| Overview : Description of the assignment: The ‘Enhancing Access to Justice through Institutional Reform Project (the Project) was built on the achievements of the Strengthening the Rule of Law and Human Rights protection system in Nepal Programme. Project’s implementation began in July 2018. The Project’s main focuses are on: (the reform of the legal aid system, supporting national efforts of reform and coordination in the justice sector; implementation of constitutional provisions on fundamental rights through legislative reform; implementation of the newly adopted criminal and civil legislations, and in particular on enhancing the access to justice at the local level. This focus translates into four key project outputs: - National Legal Aid System strengthened;
- Capacity of Judicial Committees strengthened at the Local Level to deliver justice developed;
- National capacity for drafting and implementation of laws strengthened;
- Justice sector strengthened for inclusive economic development
The Government of Norway has been the key donor behind the A2J Project, supporting it financially since its inception. Norway contributes to three out of the four project outputs apart from the output related to the capacity building of the Judicial Committees. Over one and half years of implementation, the Project has achieved several results, such as: - the long awaited National (Integrated) Legal Aid Policy has been adopted by the cabinet and project has provided technical inputs in its formulation; ;
- supported in drafting numbers of laws on fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution of Nepal and support provided to the province government to draft over 15 bills;
- law software developed to support a database of 300 digitized laws for easy access by the public;
- reporting system developed on the legal aid services;
- pro bono legal aid system developed;
- capacity building of the judicial committees initiated through the introduction of necessary frameworks, standards and procedures, initiatives i.e. advocacy/awareness promoting the role and function of businesses in human rights, dissemination of the newly adopted laws called civil and criminal codes and procedures.
Further, the Project worked with Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs (MOLJAPA) to bring together District Legal Aid Committee officials and established a regular reporting and monitoring system. The Project also rolled out several initiatives to disseminate new legal codes namely civil code, criminal code, civil and criminal procedures and sentencing act in the justice community. Similarly, project has firmly placed Nepal on the map of Business and Human Rights in South Asia by bringing together businesspeople, trade unions and law society in province and national level dialogues. As the Project comes to an end in 31 December 2020, UNDP is planning to commission a final evaluation to identify and document achievements, challenges, lessons learned and best practices. The findings of this evaluation will provide guidance for the way forward in the areas of access to justice and rule of law in Nepal. Thus, the evaluation report is expected to include specific recommendations for future interventions. Project name: Access to Justice (A2J) Period of assignment/services (if applicable): 30 days Proposal should be submitted by email to procurement.np@undp.org not later than 1730 hours (Nepal Standard Time) of 17 February 2020 mentioning reference No. UNDP/PN/13/2020 – Access to Justice Expert. | 
