South Africa

Over a five-year period, UNDP and USAID sponsored a series of projects (via NDI in 1997), conducted in conjunction with Boston University School of Law.

These projects occurred when South Africa had a new government at the national and local levels. Participants were very interested in seeking ways to improve legislative drafting processes to resolve post-apartheid social problems in the context of major political differences between inherited apartheid drafters and law-making institutions and newly elected anti-apartheid governors, civil rights lawyers, and majority of civil society organizations.

The projects included in-country workshops and work in-situ at Witwatersrand University. The projects resulted in bills to restructure the Gautang Provincial Welfare Department, three of which the Provincial Legislature enacted; plus bills on other national and local issues.

Workshops provided training for fifteen ANC and union members, for eighteen legislation drafters, and for others at Witwatersrand University; participants came from the Legal Resources Center: Land, Housing, and Development Program. Law students at Witwatersrand University, members of the Gauteng Welfare Department (Gauteng Social Welfare Standing Committee) and Gautang Provincial Legislature, and national ministry drafters also attended a semester-long course. Another workshop trained ten Pretoria University faculty members. 

Bills drafted:
Agricultural Extension Agency 
Council Accountability
Human Resources in Local Authorities
Local Social Welfare
Protection of Farm Workers 
Subsidiary Legislation

Following the initial series of projects, several South Africans participated in the e-Learning course, Legislative Drafting for Democratic Social Change. 

Participants drafted bills and accompanying research reports.

Bills drafted:
Enabling HIV-positive Persons to Obtain Low-Cost Medications
Funding for Higher Education 
Racially Integrating the Military
Supporting the Development of Micro-enterprises