Justice Initiatives A publication of the Open Society Justice Initiative, Autumn 2013 Contents Foreword Legal Empowerment, Justice, 1 and Development Legal Empowerment George Soros Preface Four billion people around the world live without the Why Support Legal Empowerment 3 Justine Greening MP protections of the law, vulnerable to exploitation and Introduction violence, and often mired in poverty. Legal empowerment Legal Empowerment’s Approaches 5 has the potential to change this: to reduce poverty, further and Importance the rule of law, and help people realize their rights. This Stephen Golub issue of Justice Initiatives looks at the promise and the Case Studies practice of legal empowerment. It is published in support “You Place the Old Mat with the 15 of the Global Legal Empowerment Initiative, a platform New Mat”: Legal Empowerment, Equitable Dispute Resolution, and for interested donors and practitioners to build the fi eld Social Cohesion in Post-Confl ict of legal empowerment. Peter Chapman and Chelsea Payne Within and Around the Law: 30 Paralegals and Legal Empowerment in Indonesia FOREWORD Ward Berenschot and Taufi k Rinaldi Legal Empowerment for the 42 Legal Empowerment, Protection of Community Land Rights: Findings from the Community Land Titling Initiative, 2009–11 Justice, and Development Rachael Knight George Soros Legal Empowerment and the 59 Administrative State: A Map of the This edition of Justice Initiatives provides insights into legal Landscape, and Three Emerging Insights empowerment, which is the process of increasing the capacity Vivek Maru and Abigail Moy of ordinary people to exercise their human and civil rights as The Legal Empowerment for 75 individuals or as members of a community. Women and Disadvantaged Groups This process is crucial for people who are deeply impover- Program: Innovations in Project ished or belong to marginalized communities. Today too many Design, Monitoring, and Evaluation Debra Ladner and Kim McQuay people enjoy none of the benefi ts of the rule of law. They live Transparency International’s 88 in countries or regions where there are no functioning, un- Advocacy and Legal Advice Centres: corrupted court systems or law enforcement agencies. When Citizen Empowerment against they fi nd themselves under arrest, often arbitrarily, they do not Corruption Conrad Zellmann enjoy the benefi t of defense counsel. When they are cheated by an employer or have had their land seized by government-con- Legal Aid Approaches in South 98 Africa and their Impact on Poverty nected thugs, they cannot seek redress through a civil suit or Reduction and Service Delivery criminal proceeding. When they have suffered acts of criminal David McQuoid-Mason violence, they cannot turn to the police with any confi dence of Sustaining the Process of Legal fi nding help. Millions of such people have no birth certifi cates Empowerment 112 or national identifi cation cards, the documents required to ob- Robin Nielsen tain health-care benefi ts, to exercise the right to vote, to obtain identifi cation documents for their children, or to hold title to land and secure their rightful inheritance. Legal Empowerment

How can developmental aid and foreign The campaign has not achieved its ma- investment benefi t deeply impoverished jor targets, and its benefi ts have not been people in places where they do not enjoy the spread evenly across the developing coun- rule of law or have access to judicial insti- tries. But it has nevertheless become the tutions or law enforcement agencies? How most successful global anti-poverty effort can the sanctity of even the crudest contract in history. The percentage of people in the exist under such conditions? The answers world surviving on less than the equiva- to these questions are obvious. Without ac- lent of $1 per day in 2010, for example, was cess to justice, extreme poverty cannot be about half of the percentage in 1990. More conquered for these billions of people. girls are attending school. Fewer women So can legal empowerment programs are dying in childbirth. More than two bil- backed by external fi nancial and technical lion people have improved access to potable support succeed in securing access to justice water. for ordinary people? This book presents di- These successes strongly suggest that ex- verse accounts of how programs to promote treme poverty—once thought to be ineradi- legal empowerment have had a positive im- cable—can be reduced even further with the pact on impoverished communities both in adoption of a new and better set of develop- terms of human rights and on economic ment goals and with persistent and better development. In , local people are tak- coordinated work toward achieving them. ing the lead in monitoring compliance with In the autumn of 2013, the United environmental laws. In post-confl ict Liberia Nations General Assembly will open a two- and South Africa, civil society and govern- year debate on the set of shared develop- ment programs provide free legal advice to ment objectives to replace the Millennium help poor mothers secure child support and Development Goals for the period from access the state education system. In vari- 2015 to 2030. In preparation for this debate, ous countries, paralegals are helping people the Secretary-General’s High Level Panel of overcome corruption in order to secure gov- Eminent Persons drew up a set of recom- ernment entitlements. mendations for a new shared development This news could not have come at a bet- framework, which will guide development ter time. Almost a decade and a half ago, aid. These recommendations affi rmed that the United Nations, its member-states, and justice, human rights, and the rule of law international and civil society organizations must be at the center of the international launched a campaign to eliminate extreme community’s efforts to eradicate extreme poverty around the world by the year 2015. poverty. The United Nations unanimously adopted Legal empowerment programs can be a set of eight specifi c goals, the Millennium effective. This is a message the leaders of Development Goals, to provide this cam- the member-states of the General Assembly paign with clear direction as well as bench- need to hear. marks to measure its progress in efforts to increase access to food and potable water, George Soros provide primary education for all children, Founder and Chairman and improve maternal health. of the Open Society Foundations

