Building Regional Capacity and What Right Really Looks Like – the Loyola University Chicago-African Union Rule of Law Partnership

Building Regional Capacity and What Right Really Looks Like – the Loyola University Chicago-African Union Rule of Law Partnership 

Signing Ceremony for the Loyola-AU Rule of Law Partnership

In my profession, when we talk about building governance capacity and strengthening the rule of law, the terms “local ownership” and “best practice” get thrown around a lot.  In my experience, however, that usually translates to mean that some donor has come up with a good development idea, put some donor money behind it, and sold it to whoever the intended recipient is -- be it an individual, government, or community of interest.   In Afghanistan, I got used to hearing the constant exhortation to “put an Afghan face on it,” and during my work in Africa, the constant refrain was that if a development project was to succeed, we needed to get local “buy-in” so that “local ownership” would exist.  This was “best practice.”  But if you have to “sell” someone on a development idea, “build” local ownership, or “put a "local face” on your development project, then is the initiative really locally owned? Of course not.  It's merely, shall we say, locally received.

Which is why the recently-signed Memorandum of Understanding between Loyola University Chicago School of Law and the African Union (AU) to strengthen the capacity of the AU and the African Regional Economic Communities (RECs) is such a great example of what true rule of law development can look like.    Under the terms of the MOU, qualified staff and employees of the AU, RECs, and key AU member states will attend Loyola’s unique one-year Master of Laws in Rule of Law for Development (known as “PROLAW”).  PROLAW provides a practice-oriented program of study aimed at graduating rule of law professionals who can be reformers, advocates, and leaders within their own countries and regions.  PROLAW aims to break the cycle of substituted capacity.  It treats rule of law reform like the core governance function that it is.  This approach is appropriate for a regional body such as the AU, which is trying to improve its own internal ability to manage the overwhelming challenges to effective governance and the rule of law that exist on the African continent.

Rather than relying on outside advisers to advance social justice, effective governance, and rule of law reform, PROLAW graduates from developing countries are prepared to assume the task themselves.  PROLAW students who are development professionals from donor countries are taught how to foster and develop human capital so that the real yeoman’s work of reform can take place from within.  Full disclosure here – I have been an adviser to the PROLAW team since February -- but my association came about because I believe passionately that the PROLAW approach is what works for sustainable development.  It’s how “local ownership” really happens.    

From Boko Haram to ISIS, Ebola containment to security sector reform, and corruption to human rights and gender equality, the AU faces monumental governance and security challenges on a scale that goes beyond those faced by NATO, ASEAN, the OAS, or any other regional body.  But the AU has a capacity building vision that doesn't require that AU “buy-in” be built. The Loyola partnership was, in fact, an AU concept that originated with Professor Vincent Nmehielle, the AU’s Legal Counsel and Director of Legal Affairs and was enthusiastically endorsed by the AU leadership.  Prof. Nmehielle shared the vision with Loyola and Loyola responded.  In many ways, their dialogue echoed that which had occurred on a much larger scale with the US and international support for Plan Colombia back in the late 1990’s, a widely understudied example of a locally-generated strategy that can progress when donors are willing to get onboard.

At the signing ceremony, which took place at the AU Mission to the US in Washington DC on October 24, Professor Nmehielle discussed the AU concept.  He talked about the fact that most of the conflicts in Africa are caused by lack of development, injustice, and inequality.  He further emphasized that the ability of the AU to resource people who really understand the local context is vital, and he spoke of the need to enable young African men and women to build an army of professionals who understand what the AU stands for, and who can help build the vision of African integration.  This MOU represented an AU idea, and the AU leadership owned it from the beginning. 

In addition to the AU staff who will attend the one-year degree program, the Loyola-AU MOU establishes a framework for in-service training that will take place in the form of short seminars and training at the AU Headquarters in Addis Ababa.  Topics will be chosen by the AU leadership to reflect AU priorities, and will complement the more extensive coursework that will be going on at the University’s John Felice Center in Rome (where PROLAW is taught).  By the end of the first three years of the program, the AU and RECs will have graduated 15 mid-level AU staffers from the University, and more than 100 support staff will have been trained to support them.  That’s 150 connected, empowered professionals within one regional structure – not an insignificant outcome.  The US State Department is providing the seed money to kick it off, but one of the goals of the program is to make it largely self-sustaining after the first cohort has been established. 

It’s a great idea that could become a model for capacity building within a regional context, and that’s best practice.  It’s what right looks like and we should all be following it to see what results.

For further details, see http://legal.au.int/en/content/african-union-and-loyola-university-chicago-sign-milestone-memorandum-understanding; http://blogs.luc.edu/pressreleases/?s=African+Union and https://www.facebook.com/StateINL