Southern African Outreach Programme:

Project Proposal: August