Poverty reduction has been at the heart of global initiatives promoted by
International and transnational organizations, such as the United Nations (UN), the
World Bank and the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID)
(UNDP 2008; World Bank 2006; UNDP 2005; DFID 2004, 2008; SIDA 2002). In
recognising that women and children feature disproportionately among the poor
worldwide (Ruzvidzo and Tiagha, 2005), these agencies have expanded the
concept of poverty to include not only material deprivation but also powerlessness
that stems from a lack of access to justice. In addressing the latter in its 2008
report, the Commission for the Empowerment of the Poor (2008) identified land as
one of the four pillars of legal empowerment