PROVISION FOR POST PROJECT EVALUATIONS FOR THE UNITED NATIONSDEMOCRACY FUND
Contract NO.PD:C0110/10

EVALUATION REPORTUDF-RWA-09-303 – Access to Justice and human Rights education (Rwanda)

17 September 2013

Acknowledgements
The evaluators would like to thank Human Rights First Rwanda Association (HRFRA) for thetime dedicated to this evaluation exercise; for experience and information sharing. In particular,
the team would like to thank HRFRA Executive Director Job Nvozu Ruzage, Clarisse Munezero,legal officer, Louis Busingye, project manager for the legal aid clinic and Gaudiane Umutesi
Legal officer at the Legal Clinic in Kamonyi. The evaluators also thank all other counterparts who
made themselves available during the whole exercise (Civil society actors, paralegals, direct
beneficiaries, etc.).
All errors and omissions remain the responsibility of the authors.
Disclaimer
The views expressed in this report are those of the evaluators. They do not represent those of
UNDEF or of any of the institutions referred to in the report.
Authors
This report was written by Aurélie Ferreira and Pierre Robert with the valuable support of Julien
Ntezamina who acted as national expert.
Mr. Landis MacKellar provided editorial and methodological advice and quality assurance. Mr.
Eric Tourrès was Project Director at Transtec.

Table of Contents
I.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY1II.

INTRODUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT CONTEXT

4

III.

PROJECT STRATEGY

8i. Project strategy and approach

8ii. Logical framework

9

EVALUATION FINDINGS

11(i) Relevance11(ii) Effectiveness

13(iii) Efficiency

16(iv) Impact

17(v) Sustainability

19(vi) UNDEF value added

19

V.

CONCLUSIONS

20

VI.

RECOMMENDATIONS

22

IV.

VII. ANNEXES

23

ANNEX 1: EVALUATION QUESTIONS

23

ANNEX 2: DOCUMENTS REVIEWED24

ANNEX 3: SCHEDULE OF INTERVIEWS

25

ANNEX 4: LIST OF ACRONYMS

26

ANNEX 5: BOOKLET SURVEY

27

I.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY(i) Project data
The Access to Justice and Human Rights Education project was a two-year USD 60,000 project
implemented by the Human Rights First Rwanda Association (HRFRA) in partnership with the
Independent Institute of Lay Adventists of Kigali (INILAK). The project ran from 1 January 2011
to 31 December 2012. It targeted marginalised groups among the rural population of thesouthern district of Kamonyi, including people living with HIV/AIDA and the Twa, known as ahistorical ethnic minority. The project’s general objective was to increase access to justice forthis segment of the Rwandan population. It sought to achieve this by:Providing direct access to free legal assistance, through the opening and daily
operation of a Legal Aid Clinic in the rural district of Kamonyi;
Setting up a citizens’ system and strengthen the local capacity to face judicial issues
through the education and training of paralegals; andCreating a responsible and solidarity-based dynamic where law students provide
direct legal aid on the spot as part of their school curriculum.

(ii) Evaluation findings
The project was relevant in that it addressed the need for improved legal mechanisms in rural
areas and for training and basic education in civil rights. The project document explicitly citedpoverty as hampering the exercise of the right to justice. Further obstacles include discriminationon the basis of gender, geographic origin, and ethnic identity. Women lodged some 80% of thecomplaints brought to the Legal Aid Clinic. The choice of the intervention area has provenespecially relevant, as Rwanda’s South Province, which includes Kamonyi district, has one of thecountry’s highest poverty rates.
The decision to intervene in Kamonyi district, when the eastern part of the country has often been
cited for its history of land tenure disputes and its heavy demand for legal mediation, was basedon the experience of the project’s university partner, INILAK. The intervention format was equally
relevant, as it was tailored to the local legal mechanisms designed under the national reform todecentralize the justice system.
However, one factor limiting the relevance of the project was that the INILAK law students
involved in the Legal Aid Clinic were not individually graded. Their activities in the project
ultimately had no impact on students obtaining credits toward their education or their law degree,
thus reducing the relevance of the project to INILAK students themselves.
The project was highly effective. It implemented 90% of the activities programmed and achieved
nearly all the intended outcomes. This result is even more positive when the efficiency
considerations are taken into account. The Legal Aid Clinic was created and operational
throughout the project period. A reception center, more than a clinic, this facility received
residents of the Kamonyi district in a formal setting. A paralegal network was created and its
members trained. Law students were mobilized and a lasting partnership was established with
the Independent Institute of Lay Adventists of Kigali (INILAK). Getting the students involved insettling disputes in rural areas was undeniably an ingenious and promising initiative.
1|PageHowever, the effectiveness of the project was somewhat undermined by some aspects of its
modalities. Students were not required to conduct thorough reviews of cases submitted to theLegal Aid Clinic. The students also lacked a supervisor, who could have improved the quality of
their intervention.
The project was efficient: the ratio of the resources invested in this project to the results
obtained is especially positive. HRFRA obtained maximal results with a minimal budget. In fact,
it met and sometimes exceeded all of its quantitative objectives on time, notwithstanding any
reservations about the quality of the framework of the INILAK students’ interventions. Given themeager resources invested, it is laudable that HRFRA managed to achieve such goodoutcomes. Taking the number of cases handled by the clinic (excluding those targeted by thestudent-run public awareness campaigns), the cost per case was US$0.35. The breakdown ofexpenditures by post shows high-to-medium efficiency. This slight variation by no means
detracts from the positive assessment of the efficiency of the project, whose organizational andfinancial effort and mobilization of the resources necessary for that performance should besaluted. It is also testimony to the good cooperation between the two partners.
HRFRA had to rethink its action plan and the allocation of its funds following an error concerning
the length of the project (the budget of US$60,000 was initially calculated for a period of oneyear). HRFRA successfully bet on operating almost entirely with volunteers. However,regardless of financial conditions, it could be recommended that HRFRA and INILAK give theirstudents more responsibility, not unlike the National University of Rwanda, which has chosen torequire students to do six-week internships.
The project also achieved a significant level of impact. The project improved legal structuresand services in the Kamnoyi district and contributed greater justice at the local level. The
paralegals’ application of their newly acquired knowledge not only raised the basic educational
level of part of the district’s population but legitimized a significant number of issues that had
traditionally been ignored due to lack of means. By including women in the paralegal network,
the project promoted representativeness and the defense of women’s interests at the local level.
This effort complemented a recent initiative by the Ministry of Gender and Family, which in early2013 introduced the “Umugoroba evenings” – public events to enable women to interact andshare advice. The project improved the training of INILAK law students, introducing a practicaldimension that brought them closer to local issues and realities. It also significantly raised
awareness among Kigali law students about the legal situation and recurrent problems in rural
areas and how the law was enforced there year in and year out, as well as the population’s low
level of education.
At the time of the evaluation visit in May 2013, five months after the project had ended, the legal
aid clinic was still open and the legal aid officer still in her post, demonstrating to a large extent
the sustainability of the project. Moreover, the paralegals who had been working with the
project had joined the HRFRA project financed by the British National Lottery, factors indicativeof the HRFRA’s stable sustainability strategy.
Furthermore, the priority accorded by HRFRA to upgrading the paralegals’ skills, and, as aninnovative element, those of the students, is testimony to its strategic vision of building humancapital. The project sought to create a multiplier effect through the training and experiences ofthe volunteer paralegals and students, who once it was over, would be able to foster anunderstanding of the law and the settlement of disputes. The project’s emphasis on training
women paralegals was another key factor in sustainability, as the higher social status acquired2|Pagethrough training encourages women to become more invested in their communities, thanks to
the mechanisms for recognition and confidence building.

