Goal and Purpose

The goal of PJDP was to strengthen governance and rule of law in PIC through enhanced access to justice and professional judicial officers who act independently according to legal principles; its purpose was to support PIC to enhance the professional competence of judicial officers and court officers, and the processes and systems that they use.

Chief Justices' Leadership Meetings, Apia, Samoa: 20-22 April, 2015

Vision

Continuing from PJEP, the focus of PJDP extended beyond meeting the educational needs of judicial officers (both law trained and non-law trained) and court officers to include support for process and system improvement, driven by locally conducted action-research of formal and customary dispute resolution, judicial administration, promotion of ethics and integrity, performance monitoring, and institutionalisation / sustainability. The vision was to consolidate and extend the delivery of the highest quality practical judicial training and court development services, while significantly enhancing the institutionalisation, localisation and sustainability of those services for stakeholders across the region.

The emphasis on institutional strengthening through the development of management skills was combined with targeted technical assistance delivered regionally through leadership fora, toolkits and pilot projects, and financial assistance to local initiatives. It has explicitly aimed at developing the ability and autonomy of PICs to identify and resolve deficiencies in service delivery to improve law and justice outcomes at the regional, national and local levels.

The PJDP completed 177 activities across 17 projects within the PJDP's four thematic pillars: