brief - lin access to justice project - jiff 11feb11

8/13/2019 Brief - LIN Access to Justice Project - JIFF 11Feb11

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Justice Partnership

Programme

JUSTICE INITIATIVES FACILITATION FUND

PROJECT BRIEF

Title of the project: Building Capacity of Civil Society Organizations in Facilitating Access to Justice

for Vulnerable Populations in Ho Chi Minh City

Implementing organization: LIN Center for Community Development

Partner organization (if any): Southern Institute for Sustainable Development

Short project summary:

Acknowledging that legal empowerment of vulnerable communities through strengthening legal and

representational capacity of civil society is a key strategy to ensure access to justice; LIN would like

to carrying out a project with the following two objectives:

i. to improve awareness, dialogue and information sharing within civil society on issues

relating to the rights and access to justice of vulnerable groups, and

ii. to support Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in strengthening their capacity to facilitate

access to justice for the groups they represent.

Vulnerable' and 'marginalized' are loose terms, which we define in our proposal as individuals and

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groups who are denied access (or who receive less access) to certain rights and public services such

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Needs/Problems Analysis: Recent studies by the UNDP and JPP have identified inequalities amongdifferent subsets of the Vietnamese population in regards to their ability to access the justice

system. Through these and other qualitative and quantitative studies, the LIN Center has identified

the following subsets of the Ho Chi Minh City populations as vulnerable: people with disabilities,

migrant workers (and their accompanying family members), the urban poor, people living with

HIV/AIDS, ethnic minorities, sex workers, and victims of human trafficking.1Moreover, women suffer

from discrimination and gender inequality due to stereotypes, social norms and traditional values

which tend to restrict their participation and voice.2

Studies on access to justice in developing countries show that poverty, social stigma and gender

exacerbate the vulnerability of marginalized groups and the problems facing them in accessing

justice. Discrimination may result in unfair rulings, inappropriate conduct or inadequate services for

disadvantaged groups. Lack of awareness of their rights and of how to seek justice when their rights

have been violated is also a main impediment. Compounding this problem is the issue that most

Vietnamese citizens get their information about the justice system from informal sources.3

It is widely recognized that civil society can be a powerful actor in facilitating access to justice for

marginalized groups. However, In Vietnam, CSOs are at an early stage of development and they lack

the internal capacity to fulfil these roles, including limited resources, knowledge and technical skills.

The LIN team believes it has an opportunity to improve access to justice for marginalized groups by

building the capacity of CSO staff that are working to address the needs of vulnerable groups living in

and around HCMC.

By enhancing the ability of CSO staff to raise awareness about ones rights to facilitate their


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Goal and Objectives: The goal of the proposal is to enhance the capacity of CSOs in HCMC to

contribute to awareness of rights, access to justice and judicial reform for marginalized sections of

society. The proposed project is intended to achieve two objectives:

to improve awareness, dialogue and information sharing within civil society on issues

relating to the rights and access to justice of vulnerable groups, and

to support Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in strengthening their capacity to facilitate

access to justice for the groups they represent.

Activities:

Step 1: LIN will partner with the Southern Institute for Sustainable Development to conduct a survey

of civil society organizations that work in support of vulnerable groups in and around Ho Chi Minh

City. The scope of the survey would be:

to determine the extent of CSO awareness of access to justice-related issues and their use of a

rights-based approach;

to identify existing initiatives and methods that are used to deal with problems and rightsviolations of the vulnerable populations they support, set against the different roles that CSOs

can assume in facilitating access to justice for vulnerable populations:

- as campaigners and advocates pressing for reform

- as monitors, fostering accountability within the justice sector

- as disseminators and communicators of information

- as educators through legal empowerment and legal literacy initiatives

- as direct agents helping people access justice through legal aid and representation

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programs that enhance access to justice for their beneficiaries (e.g., support with program design,

project management, grant writing, networking with donors and/or technical experts).

Step 5: Review the feedback from the capacity building workshops and determine whether

additional research, workshops and/or other support services may be needed.

