Civil wars, coups d'état, and long-lasting military dictatorships are defining the politics of many West African countries. In order to help improving the rule of law in Côte d'Ivoire, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea and Niger the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs supports through GIZ the respective governments in their efforts to promote good governance and justice.
Apart from rehabilitating civil-war-related damages of infrastructure and advising governmental institutions on justice reform issues, the programme provides a regional platform for legal training and exchange of experiences on transnational legal procedures. Due to the regional approach of this platform, successful initiatives of the programme on a national level such as the introduction of probation services in Liberia, or the deployment of mobile district courts and mobile legal assistance in Sierra Leone and Côte d'Ivoire, can be discussed and possibly adapted in other sub-Saharan countries.