PARALEGAL ALLIANCE NETWORK

ZCEA has been a member of PAN since its formation in 1998. PAN is a network of 4 Zambian non governmental organisations (NGOs). The membership comprises of Zambia Civic Education Association; Legal Resources Foundation; Young Women Christian Association and CARITAS Zambia. The Network was created by the founding organisations upon realising that they shared common objective of providing free legal advice to the vulnerable communities.

In 2009, PAN conducted advanced course training to 48 practising paralegals from the member organisations. Caritas, LRF and ZCEA each had 12 paralegals trained, YWCA 10 and Law and Development Association (LADA) sent 2 paralegals for the training. The topics covered were:

The other activity that followed was the holding of two provincial workshops in Eastern and Copperbelt provinces to enhance coordination and collaboration of legal aid service providers in the two provinces. The workshops involved mainly sharing of information and how referrals of cases to member organisation could be done.

In collaboration with Access to Justice, PAN conducted a baseline survey  to assess how many institutions are providing legal services, the type of paralegals in Zambia, challenges faced by legal service providers and where legal aid providers are located.

Some of the findings are that Caritas Zambia, Legal Resources foundation and Zambia Civic Education Association are the only organisations with much more organised paralegal work.  Others have paralegals with no basic training in law. Most legal providers found are in provincial centres.

ZCEA intends to continue playing an active role in the expanded PAN from 2010 and beyond. PAN is expanding its membership to include other legal services providers.