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tems is important both for intrinsic moral reasons— reflected in the human rights principles laidout in the Convention for the Elimination of AllForms of Discrimination Against Women — andfor pragmatic economic reasons. This is in lightof the growing body of research that genderequality and women’s empowerment fosters sustainableeconomic growth and promotes healthand education.South Africa and Tanzania both offer powerfulrecent examples of cases where the state hasrecognised the legitimacy of customary law up toa point, but has required that customary systemschange to respect the equal rights and status ofwomen. In South Africa, NGOs successfully lobbiedfor the passage of a ‘Recognition of CustomaryMarriages Act’ that formally recognised marriagesconcluded in accordance of customary law,but only if customary law provided for equality ofhusband and wife in terms of status, decisionmakingauthority, property ownership, and childcustody (Centre for Applied Legal Studies 2002).Tanzania has enacted two Land Acts that conferformal recognition on customary title, but alsomandate the elimination of customary practicesthat discriminate against women with respectto land ownership (Ikdahl et al. 2005, Tsikata2003). Neither the South African nor the Tanzanianlaws have been implemented perfectly, andcustomary gender discrimination is still a pervasiveproblem in both countries, but these experimentsnonetheless suggest that it is possible toenact reform built around a political compromise:formal recognition of customary law in exchangefor the rejection of certain customary norms thatare repugnant to principles of non-discriminationand gender equality.Another lesson of both the South African andTanzanian experiences is that these sorts of reformstrategies cannot be imposed immediatelyfrom the top down. Where cultural practices anddiscriminatory attitudes are deeply entrenched,successful legislative reform requires sustainedconsultation, lobbying, and political organisingefforts. Also, in some cases the pursuit of genderequity goals might need to be tempered bypragmatic considerations, and it might be betterto pursue a gradual reform strategy that starts bytargeting only the most extreme forms of genderdiscrimination, and then progressively expandingthe scope of this anti-discrimination principle. Asthe example in Box 2 shows, a complex legal universegoverns the legal position of poor women inmany developing countries. This example furtherilluminates the effect of legal regimes in the fieldof inheritance and property rights of women andits effects on the prevalence of and societal situationwith regard to HIV/AIDS.While the implementation strategy will vary bycountry, targeted interventions to eliminate discriminatorypractices — particularly gender-baseddiscrimination — should be a prerequisite towidespread recognition or acceptance of customarydispute resolution systems.Structuring Institutional RelationshipsThe government can also influence access tojustice in non-state institutions by structuringthe institutional relationship between the stateand non-state justice systems. One basic issuethe government must consider is whether to giveone justice system exclusive jurisdiction over aparticular class of disputes, or whether disputantshave the option of choosing between differentsystems. (The absence of choice may be de jure— as when the formal law gives customary courtsin a particular area have exclusive jurisdictionover family relations or property disputes — or defacto — as when the formal court system is so45