START UP C AS E ST U DY Legal empowerment NGO Namati and its partners run paralegal programs for citizenship in Kenya and Bangladesh. In Kenya, paralegals focus on birth certificates, ID cards, passports, and death certificates. In Bangladesh, there are more types of cases, including both documentation and using documentation to access rights and services. The program targets communities where people have citizenship rights in law, yet face discrimination and other obstacles in attempts to acquire and use legal identity documentation. The goal is not just to expand rates of documentation or use of documentation, but to promote full citizenship rights—which require empowerment of the community, higher rates of documentation, ability to use documents, effective access to rights/services (i.e. no further discrimination when document is presented), strong and non-discriminatory legal frameworks, and enhanced belonging/inclusion of previously marginalized communities. The project’s initial years were focused on establishing the program and systems, refining the paralegal work, mobilizing the community to attempt to apply for documents, and building community confidence—testing and demonstrating how legal empowerment approaches could address citizenship rights. Now, the program is using these methods in a five-year strategy to achieve transformative impact at the national level—an end to discrimination in citizenship. Namati is also exploring ideas about thresholds for when paralegal programs can disengage, called “tipping points.” Depending on context, paralegals may be able to move away from citizenship cases if a certain percentage of people in the affected community secure documentation, have the knowledge and capacity to acquire documentation on their own, and/or become active in holding government accountable to nondiscrimination in the issuance of documents. A tipping point may also require the achievement of specific changes in law or policy that improve the entire legal framework for the country. Tipping points may vary depending on the issues or case types at hand, but defining in advance what success looks like and what achievements might lead to a shift in strategy could steer the focus of the paralegal work and program evolution over time. • Number of referrals made or accepted •N  umber of clients rating services as satisfactory, good, or excellent (client satisfaction rate) These are some impact indicators that paralegal program have used: • Number of clients who obtain documentation •N  umber of people who benefit from documentation (this can be measured as “active clients” and clients’ “household members” who benefit the program’s service to the client) •  Number of clients accessing services for the first time •  Number of services or rights newly accessed by clients • Number of clients who have been able to open a bank account • Number of clients who have been able to gain access to credit • Number of small businesses opened by clients • Number of clients in formal employment 54 | A C O M M U N I T Y- B A S E D P R A C T I T I O N E R ’ S G U I D E : D O C U M E N T I N G C I T I Z E N S H I P A N D OT H E R F O R M S O F L E G A L I D E N T I T Y