Law Education and Expertise Center "House of Justice" and USAID Rule of Law 1 Year Project Report
ANNEX E1:
Project Final Narrative Report
Not to exceed 10 pages in total.
If you have any questions regarding the completion and submission of this report, please feel free to contact Anna Jobava, Civil Society and Grants Advisor at ajobava@ewmi.org
General Information:
Organization:
House of Justice (HoJ)
Grant number:
G-2069-22-211-3047-20
Project title:
Improving Practical Skills of Acting and Future Legal Professionals
Report submission date: 11/03/2023
Project start and end date: 09/01/2022 – 09/30/2023
Contact person for the project (name, phone, e-mail): HoJ Director, Eka Beselia
eka.beselia@gmail.com
Total project budget:
$ 42,805
Expenditure:
$ 42,793.66
Remaining balance:
$ 11.37
Overall Performance
Provide a concise yet comprehensive overview of key achievements and progress toward the project objectives set forth in your proposal. Include a narrative description of activities implemented per objective, and indicate what was planned against what was actually achieved.
Within the Project, House of Justice (HoJ) delivered two similar study programs that improved practical skills of the acting and future professionals. This was achieved through delivering total seven study courses within each of the two 6 months study programs. Each course, delivered by the professional trainers (acting professors and/or former officials), transferred knowledge and practical skills to beneficiaries in their respective fields. The courses were designed in close consultations with HoJ’s partner universities - Shota Meskhia State University, Batumi Shota Rustaveli State University, and Grigol Robakidze University (Tbilisi and Batumi branches), Kutaisi Akaki Tseretely University and Telavi Iakob Gogebashvili University. This ensured the Project was addressing the gaps identified in the universities’ conventional study programs and students were receiving appropriate skills and information. The Project beneficiaries (majority of them being law students) were selected through open call/ advertisements as well as nominations by the partner universities. The selected candidates were from different regions of Georgia. The delivered online classes were complemented by practical exercises carried out during in -person meetings to ensure the taught theory was put in practice properly. For this purpose the trainers were visiting partner universities and using their premises for delivering exercises.
Summary of Results
Fill out the indicator tracking tool. Make sure that you report against all indicators included in the Annex B – Project Description. Provide concrete means of verification (documents) for each indicator, and the variance explanatory note where necessary. Add and remove rows if needed.
Indicators Target Actual Status achieved in % Means of Verification Collected Note on variance of more than 10%
Objective 1:
Increase the access of law students and legal professionals to practice-oriented, skills-based and experiential learning
Output 1.1
Practice oriented, skills based and experiential learning course is designed for law students and legal professionals
7 7 100% Course syllabi; quarterly reports
Output 1.2
Law students and legal professionals are trained to increase their research and practical skills 48 69 144% Attendance sheets, evaluation forms, certificates granted Project was able to engage more beneficiaries then planned
Engaging the beneficiaries
Please describe how beneficiaries’ (institutions, and/or individual citizens and groups of citizens) participation was ensured and reflected in the project.
How did you involve project’s beneficiaries in project’s implementation?
The project beneficiaries were selected through HoJ’s partner universities as well as applications received through advertisement posted on Jobs.ge website.
How did your activities affect the beneficiaries? Please, include the intended and unintended, positive and negative consequences of your project on its target communities. Activities improved beneficiaries’ practical skills and knowledge in areas such as, for instance: communication, emotional intellect, managing civil as well as criminal law cases, court trials, negotiations and diplomacy, protecting personal data, legal ethics,etc.
How did you assess beneficiaries’ satisfaction? Describe the feedback and complaint mechanisms (if any) utilized within the project.
HoJ collected anonymous feedback from participants at the end of each 6 months study program (twice in total). Participants were provided with questionnaires that requested their answers about, among others, the content, appropriateness and quality of the courses delivered. About 90% of the participants evaluated the course very positively. Many of them noted the program contributed to their professional and personal growth. Some participants asked for more practical exercises to be delivered in person (that the project budget did not allow).
