Rachael Knight is an attorney with expertise in land tenure security, access to justice, legal empowerment and sacred sites. She is currently a Senior Associate of the Legal Tools for Citizen Empowerment team at the International Institute for the Environment and Development (IIED). She helped to found Namati, a global legal empowerment organization that
helps disenfranchised communities to understand, use, and shape the law. She founded Namati’s Community Land Protection Program, then served as its Director from 2012 to 2017 and as its Senior Advisor from 2018 to 2019.

In this capacity, together with land rights advocates throughout Africa, she co-created an integrated model of community land protection that is now practiced around the world. Previously, she was Director of the International Development Law Organization’s Community Land Titling Initiative. She has advised the governments of Liberia, Sierra Leone, Belize, Nepal, and Kenya throughout their land law and policy drafting processes.

She has worked as a consultant for FAO since 2004; in this capacity, she wrote “Statutory Recognition of Customary Land Rights in Africa: An Investigation into Best Practices for Law-Making and Implementation.” She has also written various books and guides for community land protection advocates and activists, available at: https://
namati.org/ourwork/communityland/community-land-protection-publications/