USAID's history goes back to the Marshall Plan reconstruction of Europe after World War Two and the Truman Administration's Point Four Program. In 1961, the Foreign Assistance Act was signed into law and USAID was created by executive order. Since that time, USAID has been the principal U.S. agency to extend assistance to countries recovering from disaster, trying to escape poverty, and engaging in democratic reforms.
Policy and Research Papers
The Judicial Reform Program in Mongolia: Accomplishments, Lessons Learned, and Recommendations for the Future
Part I summarizes in broad strokes the scope of JRP’s work with Mongolia’s justice sector institutions. Part II summarizes “Lessons Learned” from the perspective of donors,
implementers, and recipients of USAID assistance. The final chapter, Part III, contains recommendations for the justice sector of Mongolia and for future donors. It is based on the experience of the Judicial Reform Program over the past eight years and draws on the recommendations coming out of JRP’s March 2009 closing conference “Next Steps in Justice Reform,” which brought together all of the key justice sector leaders and administrators. As its final contribution to its Mongolian partners, this Report seeks to synthesize the consensus outcomes of the conference which in turn were intended to serve as a road map for future reforms and improvements in the administration of justice.
Interagency Security Sector Assessment Framework: Guidance for the U.S. Government
The purpose of the ISSAF is to provide a common foundation for USG agencies to assess a country’s security and justice context and make strategic program recommendations.
Assessments should inform the strategic planning process and underlie program design.
The ISSAF is divided into two parts:
1. A 10-step framework for analysis
2. Areas of inquiry with illustrative questions.
This document outlines key SSR concepts and a process for planning and conducting an interagency assessment. Supplementary assessment tools that focus on specific sub-sector institutions and topics (e.g., police, criminal justice, defense, maritime security sector reform, armed violence reduction, or gender) can be helpful in looking at particular subjects in greater detail. This broader assessment framework enables the assessment team to examine the linkages among various components of the security sector and to identify entry points for integrated programs.
The ISSAF is based on international best practices4 and incorporates existing methodologies for analyzing the security sector in states receiving international assistance. It builds on previous efforts to provide common frameworks through which USG agencies can leverage comparative strengths to implement a whole-of-government approach.
Audit of USAID Haiti’s Justice Program
While the justice program has not yet produced measurable improvements in the efficiency or effectiveness of Haiti’s court system, USAID’s contractor has helped lay a basis for future progress in these areas. We were unable to fully determine whether planned results were achieved because USAID/Haiti established baselines and targets to measure only one of its two performance indicators for its justice program activities.
Political Will, Constituency Building, And Public Support in Rule of Law Programs
The focus of this paper is the “demand-side” model of administration of justice/rule of law (AOJ/ROL) reform as developed by USAID and increasingly adopted by other donors. It explores the basic arguments as they have been presented in USAID documents, compares them with actual experience of Latin American projects, and suggests some lessons to be incorporated in a revised theory of “demand-side” reform.