Please describe project’s most notable success
Describe the project achievement that you consider the most important and provide a brief explanation of its significance. If applicable, include the quotes of project beneficiaries and/or stakeholders, noting the positive impact of the project.
The key achievements:
• Within both programs HoJ engaged significantly more participants then planned (69 participants instead of target 48). HoJ engaged more universities (five in total) then planned that ensured coverage of more regions in the country. Delivered public lectures also allowed engagement of non-program participants in project’s activities, as a result hundreds of interested individuals attended lectures and participated in debates.
• The delivered study program contributed to participant’s professional as well as personal growth as mentioned by many participants. HoJ was also able to see obvious improvements when comparing the participants’ capacities before and after the program. Finally, the competition (moot court) arranged within the frames of the final event among the groups (participants from different universities and regions) showed obvious improvements.
• The Project offered classes and methodology aimed at increasing practical skills of participants could serve as a complementary to the standard study programs offered by the Georgian universities. It is more focused on providing skills not necessarily covered by the universities. Therefore, HoJ study program became popular among students and often served as an incentive. Also, participants appreciated in-person engagement with professors/trainers who were well known to them and public in general because of their public positions held in the past.
• All participants who intend to pass exams for becoming a lawyer were offered a internship opportunity at the HoJ run law firm. HoJ also plans to engage Zugdidi university students from Abkhazia in their law firm that is planned to be opened in Zugdidi soon.
• By engaging five partner universities the Project contributes to improving their study programs. It also improves their resources.
Risks/obstacles encountered:
Please provide information regarding main internal and external risks and obstacles encountered during the project. Were you able to address them? If yes, how? If no, why?
The main challenge was scarcity of financial resources necessary for conducting in-person classes/exercises in the regions. It was primarily addressed by HoJ’s director (Eka Beselia) spending her own resources on activities.
Additional information
Please provide any additional information relevant to the project’s implementation, results and challenges not addressed in the other questions.
Changes to the project (if any)
Please describe any major changes made to the project. This can include changes made to the project’s scope of work, schedule, and budget.
• HoJ requested 1 month no cost extension to the Project that was approved by the donor. This change was primarily necessitated by delay of the launch of the study program in the first month of the Project. HoJ received budget funds with a slight delay and there was delay with purchasing Zoom license.
• HoJ delivered additional activity – Final Event – in Batumi with participation of all study program graduates. The activity was implemented with no additional funds.
Total number of people who directly benefited from theproject activities during the life of the project (from the beginning to the end)
Summary information from interim reports.
Total Number of people:
Gender: Men: 13
Women: 56
Age: Under 18:
18and above:69
Ethnicity: 1- Azerbaijani
Municipalities(s): Municipality: 1 from Mtskheta, 1 from Rustavi, 15 from Tbilisi; 12 from Zugdidi, 21 from Batumi, 10 from Telavi, 9 from Kutaisi
Project sustainability
Please explain how the project activities/achievements will continue in the future.
HoJ plans to build on the Project and continue carrying out similar activities primerely for Georgian law students. HoJ is currently in the process of negotiations with USAID Rule of Law Program
Lessons learned
Looking back on the design and implementation of your project, what would you do differently? What aspects of the project should be approached differently in a similar situation in the future?
• We would add more visits to regions for delivering practical exercises that would require increased budget (transportation, accommodation, etc)
• Engaging more guest speakers and/or trainers in activities
• Engaging more ECHR judges in activities
• Study visits to ECHR for exceptionally good participants/students
Your suggestions for improving EWMI Rule of LawProgram’sgrant-making process (i.e., grant competition announcement, grant selection, grant administration, monitoring, etc.)
Attachments:
Please attach supporting documentation including photos, audio-video materials, newspaper articles, reports, attendance sheets, training materials, etc. Please name and number the attachments as indicated in the list below. Add as many rows and attachments as needed.
Event (Moot Court)
