Deadline: 20-Feb-24
The Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs of the U.S. Department of State announces an open competition for organizations to submit applications to carry out a project to foster rule of law in Guatemala and strengthen professional development in the legal sector.
The objective of the project is to bolster the justice system through research, statistical analysis, and capacity building for emerging leaders to apply jurisprudential concepts to strengthen rule of law. This project will begin in April 2024 in Guatemala.
Project Vision
- The Guatemalan society is knowledgeable of criminal phenomena and capable of presenting data-driven proposals to strengthen the rule of law, access to justice, public ethics, and judicial independence. Emerging leaders including law students and young professionals are supported and equipped to develop into competent and objective prosecutors, public defenders, judges, and public officials committed to strengthening rule of law.
Project Goals
- Goal 1: Strengthen the Guatemalan justice system by expanding knowledge, instilling ethics, and broadening the experience of legal professionals.
- Goal 2: Increase and improve research, data-driven analysis, and jurisprudential concepts to inform legal reforms.
- Goal 3: Activate and provide logistical support to professional networks with the capacity to present proposals for legal reform and legal certainty in Guatemala to strengthen legal protections and enhance the investment environment.
Project Objectives
- Strategic Objective 1: At least 500 professionals or law students from the last two years of their studies participate in the training workshops linked to the project, generating an increase in the capacity of professionals to perform legal functions linked to justice.
- Strategic Objective 2: Consolidate the rule of law through a network of professionals (minimum of 20 members each) and active alumni (minimum of 10 members each) in at least six departments of Guatemala, including three main cities in the country; at least one of the places must be Guatemala City. Strategic
- Objective 3: Strengthen civil society and academia capacity to propose reforms, by having the capacity of at least 150 current and future lawyers, attorneys, and public servants to address criminal phenomena, combat corruption and protect human rights through the development of a proposal that must include quarterly workshops or training, publications, exchanges and/or internships.
Funding Information
- Total available funding: $1,000,000.00
- Award amounts: awards may range from a minimum of $850,000.00 to a maximum of $1,000,000.00
- Length of performance period: 24 months
- Anticipated program start date: April 2024 Number of awards anticipated: One (1) award
Project Activities and Deliverables
- To achieve the strategic goals and objectives, the development of the following activities and deliverables is expected:
- Activity 1: Implement periodic and short-term specialized training workshops on themes including but not limited to justice, rule of law, human rights, and constitutional law; at least 10 workshops must be implemented during the project, the workshops may be implemented in unified subjects.
- Deliverable: At least 10 workshops in total with at least 150 different participants in total.
- Activity 2: Create small grants and/or a special mention prize to motivate professionals and law students to publish reports and present policy proposals to strengthen justice, democracy, and the rule of law in Guatemala.
- Deliverable: At least 15 reports have been published or policy proposals/reforms presented.
- Activity 3: Develop or promote an internship and/or exchange program with national and/or international justice institutions to share best practices to implement in Guatemala.
- Deliverable: 15 professionals have participated in exchanges and/or internships that strengthen their knowledge to apply within justice sector institutions.
- Activity 4: Strengthen an existing think tank or create a network of organizations with a dedicated group of experts to develop research methodologies and statistics to measure key indicators in Guatemala’s justice system. The implementer will develop a set of security and criminal justice indicators and address priority crimes by year, location/region, and population (including disaggregation by gender).
- Deliverables:
- At least five (5) published reports featuring essays, research findings, and/or reform proposals developed by alumni related to key justice sector topics
- 2 reports published by a think tank or network organizations measuring key indicators in Guatemala’s justice system.
- Deliverables:
- Activity 5: Create an exchange program for international experts to visit Guatemala or Guatemalan experts to visit regional think tanks to learn and improve research methodologies and tools to better communicate results and findings.
- Deliverable: 15 experts have participated in national or international visits by or to regional think tanks to learn and improve research methodologies and tools to better communicate results and findings.
- Activity 6: Develop a sustainability strategy so that the network of professionals, and identified leaders by Department may keep organizing meetings, conferences and study groups by their own, at the end of the project. At the same time, the strategy must include a list of contacts and donors to maintain communication and share the pool of professionals to replicate and/or strengthen networks.
- Deliverables: A network (or group of networks) of at least 120 alumni members that strategically connects current and aspiring lawyers and future public servants to share knowledge, analysis, and litigation experience, and provide career mentoring and guidance.
- Activity 1: Implement periodic and short-term specialized training workshops on themes including but not limited to justice, rule of law, human rights, and constitutional law; at least 10 workshops must be implemented during the project, the workshops may be implemented in unified subjects.
Participants and Audiences
- The training will be aimed at legal professionals, public officials, justice sector personnel, and law students in their last year of study, while exchanges and internships will be targeted toward lawyers and qualified professionals from the justice sector. Support for think tanks will be prioritized for associations, foundations, law schools, universities, and other research centers involved in research for advocacy in the justice sector. All participant selection processes will adopt participatory and inclusive approaches regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, LGBTQI+, religion, disability or other groups that could be considered ensuring inclusion and using participatory approaches.
Priority Region: Guatemala, Central America
Eligibility Criteria
- The following organizations are eligible to apply:
- Foreign-based non-profits/non-governmental organizations (NGOs);
- Foreign-based educational institutions
- Applicants must also meet the following requirements to be eligible to apply to this NOFO:
- Demonstrate registration and at least 5 years of experience in Guatemala
- Individual NGOs, educational institutions or consortium are eligible
- If the application is in a consortium, it will be eligible as long as the main partner meets the experience requirement, but all partners must demonstrate registration in Guatemala.
For more information, visit Grants.gov.