ABA Rule of Law Initiative's Regional Institution Building Advisor (RIBA) program
Anti-Corruption
The program, which closed in 2007, worked with nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union for more six years. The program focused on assisting NGOs with their organizational development in order to help them become more effective advocates for change in their countries. Through its network of in-country institution-building experts, RIBA worked with its partners on a consistent basis, providing training that is tailored to the specific needs and interests of the organizations and providing follow-up consultations as a standard part of its services.
The RIBA program provided a wide variety of services that were offered to partners as their needs dictated, from assessments to training to consultations to network facilitation, as well as the design of peer learning and other cutting-edge tools. The goal of the program was to help partners institutionalize organizational development processes, and therefore all of RIBA's services gave its clients the tools to address their own needs in the future. In Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), RIBA staff included Institution Building Advisors (IBAs) based in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Serbia, Croatia, and Macedonia. In the Newly Independent States of the former Soviet Union (NIS), RIBA staff included IBAs based in Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova and Ukraine.
CEE Program
The RIBA team worked with partners in CEE for six years, as some partners "graduated" and new partners were continuously added. The program worked with judicial and legal associations and NGOs involved in legal reform within the broad rubric of ROLI’s Focal Areas (Judicial Reform, Gender Issues, Anti-Corruption/Public Integrity, Legal Profession Reform, Legal Education Reform and Conflict Mitigation/Post-Conflict Transition), and focused on specific institution-building topics, including:
• Institutionalization of Organizational Development
• Partnerships and Networking
• Organizational Assessment and Strategic Planning
• Project Design, Fundraising and Sustainability
• Advocacy for Legal Reform
NIS Program
Beginning in 2000, the NIS RIBA program created a network of in-country Institution Building Advisors (IBAs) that were capable of promoting sustainability for an increasing number of local partners. The further integration of institution building services into ROLI rule of law programs was promoted through intensive professional development of IBAs. The efforts of the RIBA program produced significant results, including increasingly viable legal reform NGOs and associations across the region. The NIS RIBA program also supported the creation of the RADA Institute, a legacy organization that disseminates best practices in institution building and development through formal and informal legal reform and advocacy networks in Eurasia. The RADA Institute is an important avenue for continuing the work of the RIBA program.
