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What Do We Know About Legal Empowerment? Mapping the Evidence

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What Do We Know About Legal Empowerment? Mapping the Evidence Working Paper Working Paper May 2014 What do we know about legal empowerment? Mapping the Evidence Laura Goodwin and Vivek Maru namati.org Working Paper Namati 1824 Jefferson Place NW Washington, D.C. 20036 USA +1 202 888-1086 [email protected] Working Paper May 2014 What do we know about legal empowerment? Mapping the Evidence Laura Goodwin and Vivek Maru, May 2014 namati.org Working Paper Contents Executive Summary 4 Introduction 8 Executive Summary Methodology 9 Definitions and Scope 9 Research Steps 10 The UN estimates that 4 billion people live outside the 1 Coding and Analysis 12 protection of the law. For these people the law is an abstraction, or a threat, but not something to use in Snapshots of the Evidence 14 exercising basic rights. Regional Distribution 14 Evaluation Methods 15 “Legal empowerment” is about reversing that trend: about giving people the power to understand and use Limits on Analysis 17 the law. However, despite many examples of success, Legal Empowerment Approaches 18 there is no comprehensive understanding of what legal Impacts 24 empowerment programs can and have achieved. Expanding Agency 24 We review here all available evidence on civil society- Legal Knowledge 25 led legal empowerment efforts. To our knowledge this Obtaining Remedies 26 is the first review of its kind. Case/Dispute Resolution 26 There is substantial evidence available on the impact of Development Outcomes 27 legal empowerment interventions. This review analyzes Influencing Institutions 31 199 studies that address the results of a wide range of Negative and Null Impacts 34 legal empowerment work, such as women textile workers learning to advocate for better labor Issues 35 conditions in Honduras, paralegals improving fairness Engaging Institutions 37 through mediation in Liberia, and citizens using Regime Type 39 scorecards to improve local health services in India. The studies cover interventions on every major Scale 41 continent, with Asia the most represented region, and Conclusions and Recommendations draw data from evaluation methods including for Further Research 42 randomized control trials, surveys, interviews, and Gaps in the Existing Evidence 42 qualitative case studies. Questions for Further Inquiry 43 The breadth and richness of this body of work suggest we should revisit previous perceptions that there is little References 46 evidence on what legal empowerment can achieve. The studies collected here not only provide a basis for Appendix 1: Coding Guide 50 understanding the accomplishments of prior work, but can inform the design of future programs and research Appendix 2: List of Experts Interviewed 53 initiatives. Appendix 3: List of Evidence Included in Analysis 54 In order to conduct analysis on such a large pool of evidence, we followed a qualitative coding methodology to map the evidence base and identify trends and research gaps. 4 Strategies The existing evidence base shows that legal empowerment strategies have been successful in Legal literacy is the most common approach covered by improving health, strengthening education, and the evidence in this review. Most interventions combine increasing income. Ten studies reported improvements multiple strategies, such as providing legal literacy in health indicators as a result of legal empowerment training alongside mediation services, or training interventions. In one well-known study in Uganda, people to file right to information (RTI) requests and community monitoring led to dramatic increases in clinic utilization rates and a 33 percent drop in child then engage in advocacy based on the results. Many 4 interventions incorporate legal empowerment mortality in villages targeted by the program. Seven approaches into the delivery of other basic services. A evaluations showed connections between the program program in Bangladesh, for example, trained health under study and education outcomes, often measured workers and teachers to assist families in obtaining by improved test scores or a lower percentage of legal identity documents.2 These programs show how students failing annual exams. The most common legal empowerment can be integrated into broader approaches in these programs were community development efforts. scorecards and legal literacy. In addition to demonstrated benefits to people’s lives and development outcomes, legal empowerment interventions have also brought about change within Impacts governments and other institutions. Of all effects on institutions, the impacts of the interventions studied The evidence shows legal empowerment programs have tended to be concentrated in local level changes in created a range of positive impacts, from increases in practice, which was reported in 59 studies. Overall, legal knowledge and resolved conflicts to improved there are more impacts on the implementation of law health outcomes and institutional change. In total, 191 than on the law itself. studies addressed impacts on “citizens and consciousness,” by which we mean changes that More than half of institutional change relates to the affected individuals and communities. Of these, nearly issue of accountability for basic services. Most of these all identified at least one positive change. A smaller but changes were related to implementation – with 32 still substantial number – 111 studies – examined interventions affecting local practice and 13 impacts on institutions. Of these, 89 reported that the interventions influencing provincial level practice. intervention had a positive effect on institutional policy There is also a trend in the type of institutions engaged and/or practice. by these programs – the majority interacted directly with service delivery agencies. The changes in local The most frequent changes the studies of legal practice are mostly improvements in the operations of empowerment programs report are increases in the schools, health clinics, and other public entities agency of participants – both willingness to act and through better attendance, effort, and accountability of actual action – as well as enhanced legal knowledge. individual teachers, nurses, and officials. Programs with an advocacy component were the most likely to produce changes to agency. An important frontier for the legal empowerment movement going forward is translating the lessons of The next most common type of impact represented in grassroots efforts into large-scale policy change. The this evidence is the successful acquisition of a remedy, existing studies show that such change is possible, but entitlement, or information. A Mexican organization there is a great deal more to learn about the assisted prisoners to file information requests on their programmatic and contextual factors that determine behavior records, as good conduct could lead to early 3 whether a particular attempt succeeds. In addition to release in certain cases. The prisoners’ efforts not only interviews with relevant authorities to understand the led to the release of their personal files, but more than factors that influenced their decisions, historical inquiry 40 percent of requesters were able to use that and longitudinal studies may be needed to build more information to achieve early release from prison in evidence on what causes governments to change over accordance with the law. the long-term. What do we know about legal empowerment? Mapping the Evidence 5 Working Paper We discovered very few instances of negative impact. Conclusions and Recommendations for Further Ninety-seven percent of the studies reported at least Research one positive change. In contrast, merely nine studies (4.5 percent) identified any negative change that Substantial evidence exists on the impact of legal occurred during the course of the intervention. A larger empowerment efforts around the globe. The evidence number – 49 studies, 25 percent of the total evidence – shows legal empowerment has led to a range of sought to measure a certain type of impact, but in the changes: increases in legal knowledge and community end found no change. Most of these studies reported participation, the resolution of disputes, improvements that the legal empowerment interventions had positive in health outcomes, and changes in institutional policy impacts in other areas. More research on negative and practice. impacts will help to determine the factors that may facilitate or obstruct change. Despite this wealth of information, there are still gaps in our understanding of legal empowerment strategies. New research would be useful to fill these gaps. Unlike some scientific research, we do not imagine that we Other Trends in the Evidence will ever arrive at a definitive answer to a question like “which legal empowerment strategy is most effective Of all the interventions in this review, administrative in repressive regimes?” We recognize that all legal agencies were the type of institution most often engaged empowerment interventions are unique to some extent in the process of resolving justice problems. – interacting with the particularities of any given context. But more information about experiences In total, 90 interventions engaged with at least one across borders and approaches will benefit administrative body. The most common strategies practitioners grappling with their own specific used when engaging with administrative agencies were challenges. right to information laws, advocacy, participation in governance, and legal literacy. Almost all paralegal or While some evidence exists on these aspects of legal citizen advice bureau
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