All activities will contribute to the objective of enhancing legal and representational capacity of

CSOs, as the survey will determine and assess capacity building needs and the workshops will

respond to the priority needs. Contribution to the objective of improving awareness, dialogue and

information sharing within civil society on issues relating to the rights and access to justice of

vulnerable groups, will be ensured through:

1) participation of CSOs in the first roundtables (focus groups) and/or in the interviews (questions

and explanations on purpose of the project will be awareness raising in themselves);

2) survey results which will provide a summary picture of existing state of awareness and existing

actions;

3) the different roundtables and workshops which will ensure that CSOs meet and debate around a

same approach, allowing possible first steps in the creation of a network; and

4) the dissemination of the survey report and final project report.

Results: The anticipated outputs (short-term results) from each activity include:

The focus groups (step 1, phase 1): we will design a survey questionnaire and interview

methodology to help draw out the existing resources and capacity building needs of CSOs who

h t t h t j ti f l bl i / d H Chi Mi h Cit


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The proposal will thereby contribute to the objective of Component III of the Justice Partnership

Programme, which is the enhancement of the capacity of Non-State Actors in Vietnam to contribute

to awareness of rights, access to justice and judicial reforms.

Project Personnel:

LIN Center for Community Development:

1. Mr. Pham Truong Son - Son joined the LIN Center for Community Development in

September 2009 as Community Liaison. In this role, Son is responsible for building and

maintaining relationships with local not-for-profit organizations and volunteers, identifying

needs and designing capacity building programs to address those needs. Son is a skilled

communicator and community organizer with over 10 years of experience working with

vulnerable populations in Vietnam with a specialization in addressing HIV/AIDS issues. Prior

to joining LIN, Son served as Director of the Condom Caf project in HCMC since 1996. In

addition to working with LIN, Son is also the Vietnam Country Representative for the South

East Asia Popular Communication Program (SEAPCP) and a member of the Global Advisory

Council for Teen-AIDS peerCorps.

2. Ms. Dana RH Doan - Dana Doan is a full-time Consultant to the LIN Center for Community

Development. Prior to joining LIN, Dana worked with the U.S.-Vietnam Trade Council &

Education Forum where she conducted research and organized technical assistance

programs, bilateral meetings and events to support and strengthen the US-Vietnam

relationship. Before moving to Vietnam in 2001, Dana worked with the Metro Chicago

Information Center as a Community Development Specialist conducting qualitative and

quantitative research to measure impact, identify needs and new opportunities for

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Legal Experts

3. Local Legal Expert (to be identified)LIN seeks support/input on this project from a local

legal expert who is knowledgeable on Vietnams judicial system and who is, or who wouldbe, inclined to support on-going capacity building initiatives in this field. Should we receive

support from JIFF to undertake this proposal, we plan to reach out to the Vietnam Lawyers

Association, the HCMC University of Law and other such establishments for this purpose.

4. Ms. Florence Smidt-Nielsen - Florence is an international legal expert and development

consultant who has worked for multilateral and bilateral government organizations, INGOs

and local NGOs in the US, Ghana, Argentina, Denmark and Vietnam. As a consultant, she has

had assignments at both policy and project level, specializing in good governance,

democratization and human rights. She has comprehensive experience working with CSOs in

the fields of womens rights, political and communication rights. She was the legal expert in

an extensive investigation for DFIDs program on Access to Justice in Ghana. She is qualified

as a French lawyer and holds a Master in International Legal Studies and Human Rights from

New York University School of Law.


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Table A: Work Plan

Description of Activities Expected Outputs/ ResultsTimeframe (weeks or months)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

1. Survey of CSOs x x x x x

1.1 Focus Groups Questionnaire, Methodology x x

1.2 InterviewsList of target CSOs. Complete data setof

sixty interviews.x x x

2. Data Analysis Preliminary report on CSO capacity building

needsx x

3. Roundtable Review Prioritized list of CSO capacity building

needs.x

4. Capacity Building

4.1 Organize workshops

4.3 Consultations

~50 CSO staff/workshop, 2 to 3 workshops.

On site consultations for four self-selected

CSOs. Capacity building reports based onparticipant evaluations and analysis by

trainer/organizers

x x x x x

5. Report Final report, including a list of

recommendations for follow-up.x

brief - lin access to justice project - jiff 11feb11

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