Includes genesis of the CFJJ-FAO programme – policy and legal reforms, challenges for land governance today, legal empowerment and land governance; the twin-track approach; the training programme – paralegal courses, local government and sector officer seminars; results and impact – overall impact, gender issues and women’s land rights; discussion; a format for change – the empowerment chain. Important to have a long term view. The law indeed is not enough. Paralegals an important innovation, a necessary but not sufficient part of a tool kit of measures that can bring local people into the development process as real stakeholders.