About the African Innovation Foundation Context

African Law Library and Governance
An Innovative access to law
About
the African Innovation Foundation
Elodie de Warlincourt, Foundation Director
and Member of the Management Team
Pauline Mujawamariya, Programme Director,
Innovation Prize for Africa and Member of the
Management Team
Sophie Bussmann, Programme Director,
African Law Library and Member of the
Management Team
Context
The African Innovation Foundation (AIF) is a
Swiss registered Foundation that helps mobilize
innovation supporting sustainable development
in Africa. AIF’s areas of activity encompass
innovative programmes in the fields of access
to technologies, law and governance, education,
culture and health. The Foundation seeks to
establish cooperation platforms for institutions,
investors and innovators and to promote ideas to
support them.
AIF also promotes transparent processes and
procedures within the public sector and combats
illegitimate appropriation and dissipation of
resources within both the private and public
domains.
An Executive Committee holds responsibility for
the overall management of the Foundation. It is
composed of:
Walter Fust, Chairman of the Board
Jean Claude Bastos de Morais, Founder and
Board Member
Despite its many challenges, Africa’s average
GDP growth at around 5 percent has topped
the global average over the past decade,
demonstrating the continent’s greater than
expected resilience during the global economic
crisis. This regional growth has brought about a
major shift in economic and governance models
that are actively contributing to shaping this
growth.
FREE ONLINE LIBRARY ON AFRICAN LAW
AND GOVERNANCE
While most economic outlook reports show a
broadly positive near future for the world’s second
fastest-growing region, the rule of law, including
customary law, is essential to the economic
development of the African continent. In the
meantime, access to law is the cornerstone for the
creation of a conducive environment in which wider
development efforts can take root and flourish for
social cohesion, political stability and sustainable
development. The African Law Library (ALL) is a
flagship programme of the African Innovation
Foundation and it purpose is to facilitate access to
law in Africa.
Programme Objectives
The ALL platform (www.africanlawlibrary.net)
is an innovative online portal and free-of-charge
one-stop-shop database for African people from
business, government and civil society. It aims
to deepen the continent’s integration agenda
and renew commitment to a sustainable path
of growth and development through access to
African law and governance.
Access to downloadable and printable full
legal texts, selected court decisions and
secondary literature from African countries
Multilingual platform, searchable by subjects,
keywords, country, type of document
Collections classification by country, themes,
type of organization and document, including
secondary literature
Available online articles on law and governance
in Africa harvested from diverse sources
NETWORKING
AND COMPARATIVE RESEARCH
Platform for peers to interact and exchange
ideas
Network of participants and searchable
directory of experts
Online workgroups (national, continental,
intercontinental)
Virtual thematic research groups
Target Groups
Governments: Decision makers,
parliamentarians, civil servants/public
administrations, public committees, legal
professionals such as judges, etc.
Private sector: Lawyers, legal advisers, etc.
Academics: Teachers; Masters, Doctoral, High
School and Secondary School students in the
fields of law, civic education and governance
Civil society: Media and the general public
Our Partners
Faculté de Droit et des Sciences Politiques,
Université d’Abomey - Calavi
Chaire UNESCO des Droits de la Personne
et de la Démocratie, Université d’Abomey Calavi
Cameroon
Faculté de Droit et des Sciences Économiques
de Yaoundé II, Soa
Université Catholique d’Afrique Centrale
(UCAC)
Legal Information website
The growing partners’ base of the ALL programme
demonstrates the importance of the initiative for
the continent as well as the trust placed in the
African Innovation Foundation. Since October
2012 the ALL team has conducted outreach trips
across Africa to build constructive partnerships
and promote its activities on the continent.
Agreements concluded with the various partners
allow access to a comprehensive collection of
legislation, law reports, court decisions and
legal doctrine, and other relevant legal texts
pertaining to African countries for the use in the
Foundation’s online African Law Library. Proud
of the confidence shown by the growing partner
network, which demonstrates the importance of
the initiative, AIF confirms its pan-Africanism as
the ALL programme enters its implementation
phase II.
