AID cooperative agreement no. 519-0373-A-00-0396-00 with Inter-American Bar Foundation to strengthen the Salvadoran Federation of Bar Associations to enable it to better serve its members" interests, as well as those of the citizenry in general

IABF efforts will include: (1) a legal education program; (2) a law- related education program; (3) institutional strengthening activities. The legal education program will aim at acquainting members of the legal profession with new developments in the field and at promoting exchanges of ideas. The IABF will assist in organizing the equivalent of 36 lectures per year in San Salvador, 12 in San Miguel, and 12 in Santa Ana. The majority of the lectures will be open to the public and will address topics such as dispute resolution, professional responsibility, and judicial problems. As part of the program, six international lecturers will be invited to the country, with one or two from the United States and the remainder from other Central American countries. The law-related education program will assist the SFBA in informing citizens of their constitutional guarantees and legal rights and responsibilities. Radio and newspapers will be used to disseminate legal information to the general public, while informative publications in the form of comic books will be produced and distributed to special interest groups, such as high school students and labor unions. The Street Law Institute of Georgetown University will assist in designing these publications, which will number about 25,000 copies. There will also be a series of workshops and roundtables directed at better acquainting journalists with Salvadoran law. The IABF will provide a law-related education expert to assist in all aspects of this component. Institutional strengthening will include visits by the leadership of the SFBA to U.S. bar associations and other judicial institutions, such as the American Judicature Society and the Federal Judicial Center. During each of the project"s first two years, three members of the SFBA will be invited to the United States for these visits. Selection will be based on probable candidates for the presidency of the group. In the third and fourth years, only two members will be invited per year. The IABF will also review the SFBA"s institutional structure and make recommendations on means of strengthening it. Finally, the SFBA will be encouraged to evaluate its income-generating potential in order that it become a self-sustaining organization.