Promoting Women's Human and Economic Rights in Rural Kenya - The Case of Paralegals in Kenya

This report covers the struggles, achievements, and lessons learned from an innovative paralegal program that was implemented in a number of districts in rural Kenya. It states that the program's objective was to entrench women's human rights in the communities and ultimately reduce poverty. The report lists out the driving factors that have made the Paralegal Program a success:

• Commitment and political economy for change;
• Institutional innovations such as radio programs on women's human rights issues;
• Learning and experimentation.

It concludes with some of the lessons learnt from the program:

• Formally incorporating human rights studies in the school curriculum have far reaching effects;
• More control and increased transparency are needed of both the paralegal's monthly report and the district team monitor's overall report;
• Increased paralegal liaising is needed in the districts to encourage them to work more closely with the local state administrators.