Learning Agenda
for Legal
Empowerment
Learning to Power our Movement
The Learning Agenda is a global initiative that advances grassroots justice by putting knowledge into action.
Through research, reflection, and collective learning led by and for practitioners, Learning Agenda participants explore the most pressing questions facing the legal empowerment field.
This page brings together the evidence and insights emerging from our efforts: practical guides, case studies, and podcasts from across the world.
Find out what’s working—and what’s next—in the fight for justice from the ground up.
The Learning Agenda explores the frontiers of the legal empowerment field, where collective inquiry can generate new solutions to our most pressing challenges.
Justice Defenders around the world are generating knowledge on these big questions, and putting this knowledge into action.
Explore powerful stories of grassroots research and the change it creates.
Emerging Knowledge
Our products generate actionable knowledge to inform and fuel the legal empowerment movement. Explore the products below, and check back for regular updates. From reports and toolkits, to videos and podcasts, you’ll find a wide array of free-to-download resources on this page!
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Featured Publication
Power Up: Lessons from Twelve Years of Organizing with Community Paralegals
Click here to read the report
Building Community Power and Systems Change
How can we advance justice by combining the power of people with the power of law? How can we build community power? How can grassroots efforts drive positive change in laws, institutions and norms?
Movement Infrastructure
What do justice movements need to survive and thrive? How can we advance decriminalization of paralegals and non-lawyer advocates, and what forms of public recognition advance legal empowerment? What forms of funding are needed to sustain and grow grassroots movements for justice?
Deepening Democracy
How can we counter repression and advance a deeper version of democracy? What strategies work in the context of repression or hostile state? How can legal empowerment efforts advance a deeper and more resilient version of democracy?
Across the Network
Discover the latest updates from members across the Grassroots Justice Network who are confronting field-level challenges and finding innovative solutions.
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The Right to Access to Justice is Denied to Some Two Thirds of the World’s Population. How Can We Close the Global Justice Gap?
Around the world there is a global justice gap, where more than 5 billion people lack meaningful access to justice. ‘Alternative’ justice system have the potential to help fill this gap – but are often misunderstood by practitioners and policymakers. We want to change that.
Network Member Interview: Catalina Marino, ACIJ
In this interview, we had the opportunity to talk to Catalina Marino, Programs Coordinator for the Right to the City at Asociación Civil por la Igualdad y la Justicia (ACIJ), about the participatory action research they have been involved in since 2023 as part of the Learning Agenda for Legal Empowerment.
Entrevista con Miembro de la Comunidad: Catalina Marino, ACIJ
En esta entrevista tuvimos la oportunidad de conversar con Catalina Marino, Coordinadora de Programas de Derecho a la Ciudad de la Asociación Civil por la Igualdad y la Justicia (ACIJ), sobre el trabajo de investigación acción participativa que han venido realizando desde 2023 en el marco de la Agenda de Aprendizajes para el Empoderamiento Jurídico.
Network Member Interview: Macarena Martinic, ONG FIMA
We spoke with Macarena Martinic, Coordinator of the Empowerment and Public Participation team at Fiscalía del Medio Ambiente (ONG FIMA), to discuss the participatory action research this NGO has been conducting since 2023.
Entrevista con Miembro de la Comunidad: Macarena Martinic, ONG FIMA
En esta entrevista, Macarena Martinic, de ONG FIMA, comparte aprendizajes del proceso de investigación acción participativa (PAR, en inglés) iniciado en 2023. Destaca que PAR ayudó a fortalecer la defensa territorial y ambiental de comunidades indígenas y organizaciones, e influir en el trabajo institucional de FIMA y en políticas públicas y normativas ambientales.
Entrevista con Miembro de la Comunidad: Lautaro Costantini, ProDESC
En esta entrevista tuvimos la oportunidad de conversar con Lautaro Costantini, Coordinador Institucional del Proyecto de Derechos Económicos, Sociales y Culturales, A.C. (ProDESC), sobre el trabajo de investigación acción participativa que vienen desarrollando.