(iii) Conclusions
The project offered a highly relevant response to the target district’s needs. Furthermore,
the project was able to target its activities and develop specific tools for land tenure andmatrimonial disputes. This approach enhanced the quality of the intervention.
HRFRA and INILAK met their commitments and even exceeded some of the planned
outcomes. As a result, the project carried out all the programmed activities at minimal cost.
The project fostered the development of key human capital. It created a network ofparalegals in the district. The higher social status afforded women guaranteed the paralegals’
civic engagement with their communities and gave women access to the justice lacking in theapplication of traditional customary law to land tenure and matrimonial issues.
The law students enhanced their awareness and understanding of their chosen profession.
Some students intensified the experience by making it their thesis topic, as observed in thesection on the impact of the project.
The project’s sustainability strategy was characterized by strengthening of its paralegal
network and its specialization in land tenure and matrimonial issues. These factors
undoubtedly contributed to the NGO’s stability.

(iv) Recommendations
It is recommended that HRFRA continue its ongoing effort to build local capacity and upgrade
the skills of paralegals. Further development of the mechanisms for supervising andtraining the paralegals is desirable to guarantee the quality of their legal counseling.
The evaluators encourage HRFRA and INILAK to develop a more explicit partnershipframework—one, for example, with annual quantitative objectives. A future project should
envision assigning an INILAK resource to monitor the visits and mentor the students as support
for the legal aid officer.
The students’ intervention format should be more binding to reduce the risk ofabsenteeism and maximize the initiative’s impact on their professional and personal
development. HRFRA and INILAK should ensure that student participation and certain
exercises are graded and count towards a diploma. In this same vein, HRFRA and INILAK could
explore the possibility of assisting complainants from the start to the end of their case. Thisapproach would encourage greater responsibility and more intensive work on the ethics of theprofession.
Finally, it would be desirable to further develop the printed support material and continue
distributing it to paralegals with a view to its replication and assimilation. The material
should be more didactic while conserving a flexible format like the one adopted. It should be
written in the local language; its length should be reasonable; and the clarity of the examples
and visual support, as well as the memorability of the illustrations, should be improved.
3|PageII.

INTRODUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT CONTEXT(i) The project and evaluation objectives
The Access to Justice and Human Rights Education project was a two-year, USD 60,000 project
implemented by the Human Rights First Rwanda Association (HRFRA) in partnership with the
Independent Institute of Lay Adventists of Kigali (INILAK), belonging to the private education
system. USD 6,000 of this budget was retained by UNDEF for evaluation and monitoring
purposes. The project ran from 1 January 2011 to 31 December 2012. It targeted rural
population living in the Southern district of Kamonyi and put a special focus on marginalizedgroups, including people living with HIV/AIDS and the Twa, known as historical ethnic minority.
The project’s general objective was to increase the access to justice for this segment of the
Rwandan population. It sought to achieve this by:Providing direct access to free legal assistance, through the opening and daily
operation of a Legal Aid Clinic in the rural district of Kamonyi;Setting up a citizens’ system and strengthen the local capacity to face judicial issues
through the education and training of paralegals; andCreating a responsible and solidarity-based dynamic where law students provide
direct legal aid on the spot as part of their school curriculum.
The evaluation of this project is part of the larger set of evaluations of the Rounds, 2, 3 and 4
UNDEF-funded projects. The purpose of these evaluations is to “contribute to a better
understanding of what constitutes a successful project, which will in turn help UNDEF to develop
future project strategies. Evaluations are also to assist stakeholders to determine whether
projects have been implemented in accordance with the project document and whether
anticipated project outputs have been achieved”.1(ii) Evaluation methodology
The evaluation took place in May 2013 with field work done in Rwanda from 6-10 May 2013. The
evaluation was conducted by two international experts and one national expert. The UNDEF
Rounds 2, 3 and 4 evaluations are more qualitative than quantitative in nature and follow astandard set of evaluations questions that focus on the project’s relevance, effectiveness,
efficiency, impact, sustainability and any value added from UNDEF-funding (Annex1). This is toallow meta-analysis in cluster evaluations at a later stage. This report follows that structure.
The evaluators reviewed available documentation on the project and on the Rwandan legal
context. They interviewed Human Rights First Rwanda Association staff at the central level andat the level of Kamonyi district, where they interviewed the local legal officer in charge of theLegal Aid Clinic. Focus groups were organised with a sample of paralegals and so called“clients.” In order to assess the partnership developed by HRFRA, meetings were also organizedwith the Dean of the Law Faculty in Kigali (INILAK) and with the Law Professor who followed theLegal Aid Clinic project during almost the entire project life. Focus groups were organized with
post-graduate students who had been involved in the Legal Aid Clinic as part of their curriculum.
With a view of setting the initiative in a broader context, the evaluators spoke with civil society
representatives and public entities working on similar issues such as the Joint Development
1

Operational manual for the UNDEF-funded project evaluations, page 6

4|PageAction Forum (JDAF), CLADHO, PROLIDHOR, Haguruka and the Legal Aid Forum. Though it
was planned to interview a representative from the Ministry of Justice, the meeting could nottake place during the international experts’’ visit, because of availability constraints; however it
was possible for the national expert to meet with one representative from the National
Community of Mediators the week after.
The list of persons interviewed is provided in Annex 3.
During the preparatory work (Launch Note UDF-RWA-09-303) the evaluators identified several
issues which they followed up on during interviews. These included:
 Project relevance to the local governance and law system reforms, synergies with local
policies, and coherence with the current decentralization process; The relevance of the services offered to people when compared to (i) their educational
level, (i) their needs, and (iii) legal counsel and support available in the absence offinancial means or with limited ones.
 Project effectiveness and sustainability despite the low level of financial support andconsidering the high dependence on volunteers.
In addition, UNDEF asked the evaluation to look at the replication potential of the initiative.

