Legal Empowerment for the Poor

The two pilot countries identified for CEERD's Legal Services work are

• Indonesia,
• Kenya, and
• Sierra Leone.

The pilots will comprise carrying out

• a diagnostic study on local legal services for the poor;
• organization of a national symposium on legal services for the poor;
• organization of study tours for providers of legal aid; and
• internships for senior staff/leaders of local legal services NGOs at leading legal services organizations highly skilled in "impact work" (group work and systemic reforms).

Indonesia: CEERD is providing multi-pronged support to the Indonesia country program. Based on global symposia on community radio development and legal services for the poor in FY03, CEERD is now working with the KDP, UPP, SCRAP, and decentralization teams on diagnostic studies, and will support networking, study tours and internships to improve community radio stations' programming, and help legal services organizations to be effective in representing poor groups and organizations, to beat back administrative barriers and solve other problems, and to advocate for specific legal/regulatory reforms on behalf of poor constituencies.

Linked to this assistance, CEERD is sponsoring background analyses and a symposium on civic engagement in local governance, with a broad range of Indonesian stakeholders, to introduce them to a broad conceptual framework and global practices, and support development of a community of practice for south-south learning and shared advice, to inform and support prototyping and expansion of reforms in Indonesia.

Kenya and Sierra Leone: The CEERD Program of WBIGK, in close collaboration with LEGLR, will be providing assistance to develop the capacity of existing community-based legal services organizations (LSO) in Kenya and Sierra Leone, including community advocates in order to help poor communities and groups to overcome administrative obstacles, assert their rights, solve problems, advocate effectively for systemic reforms (legislative, regulatory, administrative), to support south-south learning to increase LSOs capacities, to support communities of practice and to clarify how the World bank can integrate support for support legal services into a more sustainable approach to community-driven development, that focuses in part on community based legal service delivery, and capacity building of poor peoples' organizations.

The main activities are:

• Capacity building for legal services organizations catering to low-income people
• A national planning workshop on legal services for the poor, with a spectrum of community based LSOs
• Internships for LSO senior staff/leaders at leading LSOs in other countries
• Knowledge sharing to share experience and advice between networks of LSOs in developing countries
• Technical advice from LSOs on how to structure follow-up support from development agencies; integration of support to/through LSOs into CDD and sector lending, and country capacity enhancement strategies to support empowerment of poor constituencies and to promote social inclusion.

The direct beneficiaries of the program are the LSOs and the communities they assist. Kenya will be one of four countries in which this activity is being launched (Kenya, Sierra Leone, Ecuador, Indonesia) and will participate in an international community of practice for south-south learning, mutual aid and problem-solving.