After over a decade of war, the Balkans region was in the grip of corruption and organised crime. The lack of safe and fair access to justice was threatening to allow conflict to escalate. Relations between the community and the justice authorities were extremely poor, with perceived injustices running along ethnic lines and with many crimes unpunished.
Business Challenges
DFID had an ambitious strategy to reduce conflict in the Balkans by improving the effectiveness of the police, the courts, prisons and the central government ministries running these systems.
In July 2002, DFID awarded Atos Consulting the contract to implement this strategy at a cost of £12.5 million.
The three objectives were:
- Creation of affordable policies which link all parts of the justice system and effectively address the needs of its users
- successful implementation in selected local areas of community-based justice, policing and crime prevention strategies
- delivery of mechanisms which enable lesson-learning on justice sector reform across the region
Solutions
Atos Consulting put together a wide-ranging consortium to implement the programme. At its peak, this comprised nearly 100 people in 17 locations, working in four different languages.
Atos Consulting first carried out high-level assessments of the justice and home affairs systems in: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Serbia. The team also designed a robust conflict assessment framework to prioritise the countries and beneficiaries with whom they worked.
There had been over a year of government-to-government discussions to shape the programme, so by the time Atos Consulting was appointed, British Embassies were ready to mobilise. The team identified three ‘fast-track’ projects that were up and running within weeks.
Over the next three years the team completed a rolling programme of all 11 projects which ended in March 2006. A number of follow-on projects have continued through into 2009, testifying to the high regard in which our teams are held.
Benefits
With much of the governments' performance data either unreliable or unavailable, demonstrating the benefits of the projects was a challenge in itself. The achievement of well-functioning justice systems in the Balkans is work in progress and will take many years. However, Atos Consulting managed to demonstrate significant improvements across the 25 beneficiary organisations.
Download the DFID - Safety, Security and Access to Justice in Balkans Case Study