Regional Justice Services  

RAG Rating Methodology (Overview)

  • A RAG rating approach forms the foundation for the Resources and Infrastructure, ‘Justice Services’, element of the Rapid Justice Assessment.
  • RAG ratings identify threshold values which allow the user to signify ratings of justice services along a standardised scale.
  • In cases of binary responses (“yes”, “no”), there was no amber rating.
  • Thresholds for all 110 indicators were identified to determine whether an indicator is ‘Red’, ‘Amber’, or ‘Green’. Thresholds were informed by three question-dependent rules.
  • Where national representation is used to inform RAG ratings, sample means (excluding outlying residuals) are calculated. Sample means then form the basis for RAG identification.
    • Example: In Police “Investigators per 100 thousand” – the sample mean excluding outliers is calculated, if the indicator value is greater than the sample mean, then the value is green, if it’s the same or 25% below, it is amber, anything below that 25% threshold is red.
  • Where explicit national policy targets can be used to inform thresholds, these targets have been integrated into RAG model.
    • Example: In Government’s 10 Year Perspectives Development Plan 2020-2030, there is a target of 50% participation of Women in 3 branches of Government. Therefore, a 50% participation threshold informs the RAG ratings for all indicators that involve Women.
  • Where either point 1 or 2 do not fit, an ‘access to justice’ approach has informed thresholds. This means utilizing numbers of institutions that provide or do not provide a service within a given zone, as a barometer for potential service provision and thus accessibility.
    • Example: Police Indicator “Facilities with Women and Children Units” – from Phase 1 Collection, the highest possible number of police stations in a zone is 25 (Arsi, Oromia). 1 out of 25 is 4%, therefore a 4% value was used to inform thresholds.
  • In all cases, this methodology is not rigid. It adopts and learns from past Justice Snapshot and Audit methodologies to re-calibrate, or further sensitize, thresholds to best fit institutional and national pictures.