The knowledge of poverty gained from working with poor people is rarely given importance in policy debates relevant to poverty reduction. In Uganda and South Africa, local elites such as lawyers running legal aid centres could communicate their community-learned knowledge of poverty to inform national level pro-poor policies.

Despite the increased popularity of participatory approaches to development, community-based organisations rich in so-called ‘experiential knowledge’ often find their views excluded from final policy documents. Researchers from the Overseas Development Institute, in the UK, and Care International use legal aid case studies from Uganda and South Africa to consider how local elites such as lawyers can help.

The authors focus on the role of legal aid lawyers in poor communities by examining and comparing two legal aid centres: the Association of Women Lawyers in Uganda (FIDA U) and the Legal Resources Centre (LRC) in South Africa. The LRC works for equality and the development of democratic society by providing legal services for vulnerable and marginalised groups (the majority of whom are poor and black). FIDA works to improve justice and raise the status of women and children, providing legal aid for child and community support programmes and people living with HIV/AIDS.

Comparative analysis of the two organisations reveals:

• FIDA’s members are highly placed in international organisations, government, the private sector and non-governmental organisations, allowing it to draw on a range of contacts.
• Networking staff trained in advocacy skills, membership on various boards and committees, and networking events (including celebrities) all strengthen FIDA’s ties with policymakers.
• FIDA deliberately seeks to influence policy processes and sets up ‘policy projects’ to gather the necessary information to do so.
• The LRC prioritises legal cases with high public impact potential (for example, government-sponsored feeding programmes in schools and refugee access to social grants).
• Policymakers are often hostile to the LRC, perhaps due to the negative publicity it brings (such as that from its support of street traders that a municipality considered illegal).
• The LRC rarely tries to be directly involved in policy processes, due to the extensive resources (including staff) needed and concerns that government will not pay attention.

Both FIDA and the LRC have been able to influence policy on occasion, but the latter faces more challenges. Based on these case studies, the authors suggest that the ability of elites to bring experiential knowledge into policy debates can be strengthened by:

• investing in networking events and the staff to organise them
• building links with other institutions, and coalitions with community organisations
• actively engaging with donors (through invitations, fundraising dinners, etc.)
• using volunteers to supplement paid staff
• budgeting resources for ‘policy projects’
• including policy engagement as a key organisational aim, and not only as an ‘extra’. 

These recommendations draw on legal aid case studies, but it is likely they will apply to other elite groups too, such as medical doctors and spiritual leaders.

Source(s):
‘Bringing Community-Learned Knowledge into the Policy Debate: The Case of Legal Aid Centres’, Overseas Development Institute Working Paper 277, ODI: London, by Ursula Grant, Ingie Hovland and Zaza Curran, 2006 (PDF) Full document.

Funded by: UK Department for International Development

id21 Research Highlight: 19 March 2008

Further Information:
Ursula Grant
Overseas Development Institute
111 Westminster Bridge Road
London SE1 7JD, UK

Tel: +44 20 79220300
Fax: +44 20 79220399
Contact the contributor: u.grant@odi.org.uk

Overseas Development Institute (ODI), UK

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