspectives on land ownership and access, and concludes with a discussion on land disputes and their resolution.