Vivek Maru, Counsel, Justice Reform Group; Gibrill Jalloh, Program Officer; Lyttleton Braima, Program Officer; Ryann Manning, Adviser and former Coordinator; Kate Rogers, former Coordinator.
Publishing and disseminating the findings of “Justice for the Poor and Understanding Processes of Change in Local Governance,” a two-year qualitative research study on justice and governance systems at the local level. This research produced three papers, all authored by Ryann Manning: one on the relationship between local councils and traditional authorities, the second on dynamics of power between youth and their elders, and the third on false development promises.
Social accountability for basic services. Justice for the Poor is taking lead responsibility for the social accountability component of the $20 million Decentralized Services Project, which will fund local councils in Sierra Leone to provide health, education, and water.
Community-level accountability in the mining industry. We conducted several months of research on this topic, which led to a study on the law and practice of mining-community interactions. We are presently piloting practical interventions aimed at 1) improving the flow of information between communities and companies, including the contents of mining law and company obligations, and 2) strengthening civil society’s capacity to monitor companies’ compliance.
Evaluating paralegal work and advising on the development of a national approach to justice services. Timap for Justice [make this a link to timap’s website] is a grassroots effort to provide justice services. Timap employs a frontline of community paralegals who engage in advocacy, organizing, mediation, and education and who are supervised and supported by public interest lawyers. Justice for the Poor conducted a qualitative evaluation of Timap which is near publication.
Timap is partnering this year with Open Society Institute and the Government of Sierra Leone to develop a national approach to justice services based on Timap’s methodology. OSI has asked the Justice for the Poor program to provide technical assistance to this process, which will include establishing a training institute to equip other organizations to provide justice services, working with government to develop recognizing legislation, and developing a rigorous monitoring and evaluation mechanism. Justice for the Poor’s involvement in these efforts will be part of a cross-country ESW on paralegals supported by BNPP.
Contributing to the development of the Bank’s Country Assistance Strategy. Justice for the Poor is contributing to the World Bank- African Development Bank Joint Assistance Strategy, which will guide the efforts of both institutions over the next five years.
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