relations or returning partners. This can manifest in domestic violence and property and inheritance disputes. Without addressing inequalities in land ownership, inheritance laws, access to finance and personal status laws, women risk reversals into economic decline. One of the earlier legal reforms in Rwanda was to respond to the plight of widows who could not obtain access to their deceased spouse’s property, leading the drafting of laws on inheritance.317 Strategies that target women’s post conflict livelihoods are critical to their survival and dependents. In communities where ex-combatant return, such as Liberia and Uganda, reintegration into society can be difficult. In the recovery period of Liberia, various government, development partners and NGOs during the reintegration processes provided female specific microcredit opportunities initiatives for war affected women to encourage livelihood productivity and reinvigorate the rural economy.318 Support to female ex combatants resulted in women receiving training in vocational skills, agriculture and apprenticeship for work.319 However those that feared stigmatisation and shunned the rehabilitation and reintegration processes fell into poverty, sexual exploitation and gender based violence.320 The Kampala Convention, reinforced by the AU Model Law for the Implementation of the AU Convention for the Protection of and Assistance to IDPs in Africa, provides comprehensive guidance on the rights based approaches for meeting the socioeconomic rights of women and girls. The Model Law contains standards that are reflective of regional good practice and human rights norms to give effect to the Kampala Convention. It locates the primary duty and responsibility of preventing internal displacement, protecting and assisting IDPs and creating conditions conducive to durable solutions in the state. It provides for priority access and specific protection and assistance activities that take into account specific circumstances and needs of marginalized/vulnerable including women and communities with special attachment to land, and single- headed household and the elderly. 317 The National Unity and Reconciliation Commission ‘The Role of Women in Reconciliation and Peace Building in Rwanda: Ten Years After Genocide 1994-2004 318 Abu Sheriff ‘Reintegration of female War-affected and ex-combatants in Liberia’ National Commission on Disarmament, Demobilisation, Rehabilitation and Reintegration, Liberia 319 Ibid 320 ibid 102