2 Open Society Preface

PREFACE Why Support Legal Empowerment

Justine Greening MP*, UK Secretary of State for International Development

It is my pleasure to help introduce Justice reduce poverty and vulnerability by helping Initiatives: Legal Empowerment. poor people use laws and rights to gain Many of us take for granted the fact that greater control over their own lives. we can participate in politics, hold govern- The UK Government’s approach to legal ment to account, and prote ct our property. empowerment is to tackle the everyday ob- But up to four billion people around the stacles facing poor people across the world. world don’t have these basic rights and free- In , we are helping to develop doms. They lack one of the key building a network of paralegals and community blocks they need to build a safe, secure, and mediators. These are ordinary people based prosperous future. in the community, who are given a basic Legal empowerment helps tackle the schooling in the law and confl ict resolution. causes of poverty, not just its symptoms. They, in turn, help others understand their It is central to what David Cameron calls rights, resolve potentially violent disputes, “the golden thread” of conditions that and address both individual and commu- all successful economies around the world nity-wide problems. This work has a partic- share: the rule of law, the absence of confl ict ular focus on addressing violence against and corruption, and the presence of property women and girls. rights and strong institutions. Legal empow- In , the UK’s investment in erment can help people take control of their community legal services between 2003 own destiny and build a future free from and 2009 helped poor people (80 percent poverty. of them women) resolve disputes over It gives citizens the tools to push for law land, inheritance and dowries, and secure reform, address grievances without recourse or recover assets estimated at £1.5 million. to violence, protect women and girls, and Through our support for the Global Legal seize opportunities to drive economic Empowerment Initiative, the UK is helping growth. It can also result in improved to pilot a greater range of options, share les- delivery of basic services: when citizens are sons, and identify solutions that represent aware of their rights to health and education real value for money. services, they are more likely to access them. Around the world, governments are be- Legal empowerment approaches engage the ginning to recognize the potential of legal full range of leadership in society, from empowerment to deliver justice, promote governments to traditional village leaders, economic growth, and encourage long-term helping them to promote and adopt positive social change. It is my aspiration that others changes. will join Britain in supporting the kind of This volume demonstrates the diverse work taking place in this exciting, evolving ways in which legal empowerment can fi eld.

Justice Initiative 3 Legal Empowerment

Note * The Rt. Hon. Justine Greening MP is the Secretary of State for International Development at the UK’s Depart- ment for International Development. She is the Conservative MP for Putney, Roehampton, and Southfields.

