Spotlight: Liberia
Transforming Liberia's Justice System (JROL)
Liberia's justice system has faced significant challenges, including prolonged court disposition times, ambiguous jurisdictional boundaries, limited access to legal information, high costs, insufficient judicial services in rural areas, and inadequate staffing and resource allocation. To assess and address these issues, the World Bank introduced the Justice Pillars Towards Evidence-based Reform (JUPITER) assessment. This pioneering framework benchmarks judicial effectiveness in access to justice, efficiency, and quality.
The implementation of JUPITER in Liberia has been transformative, providing a clear, data-backed picture of the justice system's performance and fostering an informed policy dialogue among stakeholders. This has laid the groundwork for prioritizing and sequencing justice reforms, ensuring a collaborative approach to improving judicial services. Moreover, JUPITER's success in Liberia has sparked interest across Africa, with countries like South Sudan and Kenya now looking to adopt this methodology to enhance their own judicial systems. The World Bank's efforts are setting a precedent for the region, paving the way for a more just and equitable future.
