Opportunity Fund Round One

The WJP Opportunity Fund was established in order to support programs for action conceived by multidisciplinary coalitions formed at the Vienna World Justice Forum in 2008. The 36 programs currently under the Opportunity Fund were competitively selected from 66 applications from the 2008 World Justice Forum participants.

2009 Statistics

36 competitively-selected programs on 5 continents by participants in 2008 World Justice Forum
17 Disciplines: Architecture, Arts, Business, Education, Engineering, Environment, Faith, government, Human Rights, Judiciary, Labor, Law, Media, Military, Public Health, Public Safety & Law Enforcement, Science

Initial Accomplishments

Strengthening the Rule of Law by creating new constituencies and coalitions among key disciplines such as health, engineering, education, and human rights
Informing thousands about their rights and helping them gain access to justice to secure those rights.
Developing best practices with innovative approaches that are replicable within and among countries.
Expanding the network of multidisciplinary stakeholders using the Rule of Law to combat problems such as gender violence, corruption, environmental degradation, discrimination, poverty, food security.
Encouraging and supporting long-term sustainability.

Initial Lessons Learned

Multidisciplinary program activities enhance the impact and sustainability of programs.

Program solutions are most workable when they are designed and implemented by local stakeholders.

When unforeseen barriers to program solutions arise, seizing opportunities for redesign through monitoring and evaluation is critical.

Successive rounds of funding may be essential to institutionalize changes and ensure sustainability.

Some of the most successful programs are those intended to bridge the gap between the laws on the books and the implementation of the same laws.