Strengthening the capacities of Magistrates

At institutional, operational and political levels, the project has had little impact. To some extent, this was because there no legal proposal was made to adapt and enforce the Ethical and Deontological Code. The project also failed to create a pool of experts on economic and financial crimes. The training does not appear to have made a positive difference in encouraging inclusion of efficiency indicators in the fight against economic and financial crimes or improving the overall capacities of judges.

The project’s effectiveness was also undermined by the lack of an effective decision-making arrangement between the grantee’s executive bureau and the office for project implementation. Because decisions could not be made on time, there were delays and changes to activities, and most of them were not completed. Lack of monitoring prevented any adjustment of the activities to achieve the expected results.

The project was implemented without taking into consideration the full range of target beneficiaries. Contrary to the project’s plan, the National Trade Union of Judicial Agents, the National Bar Association and CSOs’ members who engage in similar activities were not involved in the project activities.

The project’s overall conceptual framework did not properly connect the goal of re-establishing citizens’ trust in justice in Niger with the actual activities carried out since the activities were focused only on the magistrates themselves and not the wider population or local or traditional leaders.

This initiative was the first of its kind by the grantee in Niger. Although the grantee did not put in place measures to ensure sustainability, it successfully raised awareness among the magistracy of the necessity to communicate with stakeholders external to the judiciary. The project prompted beneficiaries to create the association of investigating judges in Niger (AMPN), whose mission it will be to provide similar, additional training for magistrates.