Deadline: 9 June 2019

Applicants are invited to apply for the Assistance for the Development of Afghan Legal Access and Transparency (ADALAT) 2019 Practical Legal Action and Clinical Education (PLACE II) Grants Program that will support significant reforms in the quality and access to legal education at private universities.

ADALAT’s activities in this area support private universities in Afghanistan as they reform their curricula by adding new courses, for full academic credit, that teach practical legal skills in order to prepare the students to assist clients from underrepresented groups in functioning law clinics, for which participation the students will also receive academic credit. Key to the PLACE II grant program is support for clinical legal education methodology, where students at private universities learn practical legal skills and receive hands-on- legal experience in servicing clients.

PLACE II is designed to assure that the most important features of clinical legal education are firmly and sustainably implanted at up to fifteen (15) private universities who are willing and able to take all necessary steps to make pre clinic courses and law clinics a part of their regular academic curricula. PLACE II will maximize national outreach in legal education reform by working with private universities to assure that law students are prepared to assist and enhance diverse communities to access justice across Afghanistan.

Checchi & Company Consulting, Inc. (Checchi) began implementing the five-year Afghanistan Assistance for the Development of Afghan Legal Access and Transparency (ADALAT) project in April 2016. The purpose of ADALAT is to improve citizen access to justice services based on Afghan law. ADALAT’s Follow-on Practical Legal Action and Clinical Education (PLACE II) Grants Program will offer continued support for improvement in quality and access to legal education.

Program Objectives

The ADALAT PLACE II Program aims to expand the clinical legal education curricular reforms by making grants to up to an additional fifteen (15) qualified private universities, who will conduct their activities with the benefit of the experience and assistance of the original five PLACE I grantees. The PLACE II program thus has the following objectives:

• Offer opportunities for practical legal education, on a gender balanced basis, to students attending private universities.
• Improve students’ practical skills including interviewing, investigating, negotiating, lawyer- client relationship, research, writing, strategic analysis, and advocacy.
• Increase access to legal advice and services to underrepresented groups through student- staffed, professor and attorney-supervised, legal clinics.
• Supplement the teaching of legal theory and doctrine through effective means of delivering legal services and turning theory into action.
• Improve the ability of private university graduates to offer meaningful legal assistance soon after graduation.
• Offer opportunities to students to witness the impact of law in the daily lives of citizens, including opportunities to witness judges, prosecutors, government officials and police apply the law on a day to day basis;
• Offer opportunities to participate in, and receive academic credit for, competitive moot court programs.
• Ensure that practical legal education, through law clinics and practice-oriented law courses, becomes permanently integrated into private university curricula.
• Enhance capacity of professor/attorney-supervised legal clinics on Clinical Legal Education.

Funding Information

• It is anticipated that each grant award may range from between USD 80,000 – USD 150,000, the final amount will be dependent upon grant activities and final negotiation and may be lower or higher than that range.
• The anticipated period of performance anticipated is up to 12 – 15 months from date of award. The anticipated start date for this program is on or about August 01, 2019.

Program Activities

ADALAT PLACE II grants will support a well-designed program at up to fifteen (15) private universities who did not participate in the initial PLACE I pilot program. The activities will include the following Two Stages of activities:

• Stage One
  • Designing practical skills pre-clinic courses offered for academic credit on the approved curriculum so that a sufficient number of students are available throughout the calendar year to staff existing law clinics.
  • Assuring that qualified instructors are available to teach pre clinic practical legal skills courses.
  • Teaching two pre-clinic courses to at least 30 students at least once per academic year, or teaching the two pre clinic courses to at least 15 students twice per academic year.
• Stage Two
  • Operating a basic law clinic on a year round basis, with a focus on legal issues affecting the family. The clinic is staffed primarily with law students, but clients are formally represented by licensed attorneys.
  • Evaluating program performance.

Under PLACE II, ADALAT will continue to support the securing of regulatory approvals for “true” or “genuine” clinics with law students having responsibility for representation of clients and supervised by licensed attorneys. Support from, e.g., the Supreme Court, the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Higher Education will be needed to establish clinical legal education at the level of international norms, and grantees under PLACE II will be expected to cooperate with ADALAT, at conferences, workshops and otherwise, in seeking opportunities to encourage policies favorable to students’ active participation in clinic client services.

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility requirements for grant applicants are as follows:

• Private higher education institution(s)
• 3-year operating history of law and/or sharia faculty
• At least 100 students enrolled during the preceding year in the law and/or sharia faculties
• At least 35% of the law or sharia teaching faculty must be permanent, or full-time
• Must meet the objectives of ADALAT.
• Proposal must include expected outcomes and results consistent with and linked to ADALAT’s objectives including an approach to gender integration.
• Must be registered as a legal entity in Afghanistan; if submitting an application jointly, all partners must be registered entities
• The selected universities for grant must receive vetting eligibility from the USAIDKabul Vetting Support Unit for the period of the grant agreement.
• Must agree to follow USAID Multi-Tier-Monitoring requirements for remote activity verification including possible use of third party monitors
• Must have a DUNS number and be registered in the System for Awards Management (SAM).

How to Apply

Applications must be submitted in the required format via email at the address given on the website.

For more information, please visit http://www.acbar.org/rfq/8959.jsp