Justice

Monitoring and evaluation

Justice services need to be accurately monitored and evaluated to improve the equitable delivery of justice.  Effective monitoring and evaluation is difficult, but good data highlights when improvement is necessary and can ensure the success of reforms.  Evaluation should be relevant to particular local contexts and use a sound evidence base to measure meaningful objectives.  The resources on this page contain guidelines for developing appropriate performance indicators and monitoring techniques and approaches relevant to the justice sector.

Page contents

Where is a good place to start?

Vera Institute of Justice, 2003, Measuring Progress toward Safety and Justice: A Global Guide to the Design of Performance Indicators across the Justice Sector, Vera Institute of Justice.
How can progress towards delivering safety, security and justice be measured? What are the key steps in designing a system of indicators to gauge the impact of sector reforms? This guide sets out a process that can be used to develop appropriate indicators. It is intended as a practical tool for use around the world.
Access full text: available online 

Carothers, T., 2003, Promoting the Rule of Law Abroad: The Problem of Knowledge, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
The causal relationship between rule of law promotion and economic development and democracy is not as direct as it might appear but remain donors’ twin rationale for these activities. Is there a problem of knowledge concerning rule of law projects? What should practitioners know when they promote these activities?
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Legal and judicial sector

These documents provide guidance on evaluations that relate specifically to the legal and judicial sector.

World Bank, 2002, Legal and Judicial Sector Assessment Manual, The World Bank, Washington DC.
How can the rule of law be achieved? What is the best way to reform a judicial and legal system? This manual, from the World Bank Legal Vice Presidency provides a tool to carry out a diagnosis of a country’slegal and judicial system prior to reform. The promotion of the rule of law is distinct from other public sector reform. It requires long-term commitment, and must be approached strategically, with a holistic and complete reform programme.
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Messick, R. 2001, 'Key functions of legal systems with suggested performance measures,' draft paper hosted on the World Bank 'Legal Institutions of the Market Economy.'
This paper attempts to help reformers devise evaluation techniques that can be adapted to specific situations in different countries. The first section asks how well the legal system as a whole is performing its four key functions: the deterrence of wrongful conduct, the facilitation of voluntary transactions, the resolution of private disputes, and the redress of the abuse of government power. The second section attempts to assess how well the key institutions of the juridical system, such as the courts, the private bar, and the public prosecutors, are working.
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Hammergren, L., 'Diagnosing Judicial Performance: Toward a Tool to Help Guide Judicial Reform Programs', paper prepared for Transparency International 9th International Anti-Corruption Conference.
This paper provides a checklist for diagnosing judicial performance. It aims to evaluate the transparency and related aspects of judicial performance and is intended to promote reform programmes. The list is composed of the characteristics believed to be critical in producing the desired patterns of behaviour. It is intended to be applied globally, and was not written with any specific legal system or tradition in mind. It aims to capture universal factors that will help identify real or potential problems in judicial operations.
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GSDRC, 2009, ‘Institutional Assessment of the Police and Justice Sectors’, Helpdesk Research Report, GSDRC, Birmingham
This report includes coverage of a number of donor designed frameworks for assessing the policing and justice sector. According to much of the general academic and policy literature on SSAJ programmes, substantial reform of the police force is only possible when reform of the justice system is administered at the same time. However, whilst the underlying principles for the institutional assessment of policing and justice may be similar, the specific frameworks espoused by donors appear to tackle the institutional assessment of policing and justice separately.
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What other resources are available on the GSDRC?

• The Crime and Policing page provides a few resources related to monitoring police performance.

Additional information resources

• Vera Institute of Justice is an independent center for policy and practice, which aims to make justice systems fairer and more effective through research and innovation.
• The Performance Assessment Resource Centre (The PARC) supports the improved evaluation of poverty-focused international development practice. The parc targets resources for developing country governments, donor agencies, recipient agencies, project managers and consultants.

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