IDLO'S STRATEGIC DIRECTIONS 2025–2028: RULE OF LAW FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND GLOBAL RESILIENCE

IDLO'S STRATEGIC DIRECTIONS 2025–2028: RULE OF LAW FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND GLOBAL RESILIENCE
 
As the world enters a period of unprecedented change, the International Development Law Organization (IDLO) has established the 2025–2028 Strategy as a framework for action to strengthen the rule of law, promote justice and ensure sustainable development globally. The plan is designed not only to respond to existential challenges such as climate change, health crises, conflicts and inequality, but also to build long-term resilience in legal and governance systems. The ideological foundation of the strategy is the affirmation that the rule of law is not just an end in itself, but a prerequisite for maintaining peace, security and development. Over the past three decades, IDLO has accumulated experience implementing projects in many vulnerable areas, from which it has concluded that only when the rule of law is built to be fair, inclusive and effectively enforced can countries overcome crises and create an environment for sustainable development. The 2025–2028 Strategy is considered a new defining step, both inheriting previous achievements and adjusting to suit the rapidly changing global context.
I. Global context of the 2025–2028 Strategy
The current global context is marked by enormous changes, opening up new opportunities and posing complex challenges for the international legal system and individual countries. On the political and security front, prolonged armed conflicts, the rise of violent extremism, and transnational terrorism are still directly threatening peace and stability in many regions. In addition, humanitarian crises and international migration are increasingly serious, forcing millions of people to leave their homelands in a situation of legal insecurity, vulnerable to exploitation, discrimination and human rights violations. On the other hand, the decline in people's trust in public institutions, especially in the context of some governments using power arbitrarily, violating the rule of law, has led to waves of social protests and increased political instability. It is in this context that IDLO considers strengthening the rule of law and promoting good governance as an urgent priority, to ensure that human rights are respected, justice is done and peace is maintained.
On the socio-economic front, the widening inequality gap is a prominent challenge. Although globalization and the fourth industrial revolution have created significant development achievements, their benefits are not distributed fairly. Many rich countries enjoy high growth rates, while poor countries are still struggling with poverty reduction, food security and lack of basic services. Even within each country, the gap between rich and poor is increasingly fierce, especially in large cities. Vulnerable groups such as women, children, migrants, indigenous people and people with disabilities are often disadvantaged in accessing public services, the judicial system and development opportunities. This situation shows that the rule of law is not only a legal concept, but also a tool to regulate social relations, fairly allocate resources and ensure inclusiveness in development. Therefore, IDLO considers promoting inclusive justice and equality as an important pillar of its 2025–2028 strategy.
On the environmental dimension, climate change has become an existential threat to human security and sustainable development. Rising sea levels, extreme natural disasters, droughts and natural resource degradation are causing livelihood crises for millions of people, especially in coastal countries and vulnerable regions. The environmental crisis is not only an ecological problem, but also leads to social instability, resource conflicts and forced migration. In this context, the need for a global and national legal framework to manage resources, protect the environment and promote climate justice is increasingly urgent. IDLO recognizes that the rule of law is crucial to realizing international climate commitments and ensuring that environmental policies are implemented fairly and transparently, without leaving behind the most vulnerable groups.
Another important challenge shaping the global landscape is the rapid development of technology and digital governance. The fourth industrial revolution, with its artificial intelligence, big data, biotechnology and automation, is dramatically changing all aspects of life. However, along with the opportunities for development, technology also raises many legal and ethical issues: data privacy, cybersecurity, digital platform governance, as well as the risk of increasing inequality between those who have access to technology and those who are excluded from the digital process. In addition, the spread of disinformation and cybercrime is also threatening the integrity of democratic institutions and the safety of citizens. In that context, IDLO aims to develop programs to support member countries in building adaptive legal and institutional frameworks, in order to both take advantage of the benefits of digital technology and ensure that human rights, especially the right to privacy and the right to access accurate information, are strictly protected.