NATIONAL PARTNERS
Benin
Centre de Documentation et d’Information
Juridique, Ministère de la Justice, de la
Législation et des Droits de l’Homme
Cape Verde
Assembleia Nacional
Instituto Superior de Ciências Jurídicas e
Sociais
Congo
Assemblée Nationale (in process)
Ministère de la Justice (in process)
Bibliothèque de l’Université Marien Ngouabi
(in process)
Faculté de Droit, Université Marien Ngouabi
(in process)
Democratic Republic of Congo
Assemblée Nationale (in process)
Cour Suprême (in process)
Faculté de Droit, Université de Kinshasa
(in process)
Faculté de Droit, Université Protestante du
Congo (in process)
Journal Officiel (in process)
Ethiopia
Justice and Legal System Research Institute
(JLSRI)
Faculty of Law, University of Addis-Ababa
Faculty of Law, St Mary’s University College
Gabon
Université Omar Bongo (UOB)
Ministère des Droits de l’Homme (en cours)
Parlement - Assemblée Nationale et Sénat
(en cours)
Cour de Cassation (en cours)
Ghana
Ghana School of Law
Nigeria
Faculty of Law, University of Abuja
Prisoners Rehabilitation and Welfare Action
(PRAWA)
Senegal
Ministère de la Justice
Alliance pour Refonder la Gouvernance
en Afrique (ARGA)
South Africa
Centre for Human Rights,
University of Pretoria
Legal Resources Centre
Tanzania
The Judiciary of Tanzania
Tanganyika Law Society (TLS)
Togo
Ministère de la Justice
Cour Suprême du Togo
Faculté de Droit, Université de Lomé
Kenya
National Council of Law Reporting
Digital Data Divide
Madagascar
Université de Tananarive
Ministère de la Fonction Publique, du Travail
et des Lois Sociales
Ministère de la Justice (en cours)
Mali
Ministère de la Justice
Université des Sciences Juridiques
et Politiques de Bamako
Mauritius
Law Reform Commission
Supreme Court of Justice
Faculty of Law and Management,
University of Mauritius
Tunisia
Faculté des Sciences Juridiques et Politiques,
Université de Carthage, Tunis
Imprimerie Officielle de la République
Tunisienne
Uganda
Uganda Legal Information Institute
(in process)
Library of Makerere University (in process)
Regional Partners
African Union
African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights
Economic Community of West African States
(ECOWAS)
Organization for the Harmonization of African
Business Law (OHADA)
The full list of partners is continuously updated
online and available at:
www.africanlawlibrary.net/partners
Events calendar
PAST EVENTS
November 2012: by the vice-president of the
African Union Commission in Addis-Ababa,
Ethiopia (African Union HQ)
December 2012: Programme Launch in
Geneva, Switzerland
24-25 May 2013: 1st Partners Workshop,
Nairobi, Kenya
28-30 March 2014: 2nd Partners Workshop,
Cotonou, Benin
UPCOMING EVENTS
14-16 October 2014: 3rd Partners Workshop,
Rabat, Morocco
March 2015: 4th Partners Workshop
(Exact dates and locations to be confirmed)
October 2015: 5th Partners Workshop
(Exact dates and locations to be confirmed)
Contact
For further information about the African Law
Library Programme, please contact:
Mrs Rosa Aba Hänseler
Programme Coordinator, African Law Library
[email protected]
Tel.: +41 (0)22 715 09 25
You can also visit our online platform at:
www.africanlawlibrary.org
Follow us
Twitter: @Africanlawlib
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/
AfricanLawLibrary
African Innovation Foundation
3, Place Isaac-Mercier
1201 Geneva | Switzerland
Tel.: +41 (022) 715 09 25
Fax: +41 (022) 715 09 25