4 Open Society Introduction

INTRODUCTION Legal Empowerment’s Approaches and Importance

Stephen Golub* sketches an overview of populations’ control over their lives. To legal empowerment as a concept and draws sketch what each of these component terms lessons from its practice. means: “Rights” includes international human Around the world, nearly four billion people rights standards, but in legal empower- live without any legal protection, left with- ment work more typically involves peo- out recourse for the injustices they face dai- ple’s entitlements declared or implied by ly. Denied access to legal advice or courts, national or local legislation, regulations, often plagued by poverty and discrimina- administrative rules, or court decisions. tion, they have no means to exercise their rights. Legal empowerment has the poten- “Laws” includes those adopted by legis- tial to change this—to realize, for these four latures, but also includes administrative billion people, the promise of the rule of law. regulations and processes as well as tra- This volume addresses two key ques- ditional justice systems. tions: How does legal empowerment oper- “Specifi cally” conveys legal empower- ate, and why is legal empowerment import- ment’s emphasis on rights, laws, ser- ant? The chapters that follow address these vices, advocacy, and processes that focus questions in different ways and to different directly on benefi ting the disadvantaged degrees. But taken together, they paint an (improving their control over land or insightful portrait of an evolving, expanding protecting them against physical abuse, fi eld. for instance) as opposed to reforms that This introduction provides a brief over- may do so indirectly (such as strengthen- view of the concept of legal empowerment. ing judicial administration or business It then summarizes and comments on key investment rules). elements of the subsequent papers. It con- cludes by drawing together some common “Disadvantaged populations” mainly themes and lessons running through the comprise the poor, but also include wom- volume. en, minorities, and other groups suffer- ing abuse, discrimination, persecution, A Brief Overview of the Concept or repression. Various experts—including those represent- “Increase…control over their lives” in- ed in this book—defi ne legal empowerment cludes elevating or protecting people’s in varying ways. However, these experts income and assets, but also involves such would likely agree that legal empowerment attributes as strengthening their phys- can be characterized as the use of rights and ical security; effective access to health, laws specifi cally to increase disadvantaged education, and other services; input into

Justice Initiative 5 Legal Empowerment

family, community, and governmental regarding their rights. They constitute a decision-making; and building their ca- growing, cost-effective justice mechanism pacities and power to pursue these goals in many countries. on their own. Launched in 2007 by the - based Carter Center in partnership with the Much of legal empowerment refl ects Catholic Justice and Peace Commission (Li- Nobel-winning economist Amartya Sen’s beria’s leading human rights organization), notion of “development as freedom.” It in- the Community Justice Advisor program volves increasing people’s freedom to im- (CJA) addresses issues that Liberian govern- prove and live their lives, unburdened by ment institutions handle poorly if at all, not unjust constraints. least the lack of accountability and respon- The concept is partly defi ned by having siveness by those very institutions. For ex- a legal element. Thus, where there is a le- ample, CJA paralegals successfully pressed gal dimension in, say, women’s or economic a corrupt magistrate to return funds he stole empowerment, it is one and the same as le- from a plaintiff. They similarly persuaded gal empowerment. But as this volume illus- a prosecutor to arrest and secure the con- trates, often it is power even more than law viction of a dangerous criminal who had that is the key component of legal empow- brutalized a woman. The organization has erment. proven instrumental in helping clients ob- Legal empowerment is both a process and tain enforcement of a 2003 law that granted a goal. The process involves the disadvan- women inheritance rights; otherwise, like taged (and/or their allies) seeking to increase so much legislation in Liberia and else- their control over their lives. Achieving such where, to a great extent this law would not enhanced control constitutes the goal. be implemented. Initiatives such as CJA help reduce the injustice that can fuel insta- bility and frustrate development Chapter Summaries The authors illuminate other ways in In “‘You Place the Old Mat with the New which CJA and like-minded efforts else- Mat’: Legal Empowerment, Equitable Dis- where help ameliorate the impetus for pute Resolution and Social Cohesion in renewed war in Liberia and new confl ict Post-Confl ict Liberia,” Peter Chapman and elsewhere. They describe, for example, in- Chelsea Payne describe how a communi- stances of CJA engagement that prevent ty-based paralegal initiative carried out by ethnic and other hostilities in communities. international and national nongovernmen- They assert that administrative law process- tal organizations (NGOs) serves manifold es that paralegals handle—including those justice needs in a post-confl ict society. In tainted by corrupt offi cials’ conduct—af- the development context, paralegals are fect more people than do criminal justice nonlawyers, sometimes from the very matters that international aid has tended communities they serve and often trained to prioritize in Liberia. And they note the by nongovernmental organizations, who elite-oriented nature of the country’s legal employ their legal knowledge to educate, profession, which often ignores or acts to advise, represent, or otherwise assist people the detriment of the poor.

