Environmental Law Center Review

Background:
Purpose/objective: Following the terms of reference (TOR) for this evaluation, we have looked at ELC's three main areas of work: Legal, Policy, and Training and Monitoring (which we cluster with Education and Awareness). Our objective, following the TOR, to "to document and learn from past and current activities, processes and achievements of ELC, and in so doing:
• assist ELC to check effectiveness, efficiency, effect, relevance and sustainability of their current programs with the local communities including project management systems and relationships with donors, partners and stakeholders
• identify issues and suggest steps for further improvement and specifically to identify areas for strengthening and improvement as the project/the organisation moves into the next phase"

Methodology:
Interviews, workshops, applications and reports, field visits

Key findings:
Our findings begin with the primary observation that ELC works very hard for the amount of progress it makes. Cases are stalled by an overworked and clotted court system, which means clients are unilaterally disappointed; and, not incidentally, ELC lawyers (aka PIEL lawyers) get little chance to litigate.
From what we have gleaned, the ELC awareness campaigns have been extremely effective. In most cases these campaigns cultivate new law suits, and we understand that there is a balance between how much awareness can be offered and the capacity limit to PIEL's caseload. But it is the idea of litigation---the awareness that one can take a company or the government to court---that has been most successful thus far.
There are many reasons for this. The first is the insufferably slow pace of the courts in PNG. Even if and when the lawyers have filed on time, the most effective defense tactic seems to be finding objections and technicalities that can further derail the case. Whether or not the opposition law firms are better strategists is not for us to say, but it does appear the legal strategising is the necessary skill for litigators of environmental law. The ways and means of avoiding, by passing, anticipating and second-guessing the other side is a winning skill. It may be that lack of courtroom practice has kept ELC from cultivating this skill. A general consensus of interested observers agrees that PIEL need more litigation experience. We are in no way qualified to review ELC's legal skills, or even its case histories.

The three-dimensional nature of ELC's work may be hampering its progress on two planes: the legal and the policy work. Were the courts responsive, and the work of networking toward policy change less urgent for PNG, this triumvirate approach would be the best way forward. But nothing is moving fast enough at present. And because education/awareness has been the most successful, we may assume it is also the one closest to being transferred, to being spun off to the hands of local CBOs and community fieldworkers. It is an expensive and time-consuming logistical component, and perhaps the one most likely to thrive on its own, with more long-distance oversight.

Our concept here would be to winnow down the goals of ELC to concentrate its skills, its economic resources, and produce quicker outputs. This in turn can attract more or better donor funding, and allow the more focused work to expand---that is, allow the Centre to hire more litigators and policy lawyers.

Recommendations:
• Litigation must be improved: we suggest contacting the EDO for a legal review, and then creating an exchange program for staff lawyers.
• Training, Monitoring, Education and Awareness programs are important, but they may be draining the litigation arm of ELC. As a Law Centre, the first responsibility must be to the legal work. Education and Awareness does not have to come from lawyers or even forestry officers for it to be effective. Training and monitoring, in time, may also be transferred to other qualified field workers. We suggest farming all these services out to other NGOs or CBOs based in the target communities. In 2007 seven workshops were conducted (six in Sandaun, and one in Western), but in 2008, none were carried out. This inconsistency already makes it hard to maintain a level of skills transference.
• Communication is a pressing issue. The shift away from direct training and awareness in the field can only be accomplished with the help of a CB radio network. It is technically challenging (and requires more training, but not necessarily more staff), but in the long run can save time and money. A radio can get to sites where fieldworkers cannot, and because the ELC mandate is to work in some of the most remote, inaccessible sites of PNG, it is counter-productive to allow this work to be restricted by physical access to these communities---especially when this so often requires expensive helicopters and/or wide-open calendars.
• Policy is the third aspect of the ELC's mandate. This year has been a very successful year for ELC's policy work, as Sarah Tsiamalili produced a very impressive workshop on an Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) for PNG in October. This workshop brought together major players from government and non-governmental agencies in one of the first few discussions of how to create an anti-corruption commission for PNG.
• One way to effect this continued exposure is to reassign Sarah to be should be a policy lawyer exclusively. This is her strength and her ambition. Ideally, PIEL might bring aboard another litigator to help fill the hole, who, along with Nehemiah, might concentrate on Constitutional Law.
• The office also needs a Program Manager. This must be someone who understands the constraints of the lawyers, and their needs. The systems and compliance procedures need to be improved or better-enforced, but not at the cost of antagonising the healthy workplace relationships that now exist.
• We absolutely agree with Annie's suggestion to us that the office staff be given a Management Training Course. Having the lawyers act as managers may be useful, but it is also a waste of human resources.
• Finally, we can only comment superficially on ELC finances. Hire an accountant.
• Maintain office-wide weekly meetings.

In effect, our recommendations are to focus on litigation above all else, and to expand the staff. The staff who wears multiple hats should slowly pare down to one single role at which he or she may excel. Nancy says this as someone who also wears many hats herself, and who wishes she could wear but one---and do that well. If out-sourcing the education and awareness responsibilities of ELC does not compromises funding streams, then money might be preserved for hiring a Program Officer and an Accountant.