In addition, the global context has been profoundly affected by health and humanitarian crises. The COVID-19 pandemic is a clear demonstration that legal and judicial systems need to be better prepared to respond to emergencies. In many countries, measures to control the pandemic have led to restrictions on human rights, from freedom of movement to privacy, sometimes without effective legal oversight. Lessons learned from the pandemic highlight the need to strengthen emergency legal systems in line with international human rights standards. IDLO 2025–2028 aims to help countries build legal capacity to respond flexibly to crises, ensuring a balance between public security and fundamental human rights.
Synthesizing the above aspects, it can be seen that the current global context is a complex intersection of many challenges and opportunities. Increasing inequality, environmental crisis, political conflicts, technological advances and non-traditional security threats have posed an urgent need to strengthen the rule of law at both the international and national levels. The rule of law is both a tool to ensure order, stability and justice, and a foundation for countries to successfully implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. In this context, IDLO developed the Strategy 2025–2028 as a comprehensive strategic response, aiming to position the organization as an important actor in connecting the rule of law with development goals, while supporting member states to adapt to global fluctuations.
2. IDLO's strategic vision and mission for the period 2025–2028
In the process of policy and strategy planning, clearly defining the vision and mission is a core element that helps guide actions, allocate resources and strengthen the organization's identity. For the International Development Law Organization (IDLO), the strategic vision and mission for the period 2025–2028 not only reflects the organization's commitment to the rule of law, but also strongly affirms the essential role of law in creating a just, peaceful and sustainable world. In the complex global context with many threats to justice and human rights, IDLO has chosen a strategic orientation that is comprehensive, inclusive and linked to universal values that the international community pursues.
IDLO’s strategic vision for the period 2025–2028 is defined as creating a world where the rule of law does not exist only on paper, but becomes a solid foundation for justice, human rights, peace and sustainable development. In that vision, the rule of law is not limited to the purely legal sphere, but is seen as a multidimensional tool, closely linked to politics, economics, society and the environment. This reflects the shift in IDLO’s strategic thinking: from focusing mainly on legal reform and judicial institution building, the organization has expanded its scope of activities to the fields of sustainable development, gender equality, digital governance and climate change response. In this way, the strategic vision clearly demonstrates IDLO’s desire to become a bridge between the rule of law and urgent global issues, contributing to the implementation of the United Nations 2030 Agenda.
In line with its vision, IDLO’s strategic mission for the period 2025–2028 emphasizes four main aspects. First, the organization is committed to supporting member countries in strengthening their legal institutional capacity, aiming to build transparent, fair and adaptive legal systems. This stems from the fact that many developing countries still face difficulties in maintaining an independent judiciary, ensuring effective administration of justice and preventing corruption. IDLO, through its technical assistance programs, policy advice and professional training , aims to create a solid legal foundation, helping countries address internal challenges and integrate into the international legal system.
Second, IDLO affirms its mission to promote equal and inclusive access to justice for all people, especially vulnerable groups. Women, children, indigenous peoples, migrants and people with disabilities often face many legal, economic and social barriers in accessing justice. Therefore, IDLO's new strategy focuses on reforming discriminatory legal regulations and promoting community justice models that are close to people's lives. This is not only a human rights-oriented approach, but also demonstrates inclusive development thinking - a core element of sustainable development.
Third, IDLO’s mission also emphasizes the integration of the rule of law into global sustainable development strategies. The organization recognizes that challenges such as climate change, environmental degradation, economic inequality, or health crises cannot be fully addressed without a strong, fair, and transparent legal system. Therefore, IDLO aims to support countries in enacting and enforcing environmental laws, natural resource management laws, and regulations that ensure transparency in public management. This integration not only helps countries achieve Sustainable Development Goal 16 on peace, justice, and strong institutions, but also contributes to the implementation of other goals such as poverty reduction (SDG 1), gender equality (SDG 5), climate action (SDG 13), and global cooperation (SDG 17).
Fourth, IDLO considers responding to new challenges of the digital age and global crises as part of its strategic mission. The Fourth Industrial Revolution, with the rise of artificial intelligence, big data and biotechnology, poses an urgent need for an effective regulatory legal framework that still ensures human rights. IDLO is committed to supporting countries in developing appropriate digital governance laws and institutions, in order to both take advantage of the benefits of technology and ensure safety and fairness for citizens. In addition, after the COVID-19 pandemic, the lesson of law in emergency situations has been incorporated into IDLO's strategic vision, with the goal of building emergency legal capacity based on human rights principles, avoiding the recurrence of arbitrary restrictions on citizens' rights.
