Legal empowerment organisations help people use the law themselves to solve their most pressing justice problems. These problems don’t necessarily capture headlines—for example, obtaining an ID or getting advice on entitlements when leaving a marriage. In many countries, services to help poorer segments of society with such legal problems are typically provided by NGOs, often financed by international donors, with occasional pro bono contributions by lawyers.
But reliance on external funding has in some ways acted as a hindrance to innovation. It can make organisations vulnerable, can lead to poor spending decisions (including overreach), can make organisations unaccountable to beneficiaries, and it’s impossible to scale up assistance to the level of actual need. For example, according to Open Society Foundations surveys in 2012, in Tajikistan, 74% of respondents had a legal problem in the last three years, and in Macedonia the figure was 50%. Donors simply cannot fund to this extent.
State funding can fill the gaps in some places—especially in non-controversial, intra-community cases—and such funding is in fact increasing in several middle-income countries, such as Ukraine and Indonesia. But in low-income countries, many governments still struggle. Local organisations need to be more inventive and adaptable in finding new business models.
