AID's experience with democratic initiatives : a review of regional programs in legal institution building

To review A.I.D.'s involvement in this area, this report examines the Agency's legal institution building programs, using a set of four criteria - management organization, institution building effectiveness, improvements in human rights, and sustainability. The assessment revealed real constraints in the management organization of the programs and projects. While these may result from inadequate coordination with the Mission or A.I.D./W, they may also reflect a lack of full commitment by the Agency to democratic development. Further, the more ambitious goals of legal reform or transformation of judicial systems have simply not been met. Much the same is true of human rights improvements; no sense of broad societal changes in attitudes or behavior could be detected. Moreover, in cases tested, it did not appear that democratic initiatives would be sustained after the withdrawal of A.I.D. funding. The report argues, however, that A.I.D. can make a significant contribution to improving legal institutional structures in a country which initiates such improvement and openly accepts U.S. assistance. It is probably also necessary that the initiating country already possesses a basic legal system on which it can build. Lessons learned are that: (1) to achieve success, the Agency as a whole must transmit the substance and process of democratic development, and not simply the form, to developing countries; (2) regional bureaus must gear program priorities for democratic initiatives to country-specific needs; and (3) Missions must be actively involved in designing and implementing democratic initiatives and not depend simply on a centralized A.I.D./W effort.