The main focus of the Institute for the Study of Legislatures (henceforth The ISL) is to service all the Legislatures in South Africa. The Institute will do this in these areas; research, monitoring and evaluation, community facilitation for public participation, as well as strategy facilitation for Legislatures.
In addition to this, the Institute is developing a package of interventions in the form of roundtable discussions, webinars
and specialised training interventions to prepare and support Legislatures and Communities for public participation. Most importantly The ISL seeks to serve as a link between its main clients (the Legislatures), Communities as well as Research institutions.
The purpose is to use knowledge and research skills of Universities and Research institutes to strengthen the public participation work of Legislatures while on the other hand tapping on the experience and knowledge from Legislatures to enrich the curriculum and research work of Universities. Out of this interface, solid strategies for community engagement, community education and support in all areas of public participation will be developed and refined over time.
To be a reliable, prompt and visible point of interface between Citizens, Legislatures and Universities in order to actively promote dialogic democracy and support excellence in oversight and law-making.
• Regarding its institutional focus on South African Legislatures, Parliamentary oversight and law making.
• Serve as a reliable point of interface between Legislatures and organs of civil society as well as communities, on matters related to the role of public participation in Parliamentary oversight and law-making.
• Proactively promote civil society interest and involvement in legislative matters.
• Establish and expand the learning programme on Legislatures in South Africa innovatively;
• Develop common learning programmes and knowledge bases in cooperation with other academic institutions in South Africa and globally for and with the acknowledgement of South African realities in the Legislative sector.
• Institutionalise monitoring, and evaluation in the work of the Legislatures in consultation with community organizations and citizens: and
• Provide a natural home of support for existing initiatives in the Legislatures.
• Profile the various communities before public participation.
• Identify and provide basic knowledge and skills to groups in communities before participating in forums organised by the Legislatures.
• Co-ordinate the interface between communities and the Legislatures; and
• Provide a feedback link between the Legislature and community members.
This is a community education for public participation organisation which also seeks to support Legislatures in the country. So, it is a Knowledge Based and Information organisation with a strong element of community engagement and facilitation. The focus is therefore on: