Land Rights Information Centres have been extremely effective in the following areas.

(a) providing information and creating awareness regarding land laws and policies to farmers, peasants, village leaders and government workers, and providing poor indigenous people with legal and technical advice ;

(b) strengthening relationships between government line ministries and departments, local government and the people they serve;

• gaining a solid understanding of specific land issues in a particular community or region; and,

• fostering harmonious relationships between government, civil society and communities.

Lessons learned, among others:

During the four years in which the Land Rights Information Centre has been in operation, a number of key lessons and challenges have materialized:

Partnership within civil society:Partnership is, perhaps, the most important element in creating and maintaining a Land Rights Information Centre. Linking with NGOs provides some form of legal aid service; close ties with individual communities is extremely valuable in terms of cost and quality of service. Working within a coalition of NGOs ensures that the appropriate knowledge is easily accessible and that resources are available for the necessary services. Needs assessments may already be in place, thereby facilitating the setting up of a Centre and determining its modus operandi . However, effective partnerships rely heavily on a systematic and comprehensive system of communication and information sharing. Group training and regular meetings significantly contribute to the success of the Centre.

Partnership with government and local leaders: Ideally, officers having the appropriate legal background and mediation skills should be "seconded" from a partner organization. However, to increase manpower, a programme of paralegals, closer to the people, is set up to provide information, identify problems, recommend training and assess needs. This team of paralegals should be managed by the officer concerned.

Equipment: Budgetary allocations should provide for the necessary equipment: computer, vehicle, training equipment (videos, overhead projectors, slides, etc.), as well as the cost of translating written material into local languages to accommodate ethnic diversity.

Integrating the Centre into the partner organization: The creation of a centre should provide for its integration into the partner organization to provide for a system of support in order that the centre does not work in isolation.

Training: The written material distributed to the participants and discussed during on-site training is later used as reference material. Ideally, training should include both farmers and village leaders in order to encourage openness and sensitize the leaders to the difficulties. In this way the officer can better understand village dynamics and meet farmers who may not have the time or financial resources to make the journey to the Centre. Although the officer works together with the communities and local leaders to determine the content of the training, the most common types of training include: Land Rights for Tenants and landlords; Land Tenure Systems; Land Management Institutions; Land Management Administration; The Land Law and its implications; How to obtain a Land Title; Offences that can be committee inadvertently; Women, Gender issues and Land Rights.

Human Resources Support: The officer plays a central role as he, or she, runs the Centre almost single-handed, serving as the sole conduit of information. Through daily contacts with visitors, or weekly field visits, the officer determines the key issues and appropriate responses - simple advice, a second meeting with all parties, meeting with a community elder or leader, group training or sensitization, etc. Moreover, the officer is the pivotal contact with district officials: the Resident District Commissioner, Chief Administrative Officer, Police Chief and other security departments. Magistrate, the Chairperson Land Tribunal/District Land Board and other local leaders. The maintenance of these relationships is crucial, as are those with other government institutions.

Use of generated knowledge and strategy for its dissemination:

ULA experience in gender focus activities, lobbying and land literacy is very significant in the framework of the Land Coalition's national strategy for Uganda . Many of the Land Coalition's members and partners have requested more profiles of "Land Rights Centres", such as those created by Fundación TIERRA, CODECA and UVOC, in order to set up centres to pursue land rights for the landless and near landless in their own countries.