This guide is written for program managers responsible for improving the delivery of safety, security, and access to justice in any part of the world. It should also be useful to a wide variety of government officials and to anyone interested in pursuing a disciplined course of institutional reform in the safety and justice sector.

The guide does not prescribe the use of particular indicators for measuring progress toward safety and justice. The choice of appropriate indicators must be the result of a process undertaken in each country and programme. This guide describes that process, explaining the principles that should inform the choice of indicators, and provides examples of possible indicators. If the guide and its examples inspire you to experiment in new ways to monitor your progress and to build systems of indicators that can remain in place after your reform program is complete, the guide will have served its purpose.

Although countries vary widely in the availability of data from which program managers can build indicators, the simplest solutions are often the best, even in the most data-rich environments. As a result, the design process described here should be practical in almost any context. If this guide has a bias, it is in favour of collecting opinions from the people who experience the work of the safety and justice sector. Methods of surveying users of justice services need not be expensive or complex. All that is required is a systematic approach; but there is no substitute for this kind of data.

Produced by the Vera Institute of Justice.