November 14, 2003 - Quito, Ecuador A training program for improving the oral litigation performance of public officials of the judiciary system was offered at a national level in Ecuador to judges, public prosecutors and public defenders. The program was promoted by the National Judiciary Council and was financed with resources from the "Justice and Society" Fund which was created by USAID and the Esquel Foundation for the improvement of justice in Ecuador. A technical team made up of experts from the Center for Justice in the Americas (CEJA), regional specialized body of the Organization of American States (OAS), was responsible for carrying out the Oral
The Partnership pictured above: Dr. Jose Robayo of the National Judiciary Council; Dr. Armando Bermeo, President of Ecuador's Supreme Court of Justice; Patricia Esquetini of the Fundación Esquel; Lars Klarreson, USAID representative in Ecuador; Bahiah Khamsi Globatel/GDLN; Homero Tinoco, Dean of UTPL's Judicial Faculty
Litigation program. In addition, the Universidad Tecnica Particular de Loja and Globatel S.A., a specialized Ecuadorian company in interactive distance education services, supported the technical team.

The training program consisted of a total of 140 hours and was made up of ten modules. Each module included - a conference and national presentation, the presentation of audiovisual material demonstrating the techniques to be developed, exercises in small groups, and dialogue with experts responsible for the topic. The use of sophisticated communications technology allowed the simultaneous connection with more than 500 participants in thirteen cities throughout the country, with highly qualified international academic experts, such as the Argentine Professor Alberto Binder and the Chileans Andres Baytelman, Mauricio Duce, Cristian Riego. Dr. Alberto Wray was responsible for the technical management of the program.

In addition, the technical team trained a group of Ecuadorian professionals that could themselves reproduce future training events with similar characteristics. The Agreement for this program was signed on February 14, 2003 and in its duration, 500 committee members, judges, magistrates, public defenders, and public prosecutors participated in the ten modules.

Dr. Farith Simon, Director of the Esquel-USAID Justice and Society Fund stated, "we are very happy with what has taken place and we are sure that we have reached a milestone in this process."

This program was born from the Global Development Learning Network (GDLN) course, Judicial Reform and Anticorruption of the World Bank Institute, offered at a national level in 2002. The GDLN Center in Chile provided direct support with transmissions from Santiago, Chile.

For additional information regarding this activity or to learn of future prorgrams to be offered by GDLN in Ecuador, please contact Bahiah Khamsi (bkhamsi@globatel.com).