Improving access to legal aid for women in western africa.

 This report presents the outcomes of the evaluation of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) project funded by United Nations Development Account (UNDA) on Improving Access to Legal Aid for Women in Western Africa (1819U). It aims to ensure accountability towards the project stakeholders, equip them with learning, and inform decision making about possible future comparable initiatives. 

PROJECT DESCRIPTION AND OBJECTIVES 

The project aimed to improve women's access to Legal Aid services in Liberia, Senegal, and Sierra Leone through three components:

 1. Legal aid normative framework (legislative, regulatory, policy, institutional);

 2. Legal aid provision; 

3. Empowerment of women to use legal aid.

 The project was funded by UNDA, with a total budget of 619,000 USD. It was implemented by UNODC Justice Section, with UN Women as an implementing partner, and several legal aid providers in the three countries as sub-grantees. Its stakeholders include UNODC and UN Women in cooperation with the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), UNDA (administered by United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA)) as the donor, legal aid providers, the judiciary and the Governments in these countries.

 PURPOSE, SCOPE AND METHODOLOGY OF EVALUATION 

The evaluation tested the theory of change of the project to analyse the relevance, coherence, effectiveness, impact, sustainability and efficiency of the project. It was conducted remotely by an evaluation expert and a legal aid expert, based on the review of over 40 documents, interviews and focus group discussions with 35 persons, and direct observation of online project-funded event






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Legal and Ethical challenges of Informing or misinformation, judicial decision-making through Generative AI.

Image
  AI at the Bench: Legal and Ethical Challenges of Informing – or Misinforming – Judicial Decision-Making Through Generative AI"  OVERVIEW: This paper provides a systematic review of existing AI regulations in Europe, the United States, and in Canada . Based on the analysis, the paper suggests that there are three main regulatory strategies for AI: AI-focused overhauls of existing regulation, the introduction of novel AI regulation, and the omnibus approach.
Read more

Focusing on the harmful and negative impact of imprisonment on women.

Image
  Women are the fastest growing prison population across the world . As further outlined in this toolkit, poverty, discrimination, violence and punitive legal responses are some of the key underlying causes behind the increase in female imprisonment. The harmful and negative impact of imprisonment on women, their families and communities has been widely documented . Since the adoption of the United Nations Rules on the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-custodial Measures for Women Offenders ( The Bangkok Rules ), which complements the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules on Non-custodial Measures ( The Tokyo Rules ) and the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules on the Treatment of Prisoners ( The Nelson Mandela Rules ), there has been increased attention dedicated to the gender-responsive treatment of women in prison . This toolkit seeks to provide support and guidance on taking steps to ensure that women in contact with the law are not detained or imprisoned unnecessari...
Read more