(iii) Development context
Access to Justice and Human Rights in Rural Areas.
The HRFRA project addresses the issue of access to justice services in a country that ranks
167th out of 187 on the Human
Development Index and where
44.9% of the population lives
below the poverty line.
The project was structured aroundthe following assessment: accessto the Rwandan formal justicesystem is the privilege of an
isolated urban minority. Rwanda
has a population of just over 12
million, and, according to 2011
World Bank figures, 19.1% of it
resides in major cities, while over
80,9% is concentrated in rural
areas, signifying that, in thespecific context of this project,ruralityisassociatedwithexclusion from the justice system.
Low educational levels and little knowledge of the basic principles of civics and civil rights, which
are widespread and attested to by Rwanda’s National Institute of Statistics, confirm theignorance among the majority of the population and, de facto, their vulnerability as parties inlegal matters. A 2012 study revealed that most people aged 14-35 have never been to school or
5|Pagehave never finished primary school (62.2%); 31.5% have finished primary school; and only 4.9%
have attended a secondary school or pursued professional training or a university education2.
These figures take on special significance when one considers, for example, that plaintiffs must
write their own briefs to file their case with a court of first instance.
In the financial sphere, the figures for 2012 put the average annual income of a Rwandan at
US$1,5003, while the standard attorney’s fee for a typical case ranges from 300,000 to 4 million
Rwandan francs (RWF), according to the people interviewed during the evaluation visit in 2013—that is, from US$470 to more than US$6,000. It comes as no surprise, then, that an estimated
80% of plaintiffs have no legal representation.
Justice reform: a work in progress.
In certain respects, the legal system reflects the history and state of Rwanda’s social fabric.
Handicapped by the flight or killing of qualified people, it has taken the country some time torebuild, and it is still in the process of developing its new profile and operational procedures.
Rwanda first had to overcome the structural hurdles of the immediate post-genocide period, andthen, a 9-year postwar political transition overseen by the Government of National Unity (GUN).
For example, it was not until March 1997 that a new law created the Bar and until August of thatyear that some 40 attorneys were sworn in. A sign of the slow rebuilding of the profession, thecountry had only 730 licensed attorneys in 2010, primarily in Kigali.
The year 2003 saw a renewal of government activity, and the judicial branch was not exempt
from this trend. The first parliamentary and national elections were held, and a series of reforms
spurred by the decentralization imperative were adopted.
The number of unresolved complaints that were lodged and the structural inability of the national
courts to hear all the suits filed led to the decentralization and redistricting of the legal system
and its authorities. The Constitution of 2003 established the ordinary courts (Supreme Court,High Court of the Republic, Provincial and Kigali Tribunals, and the District and City Tribunals)
and the special jurisdictions (Gacaca and military courts)4. It also created the Abunzi,5 mediators
in a proceeding that must occur prior to the referral of any case to the national courts.
The government has given mediation an important place in the legal system. This strategic
decision has enabled it to delegate a substantial part of its responsibilities to the local level while
respecting the traditional foundations and customs of Rwandan justice. For example, theGacaca, whose name literally means “justice on the grass,” existed before the genocide.
Refashioned in 2001 to deal with genocide cases, these community tribunals, which ended inJune 2012 after judging over 1.9 million cases, were gradually replaced by mediationcommittees, created in 2006 to deal with present-day issues. Whatever the chronology, theunderlying political intent was to provide a solution closer to home for the people seeking justiceand handle as many cases as possible at the local level to reduce case referrals to the national
courts to a minimum. This solution, well suited to the traditions and context, has posed
problems, calling into question the neutrality and competence of the mediators, who are electedby the community (usually in public) and only rarely have any legal training.
2

National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda, Youth EICV3 Thematic Report, Pvi Youth
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/rw.html
4Article 143, Chapter V, Section 2 of the Constitution
5
Article 149, of the Constitution
3

6|PageAware of these shortcomings, the government has instituted a series of measures to buttresslocal structures, notably with the opening of the Maisons d’Accès à la Justice (access to justiceoffices) (MAJ) in each district. The Ministry of Justice has created the l’Institut de développement
de la pratique judiciaire (Institute for the development of judicial practice) to coordinate
professional training for the various actors in the judicial system, along with an independent
decentralized Public Ministry Authority.
Many measures must still be deployed. For example, MAJ attorneys provide legal counseling but
do not actually represent indigent people in the courts. Only since 2004 has the criminal code
allowed the accused to be assisted by an attorney, even in the interrogation phase. Today it isalso a matter of expanding the right to plead a case and not confining legal representation toattorneys who are members of the Bar, opening it instead to legal experts active in theassociation who could represent clients pro bono.
According to the experts, a number of steps must be taken before the legal system can becomea stable structure satisfactory to all parties concerned.
The land tenure issue at the heart of disputes.
In the absence of real public solutions, a lack of trained personnel, and minimal civic education,
disputes turn into local conflicts, most commonly around basic issues.
The annual reports of the Ombudsman attest to the centrality of land and property rights in thiscountry of only 26,338 km², with a very high population density (433 pop./km² in 2012) and ashortage of land. Today, an estimated 200,000 Rwandan families—that is, around 20% of the
population—are landless or have less than 0.2 hectares to cultivate6. Rwandan families
generally hold and cultivate 1 hectare.
Inspiring envy, the land issue has fueled numerous murderous designs and today is the subtext
of countless conflicts related to succession and the restitution of land, livestock, or otherproperty—for example, in cases of people returning to their village or adopted orphans whoreach the age of majority.

6

http://www.ruralpovertyportal.org/country/home/tags/rwanda

7|PageIII.

PROJECT STRATEGYi.

Project strategy and approach

The HRFRA strategy was designed to respond to the problem of “unequal access to justice” inRwanda. The project document describes access to justice as a privilege reserved for the elite:
an urban prerogative that discriminates against uneducated, low-income populations living
largely in rural areas. The project strategy was developed to address the following
circumstances: The courts and the Bar are concentrated in major cities, mainly Kigali, de facto
discriminating against the rural population.
 In response, the government has created decentralized legal systems; however, no court
can hear a case before it has gone through the mediation process.
 This mediation phase is managed by mediators who do not necessarily have theappropriate competencies or training.
 The population is largely unaware of its rights.
HRFRA is comprised of attorneys and has been active in an assortment of networks since its
creation in 2005. Its structure and positioning among the Rwandan civil society agents haveenabled it gauge the real needs in the Kamonyi district. HRFRA is, for example, a member of theLegal Aid Forum, a network of 34 organizations that in 2007 conducted a situation analysis of
the centers providing legal services, noting which services were provided in the different
provinces of the country and which were not. The decision to intervene in the Kamonyi district
was also influenced by the project’s partner, INILAK, which was already raising awareness andeducating the population in this district of the South Province, which has one of the country’s
highest poverty rates.
The project document (UDF-RWA-09-303), drafted in January 2011, underscores the problems
created by this unequal legal system, namely: Injustices and judicial mistakes when ruling in certain cases, owing to poor knowledge ofthe law or corruption.
 Conflicts among citizens, particularly over land issues.
This analysis focused on strengthening the rule of law, which varied with the interpretation ofrepresentatives that were elected, but not necessarily trained, in communities that were
strangers to the basics of the Law. In light of this, the project document called for the following
three areas of action:
 Increase access to justice by offering free legal services; Increase the general knowledge of the public about the fundamentals of the law that it
itself had designed; and finally, Help strengthen and democratize the legal profession by getting law students involved in
the settlement of cases filed by the Legal Aid Clinic that was opened in Kamonyi.
These spheres of action gave rise to the project’s general objective: to democratize legal
services and educate the most disadvantaged citizens about their rights. This devolved into four
outcomes, specified in the project document as: Open a Legal Aid Clinic where every citizen can go and request free assistance.
8|PageTrain a group of resident paralegals to act independently and help their neighbors
navigate the legal system.
Get INILAK students in their final year of law in Kigali involved in the resolution of cases.
Publish a booklet, based on a survey of citizens and de facto targeting the needs of thelocal population, to guide paralegals or any other community resource person in thesettlement of disputes.

