The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, is currently implementing a thriving Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Global Program. Building on experience from Southern Europe, where the IFC assisted with the opening of 12 mediation centers and the successful resolution of over 2,500 cases, the Program puts forth an impressive product line of services for the private sector within and outside the borders of developing countries. Services include establishing a supportive ADR legal framework, creating an in-country pool of well trained mediators, raising awareness about ADR, and creating financially sustainable ADR systems.

On April 16, 2010, the ABA-UNDP International Legal Resource Center (ILRC) together with other entities organized a panel, which showcased the IFC’s ADR initiatives, during the ABA Section of International Law Spring Meeting. Panelists discussed the Program’s impact, implementation of ADR projects, lessons learned, capacity building strategies, necessary preconditions for ADR set up, and responses of key local stakeholders. Panelists explored how these interventions contribute to the development of best practices that support and strengthen the rule of law in different legal and social contexts.

Lelia Mooney, the Section’s Rule of Law Officer, led the discussion with brief introductions of each of the panelists and their work. Lada Busevac, IFC Operations Officer and ADR Product Development Leader in Southern Europe, provided the audience with details about the IFC’s impact in introducing mediation services in the region. She indicated that the greatest lesson learned was that sustainable rule of law in developing countries translates into an overall workable system that can support contract enforcement, not just capacity building exercises and setting up ADR centers. Furthermore, the effect of the IFC’s ADR Program is that it led to an interlinked system and a methodology whereby clients self-select which disputes are appropriate for ADR and which disputes are appropriate for the formal court process.

Patricia Sulser works closely with Ms. Busevac, as the Principal Counsel at IFC, and attested to this interlinked system which is also creating a new role for lawyers in developing countries. While lawyers still undertake their traditional duties of representing clients in court cases, with the introduction of ADR, they have taken on the new and exciting challenge of preparing clients for mediation and arbitration.

Throughout the conversation, Sevi Simavi elaborated on mainstreaming gender issues into the IFC's ADR Program through the Women in Business Program. She provided examples of their work which seeks to create business opportunities for women in developing countries. Ms. Simavi indicated that some of her program’s studies demonstrate that women prefer ADR to the formal court system when it comes to settling business disputes.

Ms. Donna Stienstra, a Senior Researcher at the United States Federal Judicial Center, regularly consults with U.S. federal courts in their efforts to provide ADR services as an alternative and has also consulted with state courts and court systems in other countries. As a member of the IFC’s ADR Global Program Advisory Board, she spoke of striking an important balance between ADR and the formal court system in order to achieve true rule of law impact. She indicated that ADR cannot be a panacea; there will always be gaps in the system that cannot be resolved by ADR. For example, the courts are important for enforcing a contract that calls for mediation. That is, if the parties to a contract do not go to mediation as required in their agreement, then the formal court system will step in and refer them to mediation.

Sponsoring Entities:

ABA-UNDP International Legal Resource Center
Rule of Law-Technical Legal Assistance Board
Law Society of England and Wales
International Finance Corporation World Bank Group

Program Chairs:

Don S. DeAmicis, Ropes & Gray LLP, Boston, MA
Lelia Mooney, Rule of Law Officer, Washington, DC

Introduction & Moderator:

Lelia Mooney, Rule of Law Officer, Washington, DC

Speakers:

Lada Busevac, Operations Officer and ADR Product Development Leader, Advisory Services Southern Europe, IFC, Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina
Sevi Simavi, Global Product Leader, Women in Business Program, IFC, Washington, DC
Donna Stienstra, Senior Researcher, US Federal Judicial Center, Washington DC
Patricia Sulser, Principal Counsel, IFC, Washington, DC

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