Community-based paralegals continue to receive attention as a possibly promising method for bolstering the power of citizens as social and legal agents and as bearers of rights and responsibilities. Definitions vary, but roughly a community-based paralegal is a person trained in law and the workings of government who employs tools like education, mediation, advocacy, and organizing to address instances of injustice. Paralegals deal with intra-community disputes as well as problems and abuses that arise between citizens and traditional authorities, between citizens and state institutions, and between citizens and private firms. There are a multitude of arguments levied in favor of the paralegal approach including cost effectiveness, flexibility, capacity to straddle plural legal systems, and empowerment. The J4P program engages with community paralegal programs through: - Supporting innovative programming: The Indonesia program has supported and studied paralegal work for several years, and presently does so under the Revitalization of Legal Aid pilot program and under the mediation and community legal empowerment component of the Support for Poor and Disadvantaged Areas Project (SPADA). The Government of Indonesia’s National Strategy on Access to Justice identifies the important role paralegals can play in justice issues and the J4P program, in collaboration with other donors, is supporting a paralegal working group. J4P programs in Sierra Leone and Nigeria are working to support and evaluate paralegal programs aimed at promoting accountability in the health sector. Previously, in Sierra Leone, the J4P team partnered with the Open Society Justice Initiative, the Government of Sierra Leone, and Timap for Justice, a Sierra Leonean community-based paralegal program founded in 2004, to develop a national approach to justice services.
- Expanding the evidence base: J4P teams have conducted mixed-method studies of paralegal programs in Indonesia, Sierra Leone, Kenya, South Africa, and the Philippines to better understand the impact of existing community based paralegal programs and to provide insight into the policy questions raised by the paralegal approach. Analysis of this work is ongoing and findings are forthcoming.
- Promoting knowledge sharing: The J4P program is collaborating with the legal empowerment NGO, Namati, to form a network to connect paralegal programs and to provide a platform for sharing resources including monitoring and evaluation tools, paralegal instruction materials, case management systems, advocacy strategy, and others. Please visit Namati.org for more information.
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