Justice Needs and Satisfaction in Fiji

A Southern Pacific archipielago, Fiji faces many challenges to provide access to justice to its inhabitants: remoteness, connectivity issues, scarcely populated villages scattered across islands. We conducted a 360 evaluation of the system, including users, providers, and leaders.

UNDP Pacific through its Access to Justice in Fiji project is conducting a comprehensive evaluation of the justice system in the country. Its aim is to support access to justice for vulnerable groups through empowering people to access legal rights and services through the relevant key justice institutions, in conjunction with strengthening those key justice institutions to undertake improved service delivery.

HiiL collected evidence using a mixed-methods approach: desk research, qualitative interviews with justice leaders, qualitative focus groups with justice providers and users across the country, and a nationwide quantitative Justice Needs and Satisfaction (JNS) survey. In this way, we obtain and analyze data from citizens, providers, and leaders, mapping out the supply and demands for justice in Fiji.

These data will provide the foundations for evidence-based interventions in the justice sector, contributing to improving good governance.

The assessment we are embarking upon will seek to analyze whether citizens are actually able to access and use justice institutions to solve their common justice problems, identify factors affecting their ability to do so, and examine what reforms and programmes could make justice sector institutions more responsive to citizens’ needs. Beyond this, the assessment will also sample the citizens’ perceptions on access to justice. This represents a brave and necessary move.

Mr. Bakhodir Burkhanov, Country Director and Head of Regional Policy and Programmes for the UNDP Pacific Office in Fiji