Nearly 70 percent of households in Uganda are engaged in land based subsistence farming yet the National policies prioritize economic growth through privatization and consolidation of land for big projects or investments. As the climate emergency takes a toll, many vulnerable community members are seeking employment outside agriculture, going to the mining, forestry and agro-processing sectors, which are increasingly growing to absorb labor. This labor absorption takes an informal character, associated with extreme labor violations, such as child labor, inadequate pay , lack of safety gear, environmental pollution and land rights violations are injustices faced by the women and youth working in these sectors

LEMU’s project seeks to form and strengthen informal worker’s associations in mining, forestry and agro-processing sectors. These collective worker organizations will be empowered to know their worker rights, advocate for legal protections, and demand reforms from investors and government. The project aims to provide training on legal rights, environmental protection, and labor laws, and engage stakeholders in multi-stakeholder dialogues to solve community grievances and corruption.

In Liberia, citizens face significant legal challenges due to the lack of legitimacy, affordability, accessibility, and timeliness in the formal justice system. Widespread perceptions of corruption further erode public trust in the system’s ability to deliver fair and impartial justice. While traditional justice mechanisms serve rural communities, such systems are often absent in urban areas, leaving many disputes unresolved.

Through this initiative, Accountability Lab in Liberia aims to address these barriers by supporting the Community Justice Team in Logan Town, where marginalized populations face limited access to justice. The project will prioritize engaging community leaders, formal justice actors, and residents through public outreach and capacity-building efforts. It will also provide training for community-based mediators offering paralegal support to resolve civil matters (such as family law and children’s rights), refer criminal cases to the formal justice system, and disseminate legal information to raise community awareness about their rights and available justice mechanisms.

Recognizing the systemic nature of these issues, the initiative adopts a holistic, community-driven approach aimed at resolving entrenched power dynamics, institutional weaknesses, and social inequalities. Accountability Lab will work to identify and organize key actors, raise legal awareness, and empower communities to understand, utilize, and influence the law to better serve their needs.

Most ex-offenders face structural barriers on a daily basis due to sentencing disparities, inadequate legal representation, and weak reintegration laws which severely hinder their ability to rebuild their lives. In addition, discrimination in hiring practices prevents ex-offenders from achieving economic stability and increases the risk of reoffending. Reintegration policies prioritize punitive measures over rehabilitation and do not address systemic problems that perpetuate injustices.

Through this project, RESHAPE will use various legal empowerment strategies to challenge discriminatory practices and promote equity and inclusion within the reintegration system. Specifically, RESHAPE will implement comprehensive legal education and awareness programmes, train ex-offenders as peer legal advocates who can provide guidance and support to others going through the reintegration process, collaborate with local businesses and employers to develop fair hiring practices that do not discriminate against individuals with criminal records and incorporate legal empowerment modules into existing rehabilitation and reentry programs.

A significant number of youth, women and people living with disabilities have been discriminated against in the participation of public procurement process due to the disregard of Article 35, by public procurement entities.The withholding of crucial public procurement information denies these vulnerable groups their rightful participation in economic opportunities, perpetuating inequality and widening power imbalances. Moreover efforts to engage these groups in the procurement process by the organization have been met with challenges in corrupt practices in awarding tenders, continued withholding of information and mistrust among these groups and the public entity authorities.

The project aims to raise awareness about procurement rights and empower marginalized groups to demand access to public tenders through civic and political education activities. Through organized community dialogues, training on public interest litigation, and building local leadership, the organization aims to promote legal and political empowerment. This will ensure vulnerable groups can access procurement opportunities and hold authorities accountable.

Systemic barriers such as limited knowledge of land policies, delays in policy implementation, and traditional land tenure practices hinder farmers from securing legal ownership. Although the Land Act of 2019 exists, many remain unaware of their rights or the process of obtaining land certificates. Women, despite playing a key role in food production, face cultural and legal barriers that prevent them from owning land, further deepening their economic vulnerability.

To tackle these challenges, the project will create legal awareness, strengthen advocacy, and promote policy reforms. This will be done through civic education and community engagement with CSOs, local leaders, and government institutions to educate communities on land rights, facilitate dialogue, and push for effective policy implementation. The initiative will also equip farmers with legal knowledge and mobilize stakeholders to influence decision-making at the district level.

A key focus is closing the gender gap in land ownership by amplifying women’s voices, securing recognition of their land rights. The project will establish a fair land tenure system in Gwembe District that empowers smallholder farmers and enhances food security to create lasting benefits for vulnerable farming communities.

Health Access Initiative (HAI) is an organization of young volunteers working to promote sustainable community health in Benin. It provides support to empower people and effect real change to improve health access in Benin.

In the center of Cotonou’s Xwlacodji neighborhood, a cement factory has imposed its threatening shadow over the daily lives of residents for several years. The environmental and health nuisances stemming from this factory have led to a wave of complaints and outrage from the local community. Despite the constitutional court’s 2009 decision that the factory’s location violates the Benin Constitution, and the announcement in June 2022 that the factory would be relocated, operations have continued, exposing local residents to serious health risks and degrading the urban environment.

In view of the government’s inaction and the ineffectiveness of political decisions, the people of Cotonou must take a stand to get justice themselves and speed up the factory’s relocation process.

Mercom Guinée is a non-governmental organization that supports communities in mining areas through legal empowerment.

Mining activities in the Lola region have national impacts through tax and royalty payments. Local communities have been considering such impacts as well as other issues such as biodiversity, climate change, and their ability to participate in local governance.
Legal empowerment helps prepare communities to critically analyze physical evidence to corroborate official rules and observable facts. This effective and pacifist tool enables people to actively participate in local governance through training and mechanisms that help them understand key issues related to sustainable development.

AMEN implements initiatives to support income-generating activities, meet basic needs, protect natural resources, and promote human interests.

In the Mwenga territory, women face violence in various situations. For example, when women get married, communities have determined that women have no home and that women and girls do not have the right to own or inherit property. Forced or early marriage is also common. During wars and armed conflict, women and girls are raped, kept as sexual slaves, or buried alive; have their wombs cut open when pregnant; are punished by mob justice when suspected of being spies; and are subjected to forced labor imposed by leaders of the regular army or non-State armed groups.

To curb this violence against women and girls, AMEN works to promote their inclusion in community governance while striving for gender equality in terms of representation in national bodies; support community interests and participation in provincial and national legal bodies; and encourage national bodies to devolve certain responsibilities to local authorities with regard to gender, family and development issues.

AMEN plans to train communities on the law and related skills as part of thematic groups. These groups will examine comprehensive knowledge of laws on women’s rights and gender equality and how they intersect with laws on family, land, mining, the environment, forests, and human rights defenders. Community leaders and paralegal associations will set up educational training programs for all population categories through discussion groups and educational talks; documentation on violence against women and girls will be disseminated publicly; selected models will provide a basis for advocacy efforts; and finally, victims will be given assistance during court hearings. AMEN will also set up community organizations to support the implementation of this project.

AMAF-Benin works on issues of oppression of women and girls characterized by sexual violence and discrimination and inequality in access to and control of land and natural resources.

Donga is a rural area in northern Benin where women and girls face poverty and social, economic, and climate vulnerability. Women and girls in this region generally earn a living from family farming and gathering non-wood forest products, such as shea nuts, cashew nuts, etc., which are in demand abroad. However, they are largely underrepresented in decision-making bodies at all levels, including in land and forest governance at the community level. Poor representation of women and girls in decision-making bodies hampers the defense of their interests in decisions on local development actions, with direct and indirect consequences for climate resilience and the protection of livelihoods for these marginalized groups.