IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/fpr/ifprid/1434.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Filling the legal void? Experimental evidence from a community-based legal aid program for gender-equal land rights in Tanzania

Author

Listed:
  • Mueller, Valerie
  • Billings, Lucy
  • Mogues, Tewodaj
  • Peterman, Amber
  • Wineman, Ayala

Abstract

Gender disparities continue to exist in women’s control, inheritance, and ownership of land in spite of legislation directing improvements in women’s land access. Women are often excluded from traditional patrilineal inheritance systems, often lack the legal know-how or enforcement mechanisms to ensure their property rights are maintained, and often lack initial capital or asset bases to purchase land through market mechanisms. Community-based legal aid programs have been promoted as one way to expand access to justice for marginalized populations, through provision of free legal aid and education. Despite promising programmatic experiences, few rigorous evaluations have studied their impacts in developing countries. We evaluate the effect of a one-year community-based legal aid program in the Kagera Region of northwestern Tanzania using a randomized controlled trial design with specific attention to gender. We measure impacts of access to legal aid on a range of land-related knowledge, attitude, and practice outcomes using individual questionnaires administered to male and female household members separately. Effects were limited in the short term to settings with minimal transaction costs to the paralegal. Treatment women in smaller villages attend legal seminars and are more knowledgeable and positive regarding their legal access to land. Cost-effectiveness analysis shows that the costs of bringing about these changes are moderate. The difference between the impact of the intervention on men and on women is narrowed when taking into account the gender-differentiated paralegal effort, and thus costs, allocated to women and men.

