Justice sector improvement

The evaluation covered the period 9/88-6/92. In general, the project has been successful and worthwhile. Many valuable programs have been completed, and uncompleted projects, such as the LRS, are well underway. The Judicial School, in particular, has evolved into a very professional and efficient educational organization. Its programs are well planned and well executed, and its curriculum provides a progressive education in judicial subjects, starting with the basic orientation courses through the advanced and specialized courses for both support personnel and professionals. The National Commission has made good progress in institutional development, and should now be entrusted with greater responsibilities in the areas of long-range planning, program development, and coordination. The Project Implementation Unit, (PIU) while it has worked well, has become an obstacle to the institutional development of the National Commission due to overlapping responsibilities; development of the National Commission should take precedence over development of the PIU. The LRS project is an enormous undertaking which has made good progress once its overall plan was solidified. However, immediate attention should be given to the problems of interconnectability and access, and progress in these areas should be closely monitored. The evaluation detected two broad problem areas -- a lack of coordination and long-term planning, and a low level of overall supervision -- both of which were attributed to redundancies in the roles and responsibilities assigned to the National Commission and the PIU. While uncertain as to how these problems could be resolved under the current project, any follow-on project should assign the PIU"s responsibilities directly to a strengthened National Commission; responsibilities for financial and administrative management, however, should remain vested in ILANUD (United Nations Latin American Institute for the Prevention of Crime and Treatment of the Offender). Principal recommendations focused on providing additional TA to and strengthening the programming of the LRS component. Any follow-on project should focus on court administration, strengthening of the National Commission, and continued assistance to the LRS. (Author abstract)