The activities designed to lead to these outcomes included training courses, a survey, apublication, and small-scale publicity campaigns (radio messages, the printing of brochures).
The project targeted the population of the Kamonyi district in the South Province, estimated atsome 250,000–primarily vulnerable groups such as women (especially widows), people with
HIV/AIDS, and historical minorities (Twa), who had already been targeted by a similar 1-year
project funded by the European Union. The legal aid officer was instrumental in implementing
the project; as the intermediary between the Kamonyi clinic and HRFRA’s main office in Kigali,
she conveyed information and news about the cases handled and served as a counselor for
trainees, paralegals, INILAK students, and citizens fighting an injustice or involved in a dispute.
HRFRA has an extensive database of paralegals. Called to develop it further, thanks to recent
British funding from that country’s National Lottery, it plans to train 1,500 paralegals over athree-year period with a budget of £270,000. This new project, dubbed “Your land, your rights,”
confirms HRFRA’s strategic orientation, which is to boost local legal capacity, with an emphasison land tenure issues. The gap between the budget and quantitative objectives of this new
project and those financed by UNDEF reveals a presumed mistake on the part of the NGO,
which had developed its budget and activities plan on the basis of a 1-year project. This mistakerequired it to reformulate certain plans that were already being implemented. The consequenceswere manifested in the allocation of human resources, essentially volunteers, and in thecommunications tools and the paralegal’s ability to travel. If HRFRA had not been constrained bythis situation, it would have liked to search for disabled people, whose condition often leaves
them geographically isolated.

ii.

Logical framework

The project document translates HRFRA's programmatic approach into a structured plan ofproject activities and intended outcomes, including achievement of the project's general andspecific objectives. The framework below aims to systematically capture the project logic,
attempting at the same time to eliminate confusion between activities, intended outcomes, andimpacts, which the evaluators sometimes observed in the project document's outcome
framework.

9|PageProject Activities & Interventions

Intended outcomes

Project general objective

LT Development
Objectives- Opening of a Legal Aid Clinic.
- Assistance to the local population from a full-timelegal aid officer, available 5 days/week.
- Public awareness campaigns and promotion
campaigns by the Legal Aid Clinic targeting theprovincial population and local authorities (meetings,
posters, radio messages, word of mouth).

Strengthening of legal aid
structures andmechanisms in the
Kamonyi district of theSouth Province.

- Establishment of a system for weekly visits andassistance from INILAK law students, under thesupervision of an instructor.

-Creation of a network of 80 paralegals in collaboration
with local authorities.

Heightened community
knowledge about basic
rights.

- Training of paralegals in recurrent rights issues in the
Kamonyi district, following a needs assessment.
- Assistance and strengthening of the paralegal network.
- Administration of a survey to a sample of 100 district
residents about the disputes in which they are involved
and for which they might wish to receive assistance.

Plaintiffs receive legal aid,
regardless of theireconomic status,
geographic origin, sex, or
ethnicity.

Local resources
join government
efforts to offer all
citizens equal
access to justice.

The rural population of theKamonyi district benefits
from the services andsupport of the Legal Aid
Clinic, as well as the locallytrained human resources, tobetter understand andexercise its rights.

-Production of an informative booklet written in
Kinyarwanda that offers legal guidance, in collaboration
with INILAK instructors and local authorities-Distribution of 480 copies to resource people(paralegals, local authorities, etc.).

- Development of a pilot university curriculum inpartnership with INILAK.

Foundations proposed for along-term partnership
between the Institute and
HRFRA- Weekly meeting with instructors and the dean of theInstitute.
-Selection and training of 80 law students in legal aid
mechanisms.
.

10 | P a g e

IV.

EVALUATION FINDINGSThis evaluation is based on evaluation questions formulated to meet the evaluation criteria of theDevelopment Assistance Committee of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation andDevelopment. The questions and subquestions are found in Annex 1 of this document.

(i) Relevance
The HRFRA project, designed to give the population of the South Province’s Kamonyi district
access to justice and human rights education, was relevant, as it addressed the need for
improved legal mechanisms in rural areas and for training and basic education in civil rights. The
project document explicitly cited poverty as a factor militating against every citizen’s inalienable
right to justice—exacerbated by the variables of gender, geographic origin, and ethnic identity.
Following from this, it stated that the activities to be carried out would target “disadvantaged,
vulnerable, and poor segments of [the country] rural communities,” especially groups with agreater potential for vulnerability, namely “women, children and HiV Aids victims.”
The support for these groups
is a response to the highnumber of widows, orphans,and AIDS sufferers in the
country since 1994 and the
predominance of land tenure
issues brought before thecourts or referred for local
mediation. Numerous studies
cite the prevalence of landalienation in cases of illness,
polygamy,
divorce,or
succession (among orphans
who reach the age ofmajority;
the
right
of
primogeniture denied to Poverty levels in Rwanda
women; etc.). Some 80% of
the complaints brought to theLegal Aid Clinic were lodged by women. Fewer cases were brought by men, partly because
tradition offers greater protection of their land rights, and they were related more to theacknowledgement of paternity.
In light of this, the choice of the intervention area has proven especially relevant, as Rwanda’s
South Province, and without exception, the Kamonyi district, shows one of the country’s highest
poverty rates, as seen on the map7. Rwanda’s predominant rurality and the clear dependence on
income from farming in these areas where arable land is scarce are equally factors in poverty andby extension, exclusion from the legal system.
7

The evolution of poverty in Rwanda from 2000 to 2011, Results from the Household survey EICV, DFID, European Union and
UNDP Rwanda.

11 | P a g e

Thus, the decision to intervene in the Kamonyi district in the South Province, when the easternpart of the country has often been cited for its history of land tenure disputes and its heavy
demand for legal mediation, was based on the experience of the project’s university partner,
INILAK, in the province. The advantages of this prior experience are visible in several areas. In
addition to the direct proximity of the Kamonyi administrative center to Kigali, which facilitatedtravel by the INILAK students and the legal aid officer, it made it possible to assess the situation,
confirm the absence of a legal aid clinic, learn about problems in the area, and finally, create a
network for communicating and collaborating with the local authorities, who, it should be recalled,
also have local mediation systems and must approve the composition of any external assistance.
Following the standard procedures, the authorities were responsible for selecting the paralegals,
based on the criteria set by HRFRA during the preparation of the project document (secondary
education, good teaching profile, gender balance).
The intervention format proposed by HRFRA was equally relevant, as it was tailored to the local
legal mechanisms designed under the national reform to decentralize the justice system. In fact,
as illustrated in the diagram below, Rwanda decided to delegate the settlement of many disputes
to local bodies to free up a centralized system that was unable to handle them. In certain
respects, the paralegals were delegated the responsibilities of 12 mediators at the sector and celllevel. This was something different, with justice-seekers perceiving that the newly appointed
paralegals might not have the bias of an elected mediator.
The importance of the case determines
the where the dispute is heard and thetype of legal aid provided.
A so-called classical dispute is sent tomediation and remains at the local level.
More serious cases are heard by thelower courts. Their f ormat (a written brief )requires the litigant to have a basic
education and/or legal aid.

