This paper examines the current status
of justice and dispute-resolution mechanisms in Bangladesh,
ranging from the formal justice system to the traditional
shalish (a form of dispute resolution), and focuses on the
costs and benefits of utilizing nongovernmental organization
(NGO)-led legal services programs as an alternative form of
justice delivery and dispute resolution for the poor, with a
focus on women and girls. In particular, this paper takes a

Community-based paralegalism has been
active in the Philippines for the past 30 years, and yet its
contribution to access to justice and the advancement of the
rights and entitlements of the poor has been largely an
undocumented. This paper attempts to provide a framework
study on the history, nature, and scope of paralegal work in
the Philippines, based on the experience of 12 organizations
that are active in the training and development of

In Africa, women are subjected to
discriminatory practices that keep them in a vulnerable
situation. Their limited access to land, in a continent
where the majority of the population depends on agriculture,
reduces their access to credit and their capacity to
undertake sustainable economic activities to generate
income. They hold only 18 percent of agricultural lands and
are not better off in administrations. In Cote

Community-based paralegalism has been
active in the Philippines for the past 30 years, and yet its
contribution to access to justice and the advancement of the
rights and entitlements of the poor has been largely
undocumented. This paper attempts to provide a framework
study on the history, nature, and scope of paralegal work in
the Philippines, based on the experience of 12 organizations
that are active in the training and development of

This note on integrating
gender-sensitive disaster risk management (DRM) in
community-driven development (CDD) Programs is the sixth in
a series of guidance notes on gender issues in DRM in the
East Asia and the Pacific region. Targeting World Bank
staff, clients and development partners, this note gives an
overview of the main reasons for incorporating
gender-sensitive DRM into CDD programs, identifies the key

This note on gender-sensitive
post-disaster assessments is the eighth in a series of
guidance notes on gender issues in disaster risk management
(DRM) in the East Asia and the Pacific region. Targeting
World Bank staff, clients and development partners, this
note gives an overview of the main reasons for assessing
gender impacts as part of a post-disaster needs assessment,
identifies the key challenges, and recommends strategies and

The Multi Donor Fund for Aceh and Nias
(MDF) and the Java Reconstruction Fund (JRF) have played
significant roles in the remarkable recovery of Aceh, Nias
and Java, following some of the worst disasters in Indonesia
in recent years. The MDF and the JRF, which is patterned
after it, are each considered a highly successful model for
post-disaster reconstruction. This paper presents lessons
from the MDF and JRF's efforts to facilitate

This briefing note outlines the reform
process that produced these notable results, a process that
began with targeted grassroots empowerment through
engagement with PEKKA, an Indonesian civil society
organization supporting women headed households. Formal
justice sector institutions and local governments
subsequently built on those efforts, with support from
international development agencies. The note will outline

Gender-poverty-environment links: a
focus on the links between gender disparity, poverty and
environmental degradation is increasingly recognized as a
key strategy for improving the lives of poor women and men.
Acknowledging the ways in which relationships between the
environment, society and the economy are gendered opens
space for new approaches to poverty reduction, environmental
conservation and gender equality. The Social Development

The institutional landscape of local
dispute resolution in Bangladesh is rich: it includes the
traditional process of shalish, longstanding and impressive
civil society efforts to improve on shalish, and a somewhat
less-explored provision for gram adalat or village courts.
Based on a nationally representative survey, qualitative
evidence from focus groups, and a telephone survey of 40
Union Parishad chairpersons (a little less than 1 percent of

As donors pledge growing support for
protecting and managing forests to address climate change,
the question of how to pay tropical countries to reduce
their emissions from deforestation and forest degradation
assumes greater urgency. Depending on the detailed
implementation of REDD plus at a national and international
level, forest nations may be able to secure funding from a
range of sources, including donors and multilateral funds (a

This study examines and evaluates
developments in the Justice Law and Order Sector (JLOS)
institutions, noting both the achievements and continuing
challenges of reform under first phase Sector Investment
Plan (SIP I) and SIP II. It pays particular attention to the
SIP guidelines and objectives and to the outstanding
challenges described in various reviews of the JLOS
institutions, more specifically: (a) the commercial court;