A notable point in IDLO’s strategic vision and mission is the close connection between global values and local contexts. IDLO does not impose a single legal model for every country, but respects the diversity of cultures, traditions and political systems. This is reflected in the motto “rule of law for and with the people”, which emphasizes community participation in the process of law-making and enforcement. Thanks to this flexible approach, IDLO can both maintain international standards on human rights and adapt to the practical conditions of each country.
From an academic perspective, IDLO’s strategic vision and mission reflect the shift in global legal and governance from a “purely national law” model to a “rule of law linked to sustainable development” model. This shows that the rule of law is no longer just a tool of the state, but has become a multi-layered platform connecting the government, civil society, the private sector and the international community. IDLO’s strategic orientation 2025–2028, therefore, can be considered a typical example of how the rule of law is redefined in the era of globalization and integration.
In short, IDLO’s strategic vision and mission for the period 2025–2028 clearly demonstrate a comprehensive and progressive orientation, placing the rule of law at the center of justice, human rights and sustainable development. This is not only a guideline for the organization’s specific activities in the next four years, but also an affirmation of the value that IDLO wants to contribute to the international community: a world where justice is not just an ideal, but becomes a living reality in the daily lives of every human being.
3. IDLO's strategic pillars for the period 2025–2028
In every strategic plan, identifying key pillars plays a role in shaping the direction of implementation and concretizing the organization’s vision and mission. For IDLO, the 2025–2028 period is built on four main pillars: (i) strengthening the rule of law and enhancing judicial capacity; (ii) promoting equitable and inclusive access to justice; (iii) integrating the rule of law with sustainable development and responding to global challenges; (iv) enhancing organizational capacity and expanding strategic partnerships. These four pillars do not exist in isolation, but are interconnected and complementary, reflecting IDLO’s systemic approach to the rule of law in a complex global context.
Pillar 1: Strengthening the rule of law and judicial capacity. This is the fundamental foundation of all IDLO action programs, because a weak legal system that lacks independence and transparency cannot ensure justice and sustainable development. Reality shows that many developing countries are facing rampant corruption, limited judicial capacity, overlapping and unworkable legal frameworks. IDLO aims to address these problems at the root by supporting the drafting, amendment and harmonization of legal documents; at the same time, providing intensive training for judges, prosecutors, lawyers and judicial officers. The organization also focuses on promoting the independence of the judiciary, building monitoring and accountability mechanisms to strengthen social trust in justice. This pillar is crucial, because without a strong legal institution, any efforts on human rights, development or the environment will hardly achieve lasting results.
Pillar Two: Promoting equitable and inclusive access to justice. A society can only be considered to be governed by the rule of law when all individuals, regardless of gender, age, ethnicity, religion or economic status, enjoy equal access to justice. However, many barriers still exist that leave millions of people, especially vulnerable groups, outside the legal system. IDLO will implement a number of initiatives in the period 2025–2028 to eliminate these inequalities, from legal reforms to remove discriminatory provisions, to developing community justice models and informal mediation mechanisms. IDLO places particular emphasis on the legal empowerment of women and girls, as these are often disadvantaged groups in society. Enhancing access to justice not only has human rights implications, but also contributes to strengthening political and social stability, reducing conflicts and creating the premise for comprehensive development.
Pillar Three: Integrating the Rule of Law into Sustainable Development and Responding to Global Challenges. A prominent feature of IDLO’s 2025–2028 Strategy is the integration of the rule of law into broader development areas, including the economy, environment, health, and technology. The Organization recognizes that sustainable development goals cannot be achieved without a solid legal framework that regulates the behavior of states, businesses, and individuals. For example, in the environmental field, the promulgation and strict enforcement of laws on resource conservation, emissions management, and climate change response are prerequisites for protecting the planet. In the economic field, antitrust, financial transparency, and anti-money laundering regulations play a role in maintaining market fairness. In the health field, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, laws need to be developed to balance individual rights with the need to protect public health. IDLO also focuses on the governance of technology in the digital age: building a legal framework to regulate artificial intelligence, protect personal data and prevent cybercrime. By integrating the rule of law into global issues, IDLO demonstrates that law is not only a tool for social management, but also a driving force shaping sustainable development.