National level
Lower courts

Province and District
Lower courts

Lowerjurisdictions

SectorMediation Committee (Abunzi)
Mediation
CellMediation Committee (Abunzi)

At the time of the evaluation visit, an important law for inclusion in the general reform was being
debated. Among other things, it provided for expanding the right to plead cases to legal experts,
even those working in civil society organizations, since this prerogative is currently reserved formembers of the Bar. Involving young law students would integrate the project into the overall
process of expanding and professionalizing the field along less elitist lines. While in principle, theidea was really promising because of the sustainability that it offered, we will see further on thatthe way it was implemented could have been improved. It is unfortunate that the partnership
12 | P a g e

agreement did not specify more obligations for the parties involved. The clear absence of arequirement to produce results is reflected in the format for the student interventions, which wereneither graded nor individualized and ultimately had no impact on students obtaining credits
toward their education—especially, and even more importantly, toward their law degree.
However, the matters in which the population received legal aid, which were addressed in theinformational booklet, were local concerns. In a survey of 100 people, HRFRA found a clear
preponderance of matrimonial and land tenure issues. Annex 5 contains the detailed results ofthe survey.
The figure below on the number and nature of the cases filed shows, by the correspondence
among the issues, that HRFRA was responding to the needs of the target population—needs thatare also described as “critical” in the annual reports of the Ombudsman.

(ii) EffectivenessThe project can certainly be saluted for its effectiveness. It implemented 90% of the activities
programmed and achieved nearly all the intended outcomes. This result is even more positive
when the efficiency considerations detailed in the next section are taken into account.
The following activities have been effectively implemented, sometimes exceeding the initialexpectations.
- The Legal Aid Clinic was
created and operational during
the period programmed. A
reception center, more than a clinic,
this facility received residents of theKamonyi district in a formal setting.
As planned, the clinic was run by alegal aid officer, an attorney bytraining. Based in Kigali, this young
woman remained in this position forthe life of the project and was stillworking at the time of theevaluation visit, six months after the
project had ended. Likewise,
HRFRA was still using the clinic
facilities, thanks to British funding
from the National Lottery.

4000
3500
3000
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
0

3340
2327

2599 2746
1816
1283

2016
1314 1176 1452

1131

1

21,200 cases dealt with by Human Rights First Rwanda
Association between 2011 and 2012

The position of legal aid officer was
clearly at the heart of all theactivities. The centrality of this key post could have put the project at risk. No particular strategy
seems to have mitigated this risk from the outset. On the other hand, monthly monitoring was
guaranteed by visits from the legal aid officer to headquarters in Kigali and the submission ofmonthly reports and by occasional visits from the Kigali-based project director, who was replacedin June 2012, six months before the project ended.
13 | P a g e

Monthly visitor records attest to high use of theclinic, especially when it opened (700 people vs. 500
per month, on average). These figures corroborate
the effectiveness of HRFRA’s small-scale publicity
campaign, which involved the distribution of posters
and brochures, the broadcasting of radio messages,
and communication via community networks(religious or public).
The project had no difficulty meeting the quantitative
objective of handling 12,480 cases over the life of
the project and attaining almost double that figure:
21,200 cases in two years, as seen in the figure
above. Here, it should be noted that the term “casehandled” means initial legal advice or counseling,
but nothing systematically as in a case resolved.
This caveat in no way detracts from the relevance of
the intervention or its response to existing needs.

“I am proud to have worked on manycases and to have enabled fairsettlements to be reached.” Gaudiane
UMUTESI, legal aid officer cites theexample of a girl orphaned by the
genocide
whose
neighbor
had
expropriated her murdered parents’land.
The young lady sought help from theclinic. Gaudiane went with her to findthe neighbor and when she wasrebuffed, accompanied her to thesector chief, who found in her favor andobliged the neighbor to return the
expropriated land.

A paralegal network was created and its members trained.
HRFRA easily completed the first compulsory stage of joint identification of the paralegals. It is
actually common for local authorities to take over certain stages of a project of this type.
Information on the content, modalities, and objectives of the intervention should be shared inadvance. For example, a survey should be authorized by the government’s statistics authorities
or conducted informally. Implementationof this initial stage was successful forseveral reasons, among them theaccreditation of HRFRA, formerly
annuallyandthensporadically,
considered hard to obtain and detailed
further on under the heading “UNDEF
value added,” and the existing
relationship between the authorities and
INILAK. It can therefore be said that theresources deployed by HRFRA and its
partner made a real contribution to theimplementation of the activities planned.
The legal aid officer regularly advised
the paralegals and accompanied them,when necessary, before the respective
legal bodies. Moreover, INILAK’s Paralegal training – Kamonyi, May 2011
instructors provided the training andoversaw the preparation of the booklet on the fundamentals of rights, as planned.
If the paralegals were generally satisfied with the training, it should be noted that it was really like
lifting the veil from a thoroughly abstract and obscure topic: the fundamentals of rights, thearticulation among the various judicial bodies, and their hierarchical structure. Similarly, thebooklet prepared by the project was very well received. Written in Kinyarwanda and containing a
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brief and concise discussion of issues selected through surveys, this succinct 23-page booklet
appears to have been built on a solid foundation. Nevertheless, while the absence of an English
version is by no means problematic, it is unfortunate that the booklet did not make greater use ofillustrations, considering the level of circulation envisaged. Even if the readership were literate,
the paralegals could have made good use of the diagrams or illustrations when counseling clientsor to facilitate understanding and appropriation of a case. In this case, certain illustrations werebarely legible due to lack of a suitable font size and sometimes the rather poor quality of theprinting. These factors should be considered if similar support materials need to be printed. The
budget for this project covered printing costs for only 480 copies.
In addition, the higher social status gained by paralegals in
the community undoubtedly contributed to the construction
and strengthening of the paralegal network. This status had
real advantages, such as apprenticeship in the fundamentalsof rights, and gave volunteers valuable recognized work of 12 hours per week that was occasionally remunerated whentravel was involved (a fixed rate of 5,000RWF, equivalent to
the daily wages of a farmer). While the value accorded thisvolunteer work encouraged paralegals to get involved,
HRFRA still had to find ways to temper as much as possible
the risk of problems such as those for which the Abunzi had
been criticized (ill-informed judgments, bias, etc.). This risk
could have been mitigated, for example, by more regularmonitoring of the quality of the counseling provided andperhaps more formal monitoring by the legal aid officer or, in
Booklet on human rights and new ways by the INILAK instructor.
access to justice from Human
Rights First Rwanda Association

