Partner Organization Highlight: Land and Equity Movement in Uganda

Land Equity Movement of Uganda (LEMU) is a movement which aims to unite the efforts of everyone with a contribution to offer to make land work for the poor.

LEMU is a Ugandan non-profit organization dedicated to protecting community land rights through legal recognition and representation. To LEMU, the idea is simple: allow Africans to solve their problems in uniquely African ways. In much of Africa, including in the rural parts of Uganda, individual property rights are a foreign idea that have yet to take hold. Thus, LEMU works within the framework of traditional communal views of property, but updates them to the modern world.

Traditional clan groups, particularly in the rural north, are often exploited, marginalized, and ignored by the government. LEMU accordingly seeks to obtain legal recognition and protection of these community lands. To do this, LEMU supports these communities in several ways, including legal representation and advocacy, dispute mediation services, filing for title paperwork, and establishing formal community rules and property boundaries.

LEMU works with locals, government, civil society organizations, students, elders, volunteers, and anyone willing to help make land work for the poor. Ultimately, LEMU works to ensure that the right policies, laws, and structures are in place so that everyone can have fair access to land and land can be used as profitably as possible for all.

To see where some of our students have interned or worked on pro bono projects for LEMU, click here >