2022 Africa and Middle East Regional Meeting

Many OGP national members are committed to access to justice with at least eighteen (18) members currently co-creating or implementing justice commitments. Five (5) of these are in the Africa and Middle East region.

This session is a collaboration between the Pathfinders for Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies and the African Centre of Excellence for Access to Justice (ACE-AJ), a continent-wide network of African Civil Society Organizations working on promoting access to justice.

Two countries, Sierra Leone (a member of the Justice Action Coalition) and Senegal, both with commitments to access to justice, will share their experiences in terms of implementing their justice commitments with a particular focus on community-based paralegals. ACE-AJ will share successes and challenges faced by community-based paralegals in countries where it has members including Sierra Leone, South Africa and Malawi. The Legal Empowerment Fund, which will also be represented, will share insights on the opportunities for funding grassroots activists and organizations.

The session will be an interactive (including audience participation) deep dive into the potential benefits of leveraging community-based paralegals in OGP countries that are committed to delivering access to justice while exploring the challenges and proposing solutions, including innovative funding mechanisms.