In 2007, following decades of increasing judicial congestion and a lack of access to justice for marginalized groups, the Colombian Government put in place the “Justice Service Strengthening Project”. This project, which was done in partnership with the World Bank, had two main aims: improving the efficiency of the judiciary and eliminating barriers to access to justice.

To do this, the project focused on three main areas of reform: (i) the transition from written to oral proceedings in labor, civil, and family law; (ii) training programs for judges and judicial officers, to get them acquainted with oral proceedings and with the new, more active, role that they would have to play; and (iii) the decentralization of judicial services to—literally—bring justice closer to the people.

The project showed positive and promising short-term results, with the data suggesting that it had clearly been successful in increasing efficiency and reducing barriers to access justice. However, the originally planned second phase of the project was never executed, and there has been no further monitoring of the project’s results after 2015, making it impossible to gauge its medium to long-term effects.