6 Open Society Introduction

More generally, Chapman and Payne aid, however. As implied by the chapter’s ti- make the case for CJA and other civil society tle, paralegals can work within and around legal empowerment initiatives in Liberia to the law by using a combination of legal serve as both a complement and alternative skills, political acumen, and community to the predominant “top-down” approach mobilization. A key feature of the article is to justice issues taken by a post-confl ict how it plumbs the complex depths of the United Nations international assistance society in which the paralegals work, where mission and other donors in that country. police pay their superiors in order to be in That approach has emphasized building position to engage in graft, where far more courthouses, judicial offi cials’ capacities, people trust informal systems than the judi- and other state institutional capabilities. ciary to do justice, and where a combination In contrast, the authors point to empirical of ignorance and powerlessness can deprive studies demonstrating that most Liberians the poor of their land and livelihoods. pursue justice though community-based, The authors explore the contours of traditional, or hybrid justice forums and these conditions via an ethnographic study that Liberians see these forums as more af- (backed by more quantitative research) fordable, accessible, comprehensible, hon- largely concerning how a corrupt local est, and transparent than state institutions. leader and other offi cials capitalized on le- But the authors do not denigrate aid to state gal ambiguities and farmers’ lack of legal institutions; rather, they stress greater rela- knowledge to extract payments from them. tive attention to the many everyday ways in The payments enabled the farmers to tem- which paralegals can advance justice and porarily stay on their land, even though the preserve social stability by working with old- corrupt individuals still threatened to expel er structures rooted in the society. Hence, them from it. Two paralegals in particular they favor a more balanced focus on both helped halt these practices and even got types of work, placing “the old mat with the the leader jailed. But nearly a decade down new mat.” the line in this saga, the community’s land Ward Berenschot’s and Taufi k Rinaldi’s tenure remains tenuous. The authors fur- “Within and Around the Law: Paralegals ther note, however, that the World Bank and and Legal Empowerment in Indonesia” U.N. Development Programme projects that complements the Liberia paper by pre- promoted and studied Indonesian paralegal senting a granular case study of paralegals development were too short in duration to spearheading a rural community’s struggle insure effective engagement with and ser- to retain its land in the face of corrupt, pow- vices for many communities they aimed to erful opposition. In the process, the chapter benefi t. illuminates numerous important features Most of all, however, Berenschot and of legal empowerment. Rinaldi come down in favor of recognizing Though paralegals have a relatively limit- the inevitably political nature of much para- ed presence in Indonesia, a landmark legal legal work (and by extension legal empow- aid law adopted in late 2011 included provi- erment) in addressing power disparities in sions for strengthening and expanding their many instances of injustice. They accord- roles. Those roles can reach far beyond legal ingly suggest that, in addition to legal train-

