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The Government of Kenya has implemented several reform initiatives including changing the legal, policy and institutional framework to, among other things, recognize and streamline the I Informal Justice System JS and expand the reach and effectiveness of legal aid. To this end, the government passed the Legal Aid Act of 2016, which called for the creation of the National Legal Aid Service (NLAS) under the Office of the Attorney General and Department of Justice (DoJ) whose mandate is to "establish and administer a national legal aid scheme that is affordable, accessible, sustainable, credible and accountable"

The PLEAD (Programme for Legal Empowerment and Aid Delivery) is an EU justice support programme of EUR 34,150,000 funded by the 11th EDF under the National Indicative Programme NIP sector entitled "accountability of public institutions". The financing agreement between the EU and the government of Kenya was signed on August 2017 and the programme has an implementation duration of 5 years.

The programme purpose is to develop an integrated approach at central and local level aimed at equality of all before the law, through improved access to and the expeditious delivery of justice, particularly in high-risk counties in Kenya.

PLEAD targets the 5 counties with the largest urban centers and 7 counties of the most marginalized areas of Northeastern Kenya (the "12 Focal Counties"), where the rule of law is particularly challenged due to social inequalities or abject poverty. The project has four interlinked and mutually supportive outcomes:

1. Access to legal aid and assistance is enhanced, especially for the poor and vulnerable
2. Court administration and case management are strengthened nationally and in 12 Focal Counties
3. Quality and efficiency are increased in the criminal justice system
4. Coherence, cooperation and collaboration within the justice sector are improved by capacity building of the National Council on the Administration of Justice (NCAJ).

The global objective of this assignment is to support the DoJ in the implementation of the newly adopted Legal Aid Act and to support the overall coordination of and collaboration between actors in the PLEAD programme. The specific obljectives are to:

• Facilitate the finalisation of the formulation and subsequently the implementation of the direct decentralised operations component (i.e. the programme estimates) of outcome 1 of PLEAD and contribute to the overall integration of this component in the PLEAD programme (activity 1).
• Prepare the baseline and monitoring framework for the National Legal Aid Service component of the Programme (activity 2).