This policy brief presents strengths and weaknesses of state and traditional land justice institutions in relation to access, costs and speed in concluding the process of resolving land cases. In the current legal and institutional framework, strengthening of the customary justice system would bring benefits. With 93% of land in the Northern and Eastern regions under customary tenure, the most important institution is the clan, yet clan rulings are most often ignored by a parallel state system.

Undemocratic politics, policy making and law making interpretation and implementation, prove to be drivers of land grabbing in the four country studies presented here. Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (CFS/FAO) Guidelines on Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests (Tenure Guidelines or TGs), albeit “soft” law, are being used by local communities for bottom-up accountability against land grabbing. Land deals are marked by highly contested political processes – usually between the central state, local communities and the corporate sector.

This paper deals with strategies to overcome barriers to agricultural extension and advisory services for women in agriculture. In targeting extension services towards women in the agricultural value chain, specific challenges cited in the study surveys are: small farm sizes due to lack of access to land; limited access to credit, input supply, and assets; and inadequate access to tractor services. Men have main access to silos and warehouses for grain storage.