Justice Initiative 7 Legal Empowerment

ing, paralegal programs should often seek the communities (and in which paralegals to develop such skills as negotiating with were not active). politicians and government offi cials, com- Among its many fi ndings, the study con- munity organizing, and use of media. cluded that the full-service communities Approaching paralegals from a differ- performed worse than the paralegal-assisted ent programmatic angle, Rachael Knight groups across a range of indicators. These reaches similarly supportive conclusions results must be viewed very cautiously. Still, as the two preceding sets of authors. Her Knight hypothesizes that communities that “Legal Empowerment for the Protection of developed the capacities and responsibility Community Land Rights: Findings from to take on key tasks on their own according- the Community Land Titling Initiative, ly took on more ownership over completing 2009–2011” discusses the fi ndings of a the processes involved and overcoming ob- three-country study of pilot projects imple- stacles. She tentatively concludes that the mented by the Rome-based International most empowering model of service provi- Development Law Organization in cooper- sion for land documentation may be to train ation with NGOs in three African nations. and assist communities themselves to do as Knight notes the realities of African gov- much as they can, with attorneys and other ernments granting huge land concessions professionals stepping in when legal, tech- to foreign investors and the very weak im- nical, or political obstacles stymie the com- plementation of laws designed to protect munities’ efforts. citizens’ land rights and concomitant live- In “Legal Empowerment and Public Ad- lihoods, social systems, and cultures. She ministration: A Map of the Landscape, and argues that against this backdrop, it is es- Three Emerging Insights,” Vivek Maru and sential to document communities’ custom- Abigail Moy carve out an important part of ary land claims in a widespread, proactive the legal empowerment pie for analysis. manner. Echoing elements of an argument by Chap- With that goal in mind, the study em- man and Payne concerning Liberia, Maru ployed randomized control trials, focus and Moy make a strong case that many peo- groups, and observation of community ple with legal problems are more likely to discussions to compare populations that fi nd redress through administrative agen- received four different levels of assistance cies, offi cials, and regulations than they are from the NGOs in documenting their land through the courts. claims: “control communities,” which re- As part of this case, the authors point ceived only basic, written legal information; out that administrative mechanisms can be “education-only communities,” which also crucial for an HIV-positive South African received monthly training; “paralegal-assist- woman denied disability benefi ts (and her ed communities,” which were further aided daughter who then misses school to care by community-based paralegals, with some for her ill mother and siblings), an impov- back-up from legal and technical profes- erished Buenos Aires community initiating sionals; and “full-service communities,” in action to be connected to the city’s water which those professionals carried out more supply, and Filipino farmers fi ghting evic- comprehensive documentation services for tion from their land by defending their cer-

8 Open Society Introduction

tifi cates of ownership before a quasi-judi- by the Asia Foundation and partner NGOs cial agrarian reform board. More likely than for the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in not, in these and many similar cases people three Asian countries. These initiatives ex- turn to such administrative processes rath- amined the experimental inclusion of legal er than the courts in order to seek redress. empowerment elements in three major so- This is because such processes have legal cioeconomic projects funded by ADB loans. jurisdiction over such issues and they may The pilots involved strengthening citizen be easier to work through. awareness of and citizen committees’ in- The authors go on from there to argue put into services regarding water manage- for an increased focus on three adminis- ment in Bangladesh, urban infrastructure trative mechanisms that can make a sig- in Indonesia, and health care in Pakistan. nifi cant difference in people’s lives: clearly Of course, much legal empowerment work written and easily accessible statements of entails integration (often spearheaded by administrative regulations, paralegals who NGOs) of legal and socioeconomic activi- can help their fellow citizens understand ties. The foundation’s research, as refl ected and get the regulations implemented, and in its 2009 report that this chapter summa- feedback channels whereby citizens can air rizes, differs in its focus on such integration grievances not only to seek redress but to in the context of MFI loans. improve administrative rules and practices. The authors commendably acknowledge In the process, they show how legal empow- factors constraining the research. These erment can be one and the same with other included the short time frame (less than approaches to helping the disadvantaged a year) for the pilot components, when in become aware of and act on their rights: le- fact legal empowerment (like most develop- gal aid, social accountability, and delibera- ment work) is a long-term process. There tive governance. Throughout their analysis, also were various fl aws in the ADB projects Maru and Moy assert a fundamental fact that the legal empowerment components about legal empowerment, which is that it were integrated into. These ranged from represents a practical, problem-solving ap- the delayed construction of water-specifi c proach to integrating law and development infrastructure in Bangladesh (which in turn by focusing on the injustices the poor en- impinged on the pilot legal empowerment counter and engaging the institutions nec- work) to the virtual nonexistence of many essary to provide relevant services or relief. health monitoring committees essential to Debra Ladner and Kim McQuay docu- the legal empowerment component in Pa- ment the challenges of and lessons learned kistan. from integrating legal empowerment com- Nevertheless, a number of insights and ponents into large projects supported by a indications of impact emerge from the Lad- multilateral fi nancial institution (MFI) in ner-McQuay paper. The positive experience “The Legal Empowerment for Women and of partner NGOs carrying out the pilot com- Disadvantaged Groups Program: Innova- ponents confi rmed that while legal skills are tions in Project Design, Monitoring, and useful, it is important to be politically sav- Evaluation.” The chapter discusses mod- vy and not necessarily legalistic in eliciting est pilot projects and research conducted cooperation from government offi cials. The

