The Microjustice Projects: Next Steps…
Toolbox
The Microjustice Toolbox project has been running for two years, since
January 2010. In this time you have contributed to the development of
more than 30 tools, which were displayed during the microjustice
toolbox conference (for more detail on each of the tools, see
www.microjusticeworkplace.net). You may also have been involved in
the testing of these tools in real-world situations, as occurred in five
countries around the world. This has given us a great base of effective,
easy to use tools, which can be used to help solve the most common
conflicts around the world.
But there is still more to do.
The 30 tools already provide a lot of useful information, and they are
continually being updated and improved, but there are many other
challenges that need to be addressed. You probably can think of many
of the challenges that you face when carrying out dispute resolution, or
perhaps you have another practice that works really well. If so, it would
be great if you would continue to be involved in the ongoing process of
developing, improving and testing tools.
Specifically, there are different activities, which you are invited to join us
in carrying out:
• Contextualisation of existing tools: This might vary from simple
translation, to carrying out a small consultation with a group of
facilitators, to an organised testing process.
• Re-design of tools: This involves a slightly more creative process of
adding more information to the tools, through examining how the
tool could be improved, and designing and creating the
improvements
• Creation of new tools: If you have a way of working that is effective at
overcoming a problem, then you can share it with a worldwide
audience, by creating a tool that allows others to use your
method.
• Becoming a ‘hub’ organisation: Perhaps you have a network in your
country, or you want to create one! If so, you could become a
local ‘distributor’ of the tools. You would be responsible for
translation if necessary, and for ensuring that information about
their use, and any additions or changes, are fed back to the
microjusticeworkplace.net. You might also want to set up a
‘satellite’ workplace specifically for your country.
Of course TISCO will provide as much assistance as we can. The ways
we can help are listed below:
• Providing some funding for the costs of translating tools
• Providing workshop guidelines to help you carry out workshops on
tools with your facilitators
• Help creating new tool pages on the microjusticeworkplace.net
• Questionnaires to help with the measurement of the effectiveness of
tools.
• Assistance in funding applications
• Networking between organisations in different countries
Carrying out tool contextualisation, re-design, creation, or being a hub
organisation can help you in a variety of ways:
• Reputation: Your work and working methods will be available for
others to use around the world. Your organisations name and
logo will be attached to all the tools that you provide input for!
• Clarifying work methods: Creating tools from your good practices
helps organisations to get their good working methods on paper.
This means that they can easily be given to facilitators who have
less experience, or can be used in training systems.
Being the hub of a network gives your organisation more visibility
nationally and internationally. This can help with funding applications, as
well as providing advantages through working with similar-minded
organisations in your country.
Microjustice Sharing Rules
Even though there is legal information that tells people they have a right
to child support in case of divorce, a right to compensation in case of
forced eviction, or a right to paying only a rent that is reasonable, finding
concrete fair outcomes that work can be difficult. TISCO develops clear
and concrete sharing rules that help people determine what sum of
money is reasonable to ask in situations like these.
Together with your organization, we would like to develop these sharing
rules for the most common issues you face in practice. These might
include calculating child support and alimony, calculating compensation
in case of dismissal, calculating what a reasonable compensation looks
like when a family gets evicted from a plot of land they do not have a
formal title on, etc.
Sharing rules are a powerful tool in resolving disputes. They help to
show to disputants what a normal fair share is, which might make it
easier for them to accept offers. They can also be used by judges,
chiefs, paralegals and other dispute resolution professionals to guide
them on the decisions they make. Or to evaluate the fairness of their
decisions. Finally, sharing rules can be easily used to show that the
works of your organization and the outcomes you help people get are
consistent with the law and human rights.
TISCO warmly welcomes your involvement in this project and is open to
ideas for developing sharing rules for your country and practice. A small
budget for this is available that can kick start the development. In case
you are interested, please contact Jin Ho Verdonschot
([email protected]).
Measuring Access to Justice
During the course of their lives, people often need access to justice. But
do we know how much justice they obtain? How they experience justice
processes? TISCO has developed a standardised methodology for
measuring the costs and quality of justice. In an easy and intuitive way
the Measuring Access to Justice methodology helps you better
understand how people experience justice. MA2J asks the users about
the costs, quality of the procedure and quality of the outcome of a
specific path to justice. Diagrams like the one shown below summarise
what people think of a specific procedure they followed. Many different
paths to justice can be measured with the MA2J – divorce, land
disputes, inheritance, domestic violence, consumer disputes and so on.
Procedural Justice 3,4
5
Damage to relationship
Interpersonal Justice
4
3,16
3,32
3
Informational Justice
Stress and emotions 3,1
2
3,69
1
Monetary costs 4,75
Distributive Justice 3,52
Transparency 3,24
Restorative Justice 3,1
Functionality 2,71
What do you know after a path is measured? First, you get a glimpse of
the strong and low points of the measured path to justice. MA2J looks at
ten dimensions which cover the three main indicators – costs, quality of
the procedure and quality of the outcome. Second, the measurement
tool can be used to assess how different people perceive the same path
to justice. Do women experience justice in a similar way as men? Are
minorities receiving equal justice as everyone else? Third, MA2J allows
you to follow a path to justice over a period of time. It can show you for
instance the effects of a specific intervention. The impact of justice
innovations on users’ perceptions can be easily visualised applying the
MA2J before and after the innovation. Fourth, you can use MA2J to
compare how users of justice assess alternative paths. You can
compare your process with the process of another organisation or
institution. Last but not least, MA2J clearly shows the value of your
efforts as provider of paths to justice. It can demonstrate your credibility
to clients, partners and donors.
How MA2J works? MA2J is easy to apply. First, you have to define the
path to justice which you want to measure. Identify when the users
receive the final outcome of the path and ask them about their
experience. What to ask? Have a look at the three MA2J questionnaires
available at www.measuringaccesstojustice.com Decide which suits
your needs best and simply ask as many users as possible. Download
the free Handbook for MA2J for more details about collecting and
presenting data about paths to justice.
TISCO will be happy to help you in your efforts to measure the costs
and quality of access to justice. For more information visit the MA2J
web site, join our Facebook group or e-mail us at:
[email protected]
We look forward to working with you in the future!
The Microjustice Team