Background

The Africa Parliamentary Knowledge Network (APKN) is now the permanent institutional home for the Guidelines. The APKN will set up a Board of Editors that under the aegis of Pan African Parliament will have the official and formal responsibility to make institutional decisions relating to the Guidelines.

The Guidelines are available on the web site of APKN at the following address http://drafting.apkn.org. The Guidelines are currently available in Arabic, English, French, Portuguese and Spanish, other languages may be added if requested to the maximum extent feasible.

Training

A. Training materials will be developed to provide self-study in the Guidelines. The training materials will consist principally of electronic materials (e-Modules). The training materials will include:

• basic modules that provide an overview of the Guidelines for those who want only an overview, and an introduction to the Guidelines for those who want to continue with the advanced modules;
• advanced modules that provide detailed coverage of each Guideline;
• supplementary modules that provide coverage on legislative drafting generally, as well as on other topics related to the Guidelines.

B. The training materials will also include training guides and reference manuals that can be used by teachers or trainers who are carrying out training sessions for groups of trainees.

C. The training materials will also include exercises, with possible solutions and a discussion of various useful approaches, so that trainees can attempt to solve real-life drafting problems by applying the Guidelines and can benefit from examples and feedback.

D. As a whole, the training materials should include a complete and thorough package of materials that collectively could be used by a local organisation to provide training in the Guidelines with little if any need for ongoing outside help. However, the producers of the training materials should remain available to provide outside help to users of the training materials.

E. Once developed, the training materials will be made available online.

F. The development and dissemination of the training materials will be done in coordination with other organizations that carry out training and capacity building relating to legislative drafting, to minimize duplication of effort and take advantage of any synergies that are available.

Promotion

A. Efforts will be made to identify and reach out to stakeholders, to let them know about the Guidelines and about the Workplan and to invite them to become involved. The categories of stakeholders include:

• individuals, and associations of individuals, such as drafters of legislation and regulations, policymakers, information and communications technology (ICT) professionals, law professors, judges;
• African parliaments and organizations of African parliaments, such as APKN;
• organisations that are involved in training or capacity building in legislative drafting in Africa, such as universities and law schools generally, but also the United Nations, the Commonwealth Secretariat, the International Center for Law and Development (ICLAD), the Sir William Dale Centre for Legislative Studies, and so on.

B. Efforts will be made to encourage and facilitate the creation of groups of stakeholders to further the purposes of this Workplan. For example, an effort will be made, through APKN or otherwise, to support a network of legislative drafters in Africa. Likewise, an effort will be made to coordinate with organisations that are involved in training or capacity building in legislative drafting in Africa.

C. Particular emphasis will be given to stakeholders in, or with demonstrated connections to, Africa.

Further Development and Refinement

The Guidelines will continue to be developed and refined over time. This will include changes to the Guidelines themselves, but also the addition of commentaries, examples, and other aids. Likewise, this will also include the development and refinement of regional, local, and tradition-specific variants or extensions of the Guidelines, when warranted, with commentaries, examples, and other aids. This will also include translating the Guidelines into additional languages (and revising the translations that do exist, where improvements in translation are identified).

The board of editors will continue to operate in the near term in the manner it has operated, but will work toward establishing a set of governing principles for the board itself. The governing principles will address issues that may arise from time to time about membership on the board, leadership of the board, and resolution of differences of opinion among the members.

The board of editors of the Guidelines will also establish a set of procedures and mechanisms to be used by people who want to propose changes, variants, extensions, translations, or any other matters relating to the Guidelines, and to be used by the board of editors in considering and acting upon such proposals.

Other Activities for Capacity Building in Legislative Drafting

A. A repository will be established for resources useful to capacity building in legislative drafting. Particular emphasis will be given to resources developed in Africa and to resources developed specifically for Africa. Resources may include articles and other original documents; indexes and other research tools; directories of experts and other stakeholders; and so on. Through the repository, the resources will be made broadly available.

B. A forum will be established at APKN for legislative drafters and other stakeholders can interact and exchange information and experiences toward building capacity in legislative drafting in Africa. In connection with the forum, a searchable repository of questions and answers will be developed so that problems and solutions can be better shared.

C. Efforts will be made to promote the use of the bill drafting editor developed by the UNDESA Africa I-Parliament Action Team.