Justice Initiative 9 Legal Empowerment

paper further notes how knowledge about dividual cases to educate sympathetic gov- matters ranging from nonformal education ernment offi cials about the severity of some to community organizing to livelihood de- problems; where such offi cials take corrup- velopment can be crucial in building legal tion seriously, such data can be persuasive. empowerment. Finally, the research found The centers also belong to coalitions that improvements in various kinds of knowl- press for institutional, policy, and legal re- edge, attitudes, confi dence, and beliefs forms, including greater transparency in about gender-equity as they pertained to the governmental operations and punishment ADB-funded projects and related matters, for corrupt offi cials. While not naïve about even given the limited duration of these ini- the obstacles it faces in many societies, TI tiatives. feels that a blend of statistics, pressure, and The governance aspect of legal empow- cooperation serves the ALACs best in get- erment is highlighted in “Transparency ting governments to take action. International’s Advocacy and Legal Advice The paper offers indications of impact Centres: Citizen Empowerment against benefi tting individuals or spurring reforms. Corruption,” by Conrad F. Zellmann. The The former include enabling a small busi- paper discusses the expanding work of the ness owner in Azerbaijan to open a shop ALACs, which were fi rst launched in three despite refusing to pay a bribe demanded nations in Southeastern Europe in 2003 by authorities; a similar case in Armenia, as simply toll-free hotlines. Now found in whereby market vendors successfully re- roughly 50 of the over 100 countries where fused to pay off corrupt tax offi cials; and Transparency International (TI) has inde- a community in Rwanda that prevailed pendent but affi liated national chapters, and against a dishonest (and eventually jailed) coordinated by those chapters, the centers cooperative president who had forged doc- have become considerably more sophisticat- uments to assert his ownership of a gold ed over the past decade. Well over 100,000 mine. The reforms include increased access people have contacted them in person, by to offi cial information in Croatia and the phone, via community outreach activities Czech Republic; steps against smuggling and, increasingly, online. along the Mexican-Guatemalan border that ALACs serve two main, entwined func- was harming legitimate local businesses; tions. First, their paralegals, attorneys, and action against traffi c offi cials’ bribe-taking other personnel provide advice and assis- in Ghana; and increased media and donor tance (though usually not representation) attention to large-scale abuses of property for witnesses, victims, and whistleblowers rights in Georgia. concerning corruption. Help from the cen- Focusing on a nation whose experience ters varies from place to place and issue to spans much of the legal empowerment issue, but can include referring people to spectrum, in “Legal Aid Approaches in South the appropriate government offi ces, oth- Africa and their Impact on Poverty Reduc- er civil society organizations, and even the tion and Service Delivery,” David McQuoid- media to report problems and seek redress. Mason illuminates the multi-faceted “how” On a more systemic level, ALACs employ and “why” of legal aid in his country—that the data fl owing from the compilation of in- is, the many ways in which it operates and

