TY - JOUR
T1 - Filling the legal void? Impacts of a community-based legal aid program on women’s land-related knowledge, attitudes, and practices
AU - Mueller, Valerie
AU - Billings, Lucy
AU - Mogues, Tewodaj
AU - Peterman, Amber
AU - Wineman, Ayala
N1 - Funding Information:
We are grateful to Economic Development Initiative Ltd. for data collection, to Mamas’ Hope Organization for Legal Assistance (MHOLA) for excellent program implementation, and to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through the CGIAR-USAID Linkage Fund and an anonymous donor for funding. We thank Harold Alderman, Julia Behrman, Joaquim De Weerdt, Hosaena Ghebru Hagos, Kees Groenendijk, Scholastica Jullu, Ruth Meinzen-Dick, and Agnes Quisumbing for helpful discussions and comments during program inception. An earlier version of this paper is also available via the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) discussion papers series (Mueller et al., 2015). Data and dofiles will be provided upon request.
Funding Information:
We are grateful to Economic Development Initiative Ltd. for data collection, to Mamas? Hope Organization for Legal Assistance (MHOLA) for excellent program implementation, and to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through the CGIAR-USAID Linkage Fund and an anonymous donor for funding. We thank Harold Alderman, Julia Behrman, Joaquim De Weerdt, Hosaena Ghebru Hagos, Kees Groenendijk, Scholastica Jullu, Ruth Meinzen-Dick, and Agnes Quisumbing for helpful discussions and comments during program inception. An earlier version of this paper is also available via the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) discussion papers series (Mueller et al., 2015). Data and dofiles will be provided upon request.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018, © 2018 IFPRI.
PY - 2018/10/2
Y1 - 2018/10/2
N2 - Securing women’s property rights improves overall welfare. While governments in Africa often make provisions for gender-equal legal rights, the dichotomy between de jure and customary practices remains. Community-based legal aid (CBLA) has been promoted to address this chasm through provision of free legal aid and education. We evaluate a one-year CBLA program in Tanzania using a randomized controlled trial. Results show women in treatment communities had higher exposure to legal services and increased their legal knowledge. Women who had access to a trained voluntary paralegal experienced a 0.31 standard deviation increase in a legal service index, and a 0.20 standard deviation increase in an index documenting their knowledge of land-related regulations. These changes were, however, insufficient to shift women’s attitudes or result in more favorable gendered land practices. Estimates by village size and progressiveness reveal that transaction costs and social context influence program success.
AB - Securing women’s property rights improves overall welfare. While governments in Africa often make provisions for gender-equal legal rights, the dichotomy between de jure and customary practices remains. Community-based legal aid (CBLA) has been promoted to address this chasm through provision of free legal aid and education. We evaluate a one-year CBLA program in Tanzania using a randomized controlled trial. Results show women in treatment communities had higher exposure to legal services and increased their legal knowledge. Women who had access to a trained voluntary paralegal experienced a 0.31 standard deviation increase in a legal service index, and a 0.20 standard deviation increase in an index documenting their knowledge of land-related regulations. These changes were, however, insufficient to shift women’s attitudes or result in more favorable gendered land practices. Estimates by village size and progressiveness reveal that transaction costs and social context influence program success.
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U2 - 10.1080/13600818.2017.1414174
DO - 10.1080/13600818.2017.1414174
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85038354287
SN - 1360-0818
VL - 46
SP - 453
EP - 469
JO - Oxford Development Studies
JF - Oxford Development Studies
IS - 4
ER -