American Bar Association Fund for Justice and Education

The World Justice Project (WJP) at the American Bar Association (Washington, DC) is a multinational, multidisciplinary initiative to strengthen the rule of law worldwide. Besides supporting original research on how marginalized groups access justice, the WJP held the World Justice Forum in July 2008, which brought together 450 government and non-governmental leaders to create over 80 action programs to strengthen the rule of law. In addition, the WJP is developing an index to assess how well individual counries adhere to the rule of law. It hopes that governments and civil society organizations can use the index data to identifiy priorities for reform. As the WJP prepares to launch as a stand-alone entity, independent of ABA, a grant would allow the WJP to conduct a strategic development study. The study will produce a transition plan for the next 12-18 months as well as a long term plan for sustainability.