Justice for the Poor (J4P) is an attempt by the World Bank to grapple with some of the theoretical and practical challenges of promoting justice sector reform in a number of countries in Africa (Kenya and Sierra Leone) and East Asia (Indonesia and Cambodia). J4P reflects an understanding of the need for demand-oriented, community-driven approach to justice and governance reform, which values the perspectives of the users, particularly the poor and marginalized such as women, youth and ethnic minorities.
J4P recognises that a large percentage of the community live under non-state or customary justice systems that are complex, numerous, and idiosyncratic. Such rules systems are deeply constituent elements of cultural norms and social structures, and, being unwritten, are extremely difficult for outsiders (national or international) to fully comprehend. Concepts of justice are closely intertwined with, and are embedded in, the social, economic, and political structures of a given society. Any attempt at pro-poor justice reform, therefore, needs to commence with a detailed understanding of these structures and processes (both formal and informal) whereby the poor achieve or are denied justice. Further, J4P does not focus on trying to externally engineer greater “compatibility” between state and non-state systems, but rather on creating new mediating institutions wherein actors from both realms can meet—following simple, transparent, mutually agreed-upon, legitimate, and accountable rules—to craft new arrangements that both sides can own and enforce. That is, J4P focuses more on the process of reform than on a premeditated end-state.
J4P also reflects an understanding that law and justice cut across all sections of socio-political and economic life, and that the ‘rules of the game’ in any given context have a direct impact on the effectiveness of different development interventions. Further, given that reform processes are often about ‘changing the rules’ or the distribution of resources, they are also inherently conflict ridden. Experience suggests that where development initiatives have built-in mechanisms for managing disputes, they can improve the effectiveness of projects and reduce the likelihood of conflict arising. Such mechanisms address the legal or justice-related elements of the development process by providing outlets for and tools to communities to resolve disputes which impact on access to resources and, by extension, standard of living. J4P therefore operates alongside or within broader development interventions to make development processes themselves more equitable and inclusive, and to provide tools for the management of conflict associated with such processes.
The J4P program is being implemented as a collaborative effort between the Legal Vice Presidency, Development Research Group, Social Development, Public Sector Governance and the World Bank Institute of the World Bank. Creating a joint agenda enhances the range of expertise that can be brought to the program, and enables a cross-disciplinary and cross-sectoral approach to justice reform.
Background
It is now widely accepted that justice institutions are crucial for good governance and sustainable development, as underlined by the World Development Report 2006. Justice institutions play a key role in the distribution of power and rights. They also underpin the forms and functions of other institutions that deliver public services and regulate access to resources. Clear, equitable rules and processes can facilitate effective and peaceful transitional change, and can create the enabling conditions for a functioning social and economic net by challenging inequitable practices. At the same time, there is still limited understanding of how equitable justice systems emerge, and thus how they can be supported or promoted. While recent experience in promoting legal and judicial reform has generated some partial successes and lessons learnt, there is a growing understanding of the limitations of existing approaches.
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