USAID Rule of Law Policy (2023)



Published on:

April 01, 2023


By:

USAID - DRG Bureau


Related tags

Building upon USAID's decades-long effort to promote the rule of law and ensure justice, rights, and security for all, this Policy re-elevates the rule of law within our development mission, equips and empowers staff who promote it, and leverages our comparative advantages to sustain it. Specifically, the Rule of Law Policy:

  • Articulates our strategic vision and objectives for rule of law programming and provides guiding principles and evidence-based approaches for designing and implementing innovative programs; 
  • Clearly promulgates a definition of the rule of law while acknowledging that such an endeavor will remain an unfinished and ongoing effort;
  • Announces a new “people-centered justice” approach to rule of law promotion that places the individual affected by the law at the core of the policies, institutions, processes, and practices that comprise justice and related systems and services; and
  • Prioritizes knowledge and evidence by utilizing data to develop user-friendly and problem-solving rule of law activities that support local actors and partners in solving people’s legal problems,  close the justice gap, build justice in the rule of law and help democracies deliver.