Fourth pillar: Strengthening organizational capacity and expanding strategic partnerships. IDLO itself, as an international organization, needs to continuously innovate to meet the increasing demands of the global context. The 2025–2028 Strategy focuses on improving internal management capacity, enhancing the efficiency of resource use and ensuring transparency in operations. In parallel, IDLO focuses on expanding diverse partnerships – from UN organizations, development banks, regional organizations, to civil society and the private sector. The strength of the rule of law cannot come from a single organization, but requires multi-level and multi-stakeholder cooperation. Through a wide network of partners, IDLO can expand its sphere of influence, share experiences and mobilize financial and knowledge resources to implement large-scale programs. This pillar shows that IDLO is not only a technical implementing organization, but also a global actor, contributing to shaping the discourse and policy on the rule of law at the international level.
The distinctive feature of IDLO’s four strategic pillars is their interconnectedness and complementarity. Strengthening the rule of law (pillar 1) lays the foundation for inclusive access to justice (pillar 2); access to justice contributes to strengthening social consensus, thereby effectively supporting the integration of the rule of law into sustainable development (pillar 3); and all three pillars require a dynamic, effective and open-minded IDLO (pillar 4). This structure reflects the systemic and global thinking in rule of law governance, and also shows how IDLO approaches issues in a practical manner without detaching from its strategic vision.
From an academic perspective, IDLO’s four strategic pillars can be seen as a concretization of the theory of “rule of law for development”. This theory holds that the rule of law not only serves the pure goal of justice, but is also a tool to promote socio-economic development and protect human rights values. During the period 2025–2028, IDLO has applied this theory into practice by connecting law with areas such as environment, technology and gender equality. This is an important step, helping IDLO go beyond the scope of a purely legal organization to become a multidisciplinary knowledge and practice center, capable of creating lasting influence on a global scale.
4. Solutions and methods for implementing IDLO's Strategy 2025–2028
To realize the four strategic pillars, IDLO in the period 2025-2028 identifies a comprehensive system of solutions and implementation methods, combining the organization's internal innovation and strengthening multilateral cooperation. First of all, IDLO attaches importance to improving research and policy-making capacity, through the development of in-depth reports, comparative analysis of international and national laws, as well as the development of an open database on rule of law practices. This is the foundation for the organization to provide evidence-based policy recommendations, ensuring scientific validity and feasibility when supporting member countries. In addition, IDLO strongly implements judicial training and capacity building programs, focusing not only on legal knowledge but also on management skills, digital technology and professional ethics, in order to build a team of professional, independent and honest judicial officials.
In parallel with training, IDLO promotes the application of information technology and digital transformation in judicial activities. E-courts, digital records systems and online dispute resolution platforms will be encouraged to be applied, thereby shortening the time to process cases, reducing costs and expanding access to justice, especially for people in remote areas. This is also a solution to adapt to the rapid changes of the digital age, while ensuring that technology is used in a humane way, in compliance with human rights standards. In addition, IDLO focuses on strengthening the monitoring mechanism, transparency and accountability in the legal and judicial system, through supporting the development of independent inspection bodies, information disclosure regulations and effective complaint mechanisms.
In terms of implementation, IDLO promotes a multi-layered and multi-partner approach. At the global level, the organization works closely with the United Nations, development banks and regional mechanisms to integrate the rule of law into the sustainable development agenda. At the national level, IDLO works directly with state agencies, while encouraging the participation of civil society, the private sector and local communities. This is an “inclusive” approach, ensuring that all voices are heard and all legal needs are reflected in the reform process. At the same time, IDLO focuses on monitoring and evaluating results with a system of quantitative and qualitative indicators, allowing for measuring the actual impact of programs, thereby promptly adjusting the implementation strategy.