Suggested Citation

  • Mueller, Valerie & Billings, Lucy & Mogues, Tewodaj & Peterman, Amber & Wineman, Ayala, 2015. "Filling the legal void? Experimental evidence from a community-based legal aid program for gender-equal land rights in Tanzania," IFPRI discussion papers 1434, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    • Handle: RePEc:fpr:ifprid:1434
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://hdl.handle.net/10568/149381
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Feder, Gershon & Savastano, Sara, 2006. "The role of opinion leaders in the diffusion of new knowledge: The case of integrated pest management," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 34(7), pages 1287-1300, July.
    2. Ingrid Yngstrom, 2002. "Women, Wives and Land Rights in Africa: Situating Gender Beyond the Household in the Debate Over Land Policy and Changing Tenure Systems," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(1), pages 21-40.
    3. Sarah Baird & Aislinn Bohren & Berk Ozler & Craig McIntosh, 2014. "Designing Experiments to Measure Spillover Effects," Working Papers 2014-11, The George Washington University, Institute for International Economic Policy.
    4. Kondylis, Florence & Mueller, Valerie & Zhu, Jessica, 2017. "Seeing is believing? Evidence from an extension network experiment," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 1-20.
    5. David S. Lee, 2009. "Training, Wages, and Sample Selection: Estimating Sharp Bounds on Treatment Effects," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 76(3), pages 1071-1102.
    6. Peterman, Amber & Billings, Lucy & Behrman, Julia A., 2013. "Evaluation of grassroots community–based legal aid activities in Uganda and Tanzania: Strengthening women’s legal knowledge and land rights," CAPRi working papers 108, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    7. Amber Peterman, 2011. "Women's Property Rights and Gendered Policies: Implications for Women's Long-term Welfare in Rural Tanzania," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(1), pages 1-30.
    8. Munshi, Kaivan, 2004. "Social learning in a heterogeneous population: technology diffusion in the Indian Green Revolution," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(1), pages 185-213, February.
    9. Tan, Jee-Peng & Lane, Julia & Coustere, Paul, 1997. "Putting Inputs to Work in Elementary Schools: What Can Be Done in the Philippines?," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 45(4), pages 857-879, July.
    10. Braakmann, Nils, 2012. "How do individuals deal with victimization and victimization risk? Longitudinal evidence from Mexico," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 84(1), pages 335-344.
    11. Marianne Bertrand & Esther Duflo & Sendhil Mullainathan, 2004. "How Much Should We Trust Differences-In-Differences Estimates?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 119(1), pages 249-275.
    12. Blattman, Christopher & Hartman, Alexandra C. & Blair, Robert A., 2014. "How to Promote Order and Property Rights under Weak Rule of Law? An Experiment in Changing Dispute Resolution Behavior through Community Education," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 108(1), pages 100-120, February.
    13. David P. Coady & Susan W. Parker, 2004. "Cost‐effectiveness Analysis of Demand‐ and Supply‐side Education Interventions: the Case of PROGRESA in Mexico," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 8(3), pages 440-451, August.
    14. B. Mak ARVIN & Byron LEW, 2012. "Development Aid, Corruption, and the Happiness of Nations: Analysis of 118 countries over the years 1996-2009," Applied Econometrics and International Development, Euro-American Association of Economic Development, vol. 12(2).
    15. Bedi, Arjun S & Marshall, Jeffrey H, 1999. "School Attendance and Student Achievement: Evidence from Rural Honduras," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 47(3), pages 657-682, April.
    16. Amber Peterman, 2012. "Widowhood and Asset Inheritance in Sub-Saharan Africa: Empirical Evidence from 15 Countries," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 30(5), pages 543-571, September.
    17. Paolo Mauro, 1995. "Corruption and Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 110(3), pages 681-712.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tewodaj Mogues & Valerie Mueller & Florence Kondylis, 2019. "Cost-effectiveness of community-based gendered advisory services to farmers: Analysis in Mozambique and Tanzania," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(3), pages 1-32, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Elisabeth SADOULET, 2016. "Review of Theories of Learning for Adopting," Working Papers P163, FERDI.
    2. Bonan, Jacopo & Battiston, Pietro & Bleck, Jaimie & LeMay-Boucher, Philippe & Pareglio, Stefano & Sarr, Bassirou & Tavoni, Massimo, 2021. "Social interaction and technology adoption: Experimental evidence from improved cookstoves in Mali," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    3. Kondylis, Florence & Mueller, Valerie & Zhu, Jessica, 2017. "Seeing is believing? Evidence from an extension network experiment," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 1-20.
    4. Ham, Andrés & Michelson, Hope C., 2018. "Does the form of delivering incentives in conditional cash transfers matter over a decade later?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 96-108.
    5. Shikuku, Kelvin Mashisia, 2019. "Information exchange links, knowledge exposure, and adoption of agricultural technologies in northern Uganda," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 94-106.
    6. Kazushi Takahashi & Rie Muraoka & Keijiro Otsuka, 2020. "Technology adoption, impact, and extension in developing countries’ agriculture: A review of the recent literature," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 51(1), pages 31-45, January.
    7. Okello, Julius & Shikuku, Kelvin Mashisia & Lagerkvist, Carl Johan & Rommel, Jens & Jogo, Wellington & Ojwang, Sylvester & Namanda, Sam & Elungat, James, 2023. "Social incentives as nudges for agricultural knowledge diffusion and willingness to pay for certified seeds: Experimental evidence from Uganda," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    8. David K. Evans & Arkadipta Ghosh, 2008. "Prioritizing Educational Investments in Children in the Developing World," Working Papers WR-587, RAND Corporation.
    9. Hossain, Marup & Songsermsawas, Tisorn, 2025. "Adapting to Thrive: Training and Access to Finance to Reduce Climate Vulnerability Among Smallholder Farmers in Nepal," 2025 AAEA & WAEA Joint Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2025, Denver, CO 361170, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    10. Lay, Jann, 2010. "MDG Achievements, Determinants, and Resource Needs: What Has Been Learnt?," GIGA Working Papers 137, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies.
    11. Vicente, Pedro C., 2010. "Does oil corrupt? Evidence from a natural experiment in West Africa," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(1), pages 28-38, May.
    12. Sami Bensassi & Arisyi F. Raz, 2025. "Combating trade‐related fraud: do the Financial Action Task Force recommendations bite?," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 92(365), pages 322-347, January.
    13. Mekonnen, Dawit K. & Dorfman, Jeffrey H., 2017. "Synergy and Learning Effects of Informal Labor-Sharing Arrangements," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 1-14.
    14. Martin Huber, 2010. "Identification of average treatment effects in social experiments under different forms of attrition," University of St. Gallen Department of Economics working paper series 2010 2010-22, Department of Economics, University of St. Gallen.
    15. Kondylis, Florence & Mueller, Valerie, 2012. "Seeing is Believing? Evidence from a Demonstration Plot Experiment in Mozambique," Mozambique Working Paper 1, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    16. Eiji Yamamura & Inyong Shin, 2013. "Decomposition of Ethnic Heterogeneity on Growth," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 55(1), pages 59-75, March.
    17. Varshney, Deepak & Joshi, P. K. & Kumar, A. & Mishra, A. K. & Dubey, S. K., 2022. "Examining the transfer of knowledge and training to smallholders in India: direct and spillover effects of agricultural advisory services in an emerging economy," Papers published in Journals (Open Access), International Water Management Institute, pages 160:106067..
    18. David K. Evans & Arkadipta Ghosh, 2008. "Prioritizing Educational Investments in Children in the Developing World," Working Papers 587, RAND Corporation.
    19. Del Rey, Elena & Estevan, Fernanda, 2013. "Conditional cash transfers and education quality in the presence of credit constraints," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 76-84.
    20. Brent Robert J., 2013. "A cost-benefit framework for evaluating conditional cash-transfer programs," Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis, De Gruyter, vol. 4(2), pages 159-180, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:fpr:ifprid:1434. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ifprius.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.