LESSON
Lesson Learned: Judicial Reform: empowering magistrate-civil society collaboration for Guinea’s new democratic future
The project facilitated dialogue between civil society, magistrates and auxiliaries of justice in Guinea as a way for civil society to participate in the process of reform of the judiciary as well as to help de-escalate social conflicts before their radicalisation. The idea to establish a joint civil society-judiciary platform as an instrument for this collaboration was ground-breaking and proved to be a very effective one.
Project Name
Project Partner
The BEFORE Project in Guinea
Project Description
The project aimed to contribute to the judiciary reform process in Guinea through establishing a new social contract on justice linking CSOs, magistrates and auxiliaries of justice. Strategically, the project was based on two outcome components, to support increased capacity for advocacy, monitoring and judicial oversight, and enhanced capacity for dialogue and collaboration between civil society and the judiciary on ways to improve the judicial system in order for it to become more responsive to the needs of civil society. This strategic approach appropriate for the limited scope of the project; its key points of strength were the acknowledgement that training was a first step before the setting up a platform for dialogue and the inclusion of a mini-grant scheme. The project was ambitious but realistic. However, the methodology did not include a mechanism to replicate project experiences beyond the target areas of Conakry and Kankan - the most important judicial districts in Guinea - once the project ended.
Report
Evaluation Date
August 2014
Country