Vera-Altus Justice Indicators

The project team worked with policy makers, justice system managers, and members of civil society in each site to develop consensus around the key items which, if well documented, can provide insight into the operation of justice institutions. The resulting 60 indicators, focusing on the operation of the government, courts, police, and corrections, were explicitly designed to assess the experiences of poor people, women, and other vulnerable groups. The project then tested these measures in four cities around the world: Chandigarh, India; Lagos, Nigeria; New York, United States; Santiago, Chile. Altus continues to provide a global network to test the methodology and engage regional partners to build local capacity and expand this work.

Documenting a New, Flexible Approach

Details about this collaboration and its methodology, preliminary findings, and lessons learned can be found in Developing Indicators to Measure the Rule of Law: A Global Approach, a report distributed in 2008 at the World Justice Forum, in Vienna, Austria, as a complement to the World Justice Project’s Rule of Law Index. The methodology described in the Vera-Altus report emphasizes the need for empirically defensible measures that gauge the operation of the rule of law as experienced by people around the world. It also emphasizes the necessity of employing multiple data collection methods to create flexible indicators that can be used successfully even in environments that are considered “data poor.”

Why this work is important

Performance indicators are a practical tool for holding governments accountable for providing effective and fair services that command public respect. However, to be useful across a wide variety of legal systems, cultures and languages, indicators must be both flexible enough to accommodate diversity and also concrete enough to be meaningful to local policymakers, justice system professionals, and members of civil society. Additionally, these indicators should be both simple enough for most people to understand and nuanced enough to reflect important details of justice at the local level. The Vera-Altus Justice Indicators Project was initiated to create indicators to gauge a nation’s adherence to legal procedures and standards, which are critically important if government officials and other reformers are to understand the challenges in maintaining, and improving, the rule of law.

For more information, contact director of international business Monica Thornton.