Law students were mobilized and a lasting partnership was established with the
Independent Institute of Lay Adventists of Kigali (INILAK). Getting the students involved in settling
disputes in rural areas is incontestably an ingenious and promising initiative. It is a perfect fix forthe deficiencies of the student environment–that is, a lack of hands-on experience, coupled withlack of opportunities for internships in a country with high youth unemployment–and with therealities of a profession eager for new competencies.
HRFRA and INILAK can certainly encourage this approach and proclaim its legitimacy andinnovative nature, because there was only one equivalent program in the country at the time ofthe evaluation visit. Since 2006, the National University of Rwanda (NUR) has in fact had asimilar mechanism in the remote district of Butare in the South Province. Based on the same
principle, students offer legal advice– however, without representing people before the law. For
six weeks they counsel clinic clients under the watchful eye of the legal aid officer. HRFRA and
INILAK fulfilled the commitments set forth in the project document. Eighty students were identified
and trained and then helped to settle disputes in the Kamonyi district under the supervision of an
instructor from INILAK. HRFRA and INILAK signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU),
holding several meetings to select an appropriate curriculum for this module. Nevertheless, areading of the MoU, coupled with interviews of the students, the dean of the law school, and the
director of HRFRA show that not enough mechanisms were set up to guarantee the quality andeffectiveness of student interventions.
15 | P a g e

The validity of the initiative was undermined by thefollowing:- The students were under no obligation to
produce results. While visits were compulsory,
they were not a condition for obtaining credit ora diploma. The absence of grading clearly
diminished the impact on students and theircommitment to the initiative.
- Although the students had to handle particularcases, they were not responsible, for example,
for conducting a thorough case review. Morethan once, absenteeism during the exam
period was brought to the evaluators’ attention.
All the same, while the students all confirmed
the importance of having learned about thesituation in rural areas, the absence of athorough review of a given case may havedetracted from the quality of the learning andmade it difficult to take full advantage of theprocess to raise their awareness, and byextension, the work on the ethics of theprofession mentioned in the project document.
- In terms of the INILAK instructors, a supervisor Launch of the Human Rights andwas responsible for mentoring the students and Justice Booklet in Kamonyi – INILAK
students
advising them during their visits, but thevolunteer status of this post was certainly no benefit to the project. A resource person
financed part-time could have improved the framework for the students’ intervention.

(iii) Efficiency
The ratio of the resources invested in this project to the results obtained is especially positive.
HRFRA obtained maximal results with a minimal budget. In fact, it met and sometimes exceeded
all of its quantitative objectives on time, notwithstanding the reservations about the quality of theframework of the INILAK students’ interventions. Given the meager resources invested, it islaudable that HRFRA managed to achieve such good outcomes. Taking the number of cases
handled by the clinic (excluding those targeted by the student-run public awareness campaigns),
the cost per case was US$0.35. The breakdown of expenditures by post shows high-to-medium
efficiency. This slight variation by no means detracts from the positive assessment of theefficiency of the project, whose organizational and financial effort and mobilization of theresources necessary for that performance should be saluted. It is also testimony to the good
cooperation between the two partners.

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In terms of costs, the expenditures were balanced. Most of the funds were allocated in almost
equal proportions to:- staffing (including the full-time salary of thelegal aid officer and the part-time salary of theaccountant for a 2-year period), for a total of
US$18,600, or US$775 per month for 1.5
persons;- training sessions (locale for classrooms,
transportation, and meals) for the 80
paralegals (5 days) and 80 INILAK students(4 days), for a total of US$14,400, or US$20
per day per person;- US$12,000 for the design, printing, anddistribution of 480 booklets on justice andhuman rights (at a reasonably efficient cost of
Paralegal training in Kamonyi – May 2011
US$25 each).
- The clinic locale (US$6,600 for a 2-year lease, or US$275 per month) and the technicalcontribution of the INILAK instructors (US$2,400) to the training and curricula came to
US$10,000.
As mentioned above, HRFRA had to rethink its action plan and the allocation of its funds
following an error concerning the length of the project. The budget of US$60,000 was initiallycalculated for a period of one year—admittedly, with identical results but with staff hired for ashorter period, resulting in lower costs. The immediate consequence of extending the project
was to rethink the nature of the interventions by key personnel, especially those of its partner,
INILAK, and solicit volunteers to work with the project. While INILAK accepted this change andconfirmed its participation during the evaluation visit, it also noted that its staff had visited theclinic on its own time without any compensation. The impact of this situation on the quality of theassistance is easy to predict. Nevertheless, under the circumstances, HRFRA appears to havechosen the best alternative and successfully bet on operating almost entirely with volunteers.
While this alternative is clearly feasible in the case of paralegals, where HRFRA discarded theidea of compensation from the outset, it is hardly likely that a repeat of this experience would be
acceptable to—or accepted by–any partner. On the other hand, under more favorable financial
terms, there would be no reason not to hire someone to assist the students.
Nevertheless, under identical financial conditions, it could be recommended that HRFRA and
INILAK give their students more responsibility, not unlike the National University of Rwanda,
which has chosen to require students to do six-week internships. Even if the content of the
instruction differs and HRFRA introduces students to pleading cases, the continuity of thisapproach appears to heighten student engagement and foster more in-depth exploration of the
day-to-day practical and technical issues in rural areas. This scheme seems more amenable tocloser monitoring of a specific case.

(iv)

Impact

The impact of projects associated with democracy issues can be seen in changes in attitudes
and practices. It is therefore a matter of determining whether they have changed how themembers of the target groups and beneficiaries behave and whether the situation on the groundis beginning to change.
17 | P a g e

Of course, in a qualitative project like this one, any changes that occur cannot necessarily be
attributed to the project’s activities. An attempt can reasonably be made, however, to identify the
impact factors that are moving in the direction desired by the project.
The project document and final report provide facts that can serve as baseline information about
the situation in the Kamonyi district prior to the project, namely:- There was no “legal clinic” in the district;- The population was dependent on mediators with little or no training, in numbers
proportionately inadequate to the number of requests for mediation;- The exclusivity of the Bar, concentrated in Kigali, and the poverty that is rife in rural areas
effectively deny most of the population, especially vulnerable groups, the right to justice.
- The low educational level in rural areas not only militates against the equitable settlementof disputes but fosters injustice.
Given this baseline data, the following can be said about the impact of the project:- The project improved legal structures and services in the Kamnoyi district andcontributed to the national decentralization effort, and more specifically, to greater justiceat the local level. A clinic was opened and the public mediators, 13 per cell or sector
committee, received reinforcements in the form of a network of 80 district residents
trained to serve as volunteer paralegals.
- The paralegals’ application of their newly acquired knowledge not only raised the basic
educational level of part of the district’s population but legitimized a significant number ofissues that had traditionally been ignored due to lack of means. The services provided tothe population instilled in citizens the principles of legitimacy and the right to justice. On a
personal level, they led to the lodging of some complaints.
- By including women in the paralegal network, the project promoted representativenessand the defense of women’s interests at the local level. While Rwanda is among theworld’s best examples of women’s political representativeness, progress must still bemade when it comes to justice for women, especially in rural areas where customary andpatriarchal law prevails. This special attention made women more comfortable explaining
their problems than they would have been with mediators, who were generally men of anage more inclined to respect customs. This effort complemented a recent initiative by the
Ministry of Gender and Family, which in early 2013 introduced the “Umugoroba
evenings”–public events to enable women to interact
and share advice.
“Ignorance of the law is no
excuse”, but in reality, laws are- The project improved the training of INILAK law
passed by Parliament andstudents, introducing a practical dimension thatpublished in the official gazette,brought them closer to local issues and realities. By
and the people don’t know
extension, it developed and strengthened theanything about it […] In theprofession and steered its interventions toward
beginning,
duringthefirstneglected rural areas.
contact, it was hard to explain- It also significantly raised awareness among Kigalithings clearly to people, but thatlaw students about the legal situation and recurrent
soon disappeared, and after two
problems in rural areas and how the law wasmonths a book could be written
enforced there year in and year out, as well as theabout all the issues and cases
handled and explained.”
population’s low level of education. Some students
M. BAGAZA, INILAK student
expressed astonishment at the types of problems in
the Kamonyi district, while others said that the
18 | P a g e

project had led them to change their educational or career plans. Certain INILAK
students actually chose to write their thesis on a case that they had been involved withduring their work in Kamonyi.