10 Open Society Introduction

the many benefi ts it yields. Reaching beyond other services. Public interest litigation by the narrow notion of legal aid as limited to other NGOs has yielded vital precedent-set- court assistance for criminal defendants, ting decisions regarding access to housing, McQuoid-Mason characterizes the concept water, social security, and health services. as involving a broad array of approaches For example, one crucial court decision en- pertaining to criminal and civil issues alike, sured the provision of antiretroviral drugs so that the concept is essentially equivalent to pregnant mothers and their babies, pre- to legal empowerment. venting HIV transmission and thus saving Supported by a combination of non-state thousands of lives, obviating other severe sources and a key government-funded or- suffering and reducing long-term health ganization, Legal Aid South Africa (LASA), care costs. these approaches include information dis- In “Sustaining the Process of Legal Em- semination, training, advice, representa- powerment,” Robin Nielsen nicely com- tion, law reform advocacy, and public inter- pletes this volume by offering insights on est litigation. These activities are carried out an issue that permeates international de- by: well over 100 LASA justice centers, pri- velopment, as well as on some important vate attorneys’ pro bono and state-compen- related matters. Consistent with the char- sated services, paralegals, university-based acterization of legal empowerment offered law clinics, recent law graduates working in this Introduction, her description of em- toward completing their professional cre- powerment in general may be summed up dentials, public interest law fi rms, commu- as involving both a process and an outcome nity-based organizations, public education that involves the capacity of an individual or programs, and national and local NGOs group to make effective choices so as to cre- (including those that train and employ para- ate desired results. She further illuminates legals, carry out public interest litigation, the concept by describing how the “process or blend legal aid with other development continually loops back on itself as empow- activities). While legal aid in South Africa is erment grows.” Thus, nearly 20 years ago far from fl awless—McQuoid-Mason notes, a Namibian NGO launched a program to for instance, how government agencies combat domestic violence, subsequently have frustrated funding of certain worth- helped draft and advocate for a 2003 law while initiatives—it nevertheless represents addressing this problem, and continues to one of the most comprehensive, integrated undertake multi-faceted work to get that law systems in the world. implemented. Many NGOs and civil society The benefi ts of these legal aid efforts are coalitions in many countries similarly effec- equally multi-faceted, as they advance pov- tuate such cycles. erty alleviation, government service delivery Nielsen goes on to address numerous and accountability, and implementation of other issues affecting the sustainability of constitutional and other rights. For instance, legal empowerment. She warns against over the past several years paralegal NGOs short-term monitoring and evaluation have secured several millions of (U.S.) dol- methodologies suited to very different de- lars of payments for government benefi ts velopment programs, in that these may due clients, as well as providing manifold fail to capture the complex dynamics and

Justice Initiative 11 Legal Empowerment

extended time frames necessary to sustain funding for such work. Nielsen also illumi- legal empowerment progress. At the same nates the fact that sometimes a key consid- time, she argues for additional research to eration is not sustainability of a legal em- build on the growing evidence of legal em- powerment initiative but of its impact—that powerment impact. Nielsen discusses how whether a given organization lasts for de- programs that integrate legal empower- cades can be less important than whether ment into broader development initiatives signifi cant numbers of people, policies, or can prove benefi cial and perhaps politically legal reforms benefi t from its operations. and fi nancially sustainable; she cites the ex- With these considerations in mind, she sug- ample of a Kenyan HIV/AIDS program that gests that donors accept the value of sus- initiated a legal clinic to help individuals tained support for national and global legal stricken by the disease to combat discrim- empowerment organizations and networks, ination, secure public assistance benefi ts, as well as the establishment of multi-donor and undertake succession planning in the basket funds to fund this work. event of their passing away. Nielsen also highlights: how context-specifi c informa- Themes and Lessons tion about context-specifi c problems people encounter is much more useful to them Paralegals. Perhaps the most prevalent than general information about rights and theme permeating this volume is the mani- laws; how building community monitoring fold functions and value of paralegals. This mechanisms into NGO and government book does not paint a complete picture of legal empowerment programs alike can the approaches to and impact of paralegal sustain the viability and accountability of work. Still, simply drawing on the chapters such initiatives; the greater effectiveness of here, their roles include being an integral collective action organized around common part of a national legal aid structure in South interests, as opposed to persons seeking Africa, conducting dispute resolution and individual relief; and the value of building protecting community rights in post-con- local capacity through paralegals and other fl ict Liberia, organizing and advocating for programs. farmers in Indonesia, and administrative Her analysis concludes by offering ob- justice and anti-corruption activism across servations and key recommendations re- the globe. They merit increased political and garding the effectiveness and fi nancial fi nancial support as a multi-faceted, cost-ef- sustainability of legal empowerment. She fective mechanism for making justice a re- highlights the value of development agen- ality in the lives of the disadvantaged. cies and other sources providing sustained core funding (covering salaries, offi ce rental,