How To: Design and Implement a Gender-Transformative Action Research Project
This guide shares practical recommendations for designing and implementing gender-transformative participatory action research. Gender-transformative research is not just aware of gender differences and inequality, but seeks to transform the underlying power imbalances. Drawing on a roundtable with Latin American experts, the guide shares some recommendations that can apply across different contexts.
Cómo diseñar e implementar un proyecto de investigación acción transformador en materia de género
Esta guía ofrece recomendaciones prácticas para desarrollar proyectos de investigación acción participativa con enfoque transformador de género. Busca visibilizar desigualdades y cambiar relaciones de poder. Basada en una mesa redonda con expertas latinoamericanas, presenta consejos aplicables a diversos contextos y territorios.
Legal empowerment and defense of the territory in Magallanes: The case of resistance to the salmon industry
The report relates the experience of individuals, civil society organizations, and Kawésqar families who have participated in actions to defend their territory, using different legal tools and mechanisms to influence decisions and policies regarding salmon farming, and to protect the environment and the rights of Indigenous peoples.
Empoderamiento jurídico y defensa del territorio en Magallanes: El caso de la resistencia frente a la industria salmonera
El informe relata la experiencia de personas, organizaciones de la socidad civil y familias Kawésqar que han participado de la defensa del territorio, utilizando distintas herramientas y mecanismos del derecho, para transformar las decisiones y políticas en materia de salmonicultura, y proteger el medio ambiente y los derechos de los pueblos indígenas.
Exclusion in Practice: A Human Rights Analysis on the Legal Barriers to Advancing Community Justice
This report is about community justice workers––their power, their promise, and the struggles they face in advancing justice for and protecting the rights of their communities. The report is intended to be used as an advocacy tool by community justice workers, lawyers, and researchers, who want to ensure that laws that regulate legal practice align with human rights principles and advance access to justice for all.
Building Community-Led Approaches For Campaigns Around the World
Tom Weerachat, Learning Agenda advisory group member, and Global Lead on Community-Led Advocacy at the International Accountability Project (IAP), shares his insights from IAP's collaboration with civil society partners across varied community-led approaches — in particular on legal empowerment and participatory action research.
Guide on Methodologies for Community-led Research
This short guide has been developed as part of ESCR-Net’s project on community-led research. The guide has been co-authored by members of the Project Advisory Group with the aim of providing a practical overview of key research methodologies to be used in community-led research.
A/HRC/56/62: Safeguarding the independence of judicial systems in the face of contemporary challenges to democracy
In the present report, the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, Margaret Satterthwaite, warns of a growing trend of governments undermining democracy by attacking the rule of law and the independence of judicial systems.
Our Impact
By pairing funding with peer-learning, we supported 13 action research projects across 17 countries. This independent evaluation report reflects the impact of our work: 84% of participants strengthened their work through peer exchange, 74% gained new skills, and many began using data more effectively in advocacy. The initiative also helped organizations adapt in restrictive political contexts.
The Power of Learning
How shared learning and continuous innovation of legal empowerment strategies has impacted practitioners…in their words.
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When you hear others who’ve been fighting for so many years, and somehow they’ve managed to find a breakthrough… I think for me, that’s one of the most important takeaways that I get from sharing with other practitioners in the Grassroots Justice Network.
Ruth Kaima
CHREAA, Malawi
What inspired me is to understand how different projects [and] different organizations around the world deal with different and difficult contexts, and the strategies that they develop.
Catalina Marino
ACIJ, Argentina
For me, it’s clear how much sharing our experience allows us to grow and improve in our work. The suggestions everyone brings can help bring our attention to…things we hadn’t yet thought about. I loved the spirit of coming to deepen our impact – we all want to use the discussions to get better.
Ange-Marie Esse
JEI Benin
When someone struggles with a challenge, there is someone else who has done [it] and you can learn from them. We can improve each other’s work, and we are able to take on many challenges that we are facing. (This way), we can speed up the process of solving challenges.
Patrick Njoroge
Akiba Mashinani Trust, Nairobi
The [action research] project is helping YLBHI critically reflect and develop a more adaptive social movement. It is helping us turn implicit knowledge to explicit knowledge.
Pratiwi Febry
Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI), Indonesia