(v) Sustainability
At the time of the evaluation visit in May 2013, five months after the project had ended, the legal
aid clinic was still open and the legal aid officer still in her post. Moreover, the paralegals who
had been working with the project had joined the HRFRA project financed by the British National
Lottery, factors indicative of the HRFRA’s stable sustainability strategy.
HRFRA’s sustainability strategy is based on the following elements: (i) its partnership withINILAK, which is familiar with the area and the local authorities, and its network stemming fromits membership in the Legal Aid Forum; (ii) its network of paralegals, created prior to the UNDEF
project with one year of funding from Europe, assembled first in a database and further
developed over the three additional years of the project funded by the British National Lottery,
and finally (iii) its specialization in land tenure law, a major–if not the main–source of disputes in
Rwanda, signaled by the orientation of its new flagship project “Your Land, Your Right.”
The institutional and societal roots of HRFRA and INILAK in Kigali and the Kamonyi district are asustainability factor that cannot be emphasized enough. Implementation of the project waspossible due to the authorities’ recognition of the two partners, notably thanks to HRFRA’s
accreditation, and to past INILAK interventions in Kamonyi. These played a significant role in the
success of the activities and laid the foundation for collaboration in the district.
Furthermore, the priority accorded by HRFRA to upgrading the paralegals’ skills, and, as aninnovative element, those of the students, is testimony to its strategic vision of building humancapital. The project sought to create a multiplier effect through the training and experiences ofthe volunteer paralegals and students, who once it was over, would be able to foster anunderstanding of the law and the settlement of disputes.
This multiplier effect is also heightened by the booklet on human rights, with 480 copies in print,
which should allow the effects of the project to persist, even after it ended.
The project’s emphasis on training women paralegals is another key factor in sustainability, as
the higher social status acquired through training encourages women to become more invested
in their communities, thanks to the mechanisms for recognition and confidence building.
All of these factors undeniably contributed to the organization’s financial sustainability, signaled
by its regular procurement of substantial funding from an array of donors and the budget
restructuring that it proved capable of accomplishing at the start of the project: signs oforganizational and financial competence.

(vi)

UNDEF value added

At the project start-up, any civil society organization (CSO) wishing to operate had to obtain
annual accreditation. To do so, each CSO had to fulfill a series of requirements (activities
reports, description of training and its content, profile of the target group, etc.) A balanced
19 | P a g e

budget being one of them, UNDEF—at the time, HRFRA’s primary source of funding—helped theorganization secure that accreditation.
Since then, thanks to a new law passed in 2013, the accreditation is now permanent. HRFRA is
one of the CSOs to have obtained it.

V.

CONCLUSIONS(i) The project offered a highly relevant response to the district’s needs.
That response was based on a preliminary needs assessment that analyzed the nationalsituation and then, the impact of concentrating judicial resources in districts outside the capital—
districts, moreover, with one of the highest levels of poverty in the country. This conclusion isdrawn from the observations on the relevance of the intervention.

(ii) Furthermore, by agreeing to provide counseling for all cases andsurveying the population to learn its major concerns, the project was able to target its
activities and develop specific tools for land tenure and matrimonial disputes. This approachled to HRFRA’s subject specialization and the high quality of the interventions in thisarea. This conclusion is drawn from the observations on the relevance and sustainability of theintervention.
(iii) HRFRA and INILAK met their commitments and even exceeded someof the programmed outcomes. The two NGOs displayed good organizational capacity andenjoyed the recognition of their peers, which enabled them to move forward with the project.
They mobilized a not inconsiderable network of volunteers that made possible both
extensive assimilation of the content transmitted and the intended outcomes. Thisconclusion is drawn from the comments on the effectiveness and relevance of the project.
(iv) Remarkably, thanks to the HRFRA and INILAK networks, the project
carried out all the programmed activities at minimal cost. While this is laudable, it isunfortunate that supplementary funding was not available to guarantee and optimize assistanceto the students. This would undoubtedly have increased the value of the initiative, whose
outcomes were slightly below its basic ambitions and objectives for lack of a specific strategy
and means. This conclusion is drawn from the comments on the relevance and efficiency of the
project.
(v) The project fostered the development of key human capital. It
created a network of paralegals in the district. The higher social status afforded womenguaranteed the paralegals’ civic engagement with their communities and gave women access
20 | P a g e

to the justice lacking in the application of traditional customary law to land tenure andmatrimonial issues. The deployment of these human resources and the dissemination of
their knowledge legitimized the grievances of each plaintiff, an important step in ending
judicial exclusion.

(vi) The law students all commented that this experience had raised theirawareness, noting its impact on their view of the profession. According to the statements
obtained, some students intensified the experience by making it their thesis topic, as observed in
the section on the impact of the project.
(vii) The project’s sustainability strategy was characterized bycontinuous strengthening of its paralegal network and its specialization in land tenure
and matrimonial issues. These factors undoubtedly contributed to the NGO’s stability and thesustainability of its activities. The successive funding received by the NGO attests to this.

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VI.

RECOMMENDATIONS(i) Based on conclusions v and vii, it is recommended that Human Rights
First Rwanda Association continue its ongoing effort to build local capacity and upgrade theskills of paralegals. Further development of the mechanisms for supervising and training
the paralegals is desirable to guarantee the quality of their legal counseling and guard
against the stumbles observed and reported to the existing authorities (lack of training, thebias of certain judgments, etc.). HRFRA’s assistance to the paralegals, thanks in particular to thecontinued funding, makes it possible to envision a level of training higher than a basic education.
(ii) In order to optimize the human capital that was mobilized, the evaluators
encourage HRFRA and INILAK to develop a more explicit partnership framework—one, forexample, with annual numerical objectives. A similar project should envision assigning an
INILAK resource to monitor the visits and mentor the students as support for the legal aid officer,
whose responsibilities should not be focused entirely in that direction. This recommendation
follows from conclusions iii and vi.

(iii) The students’ intervention format should be more binding to reduce
the risk of absenteeism and maximize the initiative’s impact on their professional andpersonal development. HRFRA and INILAK should ensure that student participation andcertain exercises are graded and count towards a diploma. In this same vein, HRFRA and
INILAK could explore the possibility of integral assistance—that is, assistance from beginning toend. This could be done individually or with groups, depending on the practices in place. In any
event, an approach of this type would encourage greater responsibility and more intensive workon the ethics of the profession. This recommendation follows from conclusion iii.
(iv) Finally, it would be desirable to further develop the printed support
material and continue distributing it to paralegals with a view to its replication andassimilation. The material should be more didactic while conserving a flexible format like theone adopted. It should be written in the local language; its length should be reasonable; and theclarity of the examples and visual support, as well as the memorability of the illustrations, shouldbe improved. This recommendation follows from conclusion vi.

