Program Overview
Aid experts increasingly recognize that democratic governance rooted in the rule of law leads to sustainable economic and social development. In Palestine, USAID espouses this approach through its Rule of Law, Justice and Enforcement Program, locally known as NETHAM (Order in Arabic). This project has two main components: 1) increasing the capacity of key justice sector institutions within the Palestinian Authority, and 2) raising the public’s overall confidence in the justice sector. This five-year contract began in September 2005 and represents a $20 million investment by USAID. It is carried out by DPK Consulting, a division of ARD, Inc.
The project is ambitious and can be characterized through two components. The first aims to strengthen the capacity of the Ministry of Justice (MOJ), the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC), the courts and other justice bodies. There are many activities that fall under this rubric. Some of these are:
• Supporting National Justice Sector Strategy implementation
• Training justice sector institutions on financial controls, inspection and oversight
• Forming policy departments and strategy planning units
• Establishing the PA Judicial Training Institute
• Developing training programs for judges, court administrators, and judicial staff
• Upgrading court automation with modern information technology
• Improving case management and reducing case backlog
• Enhancing reforms in the commercial law sector
The second project component conducts outreach and citizen engagement activities to increase public confidence in the judiciary. Examples of these include:
• Providing small grants to civil society organizations that help raise citizens’ awareness of the rule of law
• Supporting television, newspaper, and radio spots to disseminate information on the judiciary
• Producing educational pamphlets for the public
• Partnering with Al Quds Law School on its Legal Education Enhancement Program
• Working with the Ministry of Education on primary and secondary school civic education.
• Placing recent graduates in internship programs with the courts
• Launching activities promoting Palestinian Justice Day
Goals
• Strengthen Palestinian Authority to promote and provide for the rule of law
• Increase public confidence in the justice sector
• Improve enforcement of laws and court orders to serve the public
Successes
• The first-ever Palestinian Authority National Justice Sector strategy was signed with the technical support of Netham.
• Netham renovated the Ramallah, Nablus, Jenin and Bethlehem Notary Public and Civil Judgment Departments (the most publicly accessed departments in the courts). The project also upgraded systems for queuing, archiving and case filing. In addition, Netham helped to establish the Media and Public Relations Department and Court Administration Department. The cumulative result is dramatically greater public confidence in court services.
• Netham helped to connect the 23 court sites across the West Bank to the Supreme Judicial Council through a Wide Area Network (WAN) vastly improving information sharing among the courts.
• Netham, working with the USAID’s youth empowerment program, provided an opportunity for recent college graduates to serve as judicial interns. The interns succeeded in automating and archiving over 200,000 files in the Civil Judgment and Notary Public departments in Ramallah and Nablus. Many of these interns have gone on to find permanent jobs at the Supreme Judicial Council, the Ministry of Justice and projects with other donors.
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