International Consortium for Law and Development

Knowledge in the Service of Democratic Social Change

Capacity Building

ICLAD's Capacity Building Program works with colleagues and organizations to develop and implement comprehensive projects to strengthen the lawmaking process according to local need. This program area also focuses on building the critical role of local civil society groups to contribute to the development of participatory law-making through networking local NGOs and facilitating the participation of civil society members in national and local level workshops.

Essentially this program area aims to “fill the gaps” in countries where initial projects or workshops were held, but not followed up on, or where in-country organizations lack the capacity to institutionalize a legislative strengthening program throughout the country’s law-making spheres.

ICLAD will support the institutionalization of on-going, in-country projects to equip legislators and their staffs, civil servants, drafters, interdisciplinary teams of educators, and non-government organization and civil society leaders to engage in law-making processes that foster good governance and development.

The goal of this program area is to support the capacity of in-country persons and organizations to lead their own training programs and take ownership of on-going in-country projects. This kind of ownership is an essential part of ICLAD.  

The project design process consists of:

  • Planning and assessment - including identifying project goals, funding sources, in-country institutional partners and project length
  • Project design - including identifying indicators for success, drafting a timeline and a budget and targeting participants
  • Project implementation - engaging country-nationals as facilitators and assisting them in obtaining support for on-going programs
  • Project monitoring and evaluation - monitoring project implementation based on achievement of objectives and adherance to the timeline and budget; continuous monitoring and project re-evaluation will ensure that projects address changing needs
  • Ongoing support - including collaborative research and information-exchange networks

A project might include:

  • Training programs for in-country workshops for legislators, educators, drafters, government officials and their staff
  • Trainings for local civil society NGOs, advocacy groups, community organizations, and university centers to improve their ability to participate meaningfully in good governance advocacy, fill a watchdog role in society, and contribute their knowledge to the lawmaking process
  • Advanced in-country workshops around specific areas of concern to advance policy and legislative directives and to provide a “training of the trainers” by building local capacity for training,
  • Country and language-specific training manuals and materials
  • Inter-disciplinary research centers for improved local research capacity
  • University courses developed with support from professors already teaching clinical and theoretical courses in the use of law to promote good governance and democratic social change
  • Local and global alliances for learning support, initial training workshops, and to support the development of local leaders within government, civil society and universities from project participants and facilitators to continue the project in the years to come

For an example of a current project, click here.

If you need capacity building assistance, please contact Ann Seidman . We look forward to working with your organization to develop a legislative-strengthening program to meet your country's needs.