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VII. ANNEXESANNEX 1: EVALUATION QUESTIONS
DAC
criterion
Relevance

Evaluation Question

Related sub-questions

To what extent was the project,
 Were the objectives of the project in line with the needs andas designed and implemented,
priorities for democratic development, given the context?
suited to context and needs at the  Should another project strategy have been preferred rather thanbeneficiary, local, and national
the one implemented to better reflect those needs, priorities, andlevels?
context? Why?
 Were risks appropriately identified by the projects? Howappropriate are/were the strategies developed to deal withidentified risks? Was the project overly risk-averse?

Effectiveness To what extent was the project,
as implemented, able to achieve
objectives and goals?

 To what extent have the project’s objectives been reached?
 To what extent was the project implemented as envisaged by the
project document? If not, why not?

 Were the project activities adequate to make progress towards
the project objectives?

 What has the project achieved? Where it failed to meet theoutputs identified in the project document, why was this?
Efficiency

To what extent was there areasonable relationship between
resources expended and project
impacts?

 Was there a reasonable relationship between project inputs andproject outputs?

 Did institutional arrangements promote cost-effectiveness andaccountability?

 Was the budget designed, and then implemented, in a way thatenabled the project to meet its objectives?
ImpactTo what extent has the project put  To what extent has/have the realization of the project objective(s)in place processes andand project outcomes had an impact on the specific problem theprocedures supporting the role ofproject aimed to address?
civil society in contributing to Have the targeted beneficiaries experienced tangible impacts?
democratization, or to direct
Which were positive; which were negative?
promotion of democracy?
 To what extent has the project caused changes and effects,
positive and negative, foreseen and unforeseen, on
democratization?
 Is the project likely to have a catalytic effect? How? Why?
Examples?

Sustainability To what extent has the project, as
designed and implemented,
created what is likely to be acontinuing impetus towards
democratic development?

 To what extent has the project established processes and

UNDEF
value-added What was UNDEF able to accomplish, through the project, that

To what extent was UNDEF able
to take advantage of its uniqueposition and comparativeadvantage to achieve results that
could not have been achieved
had support come from other
donors?

systems that are likely to support continued impact?

 Are the involved parties willing and able to continue the project
activities on their own (where applicable)?

could not as well have been achieved by alternative projects,
other donors, or other stakeholders (Government, NGOs, etc.).
 Did project design and implementing modalities exploit
UNDEF‟ s comparative advantage in the form of an explicit
mandate to focus on democratization issues?

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ANNEX 2: DOCUMENTS REVIEWED
Project documents:
Project Document, UDF-RWA-09-303
Mid-term Progress Report
Memorandum of Understanding
Project booklet on human rights

External sources:
Rwanda Ministry of Justice – Bar of Lawyers: http://www.rwanda.rw/justice/index.php
Rwanda 2003 Constitution: http://democratie.francophonie.org/IMG/pdf/Rwanda.pdf
Ombudsman Office: http://ombudsman.gov.rw/; Annual Report 2010/2011.
Rwanda Ministry of Education: http://www.mineduc.gov.rw/
Legal Aid Forum: http://www.legalaidrwanda.org/- The evolution of poverty in Rwanda from 2000 to 2011, results from the household survey (EICV),National institute of statistics of Rwanda, February 2012.
http://eeas.europa.eu/delegations/rwanda/documents/press_corner/news/poverty_report_en.pdf

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ANNEX 3: SCHEDULE OF INTERVIEWS

Job NZOVU RUZAGELouis BUSINGYE
RobertTURAHEBWA
Emmanuel MAZIMPAKA
Baptiste BAGAZA
Laetitia MUHORAKEYE
Doncille UWINGENEYE
Marie GrâceTUYISENGE
Alice NIRERE
Blaise Pascal NIYIBIZI
Denis TWINOMUGISHALouise UFITABE

5 May 2013 – Arrival in country
6 May 2013
Executive Director, HRFRA
Program Coordinator
Dean of the Law Faculty - INILAK
INILAK Law Teacher in charge of follow up of theLegal Aid Clinic
Law students at INILAK

7 May 2013
Travel to Kamonyi
ClarisseMunezero
Madia NYIRAFARANGA
Godeberthe MUKANDAHIRO
Annonciata BANYANGIRIKI
Cassien NDIMDIKI
Philomène MUKASHEMA
Veronique NZAMUTUMAMarie Goretti MUREKATETE
Novatha DUSABEYEZU
Beatha UGINASIM
Elina MUKANTWALI
Agnès UWIRAGIYE
Marie Jeanne TUYISHIMIRE
Zaworda UWIMAMA
Clémentine MUKANGENZI
Gaudiane UMUTESI

Legal officer
Paralegals from Kamonyi district

Joint Development Action Forum
Beneficiaries from Kamonyi district

Project Legal officer
8 May 2013
Andrews KANANGA
Executive Director, Legal Aid Forum
Elie NIZEYIMANA
Lawyer, Haguruka
Job NZOVU RUZAGEExecutive Director, HRFRA
9 May 2013
Emmanuel Safari
Executive Director, CLADHO
Christophe HATEGEKIMANA
Information
andDocumentation
Officer,
LIPRODHOR
10 May 2013 = travel of the international consultants
13 May 2013
Anastase BALINDA
National Secretariat Coordinator for the Community
Mediators( Abunzi), Ministry of Justice

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ANNEX 4: LIST OF ACRONYMS

GNU
HRFRA
INILAK
JDAF
MAJ
MoU
NUR
OSC
UNDEF

Government of National Unity
Human Right First Rwanda Association
Institute of Lay Adventists of Kigali
Joint Development Action Forum
Maison d’accès à la JusticeMemorandum of Understanding
National University of Rwanda
Organisation de la société civile
United Nations Democracy Fund

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ANNEX 5: BOOKLET SURVEY

Responses to the Survey Questionnaire administered to community members in Kamonyi District inpreparation for the writing the booklet on human rights.
100 persons responded to the questionnaire, and their answers are below:
1. Have you faced any problems relating to Justice? If yes explain
70% of them have already problem pending within the justice institutions.
2. If No do you know anybody who has faced problems in relation to justice? Please explain
30% of them have friends or neighbors who reported cases to the justice institutions.
3. In your own opinion What is the purpose of law
The purpose of the law for them is to settle disputes.
4. Are our laws easy and user friendly
80% answered that laws are not simple to understand and most of them are illiterate.
5. What laws do you frequently encounter
The laws, they frequently encounter are:
The law on matrimonial regimes, succession and liberalities
The law on land use and management in Rwanda
The law on prevention and punishment of Gender Based Violence
The law on the rights and protection of the child
6. Kindly tell us what laws you think should be included in this booklet
The laws they want to be included in the booklet are:
The law related to human rights
The law on matrimonial regimes, succession and liberalities
The law on land use and management in Rwanda;
The law related to the settlement of disputes.

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