Support for the Rule ofLaw (ROL) has emerged recently as a major component of an expanding portfolio of U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) democracy programs. USAID investments in law programs date to the 1960s, but the current resurgence of activities in this area began in the mid-1980s with USAID's initiation of the Administration of Justice program in Latin America. Since the early 1990s, USAID ROL programs have spread to Asia and are starting up in Africa and in Eastern Europe and the Newly Independent States.

In 1992, USAID's Center for Development Information and Evaluation (CDIE) assessed donor-supported ROL programs in, six countries: Argentina, Colombia, Honduras, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Uruguay. The assessment was both prospective and retrospective, with its central purposes to

  • Assess recent donor experience in ROL
  • Develop criteria for initiating ROL programs
  • Propose a strategic framework for setting ROL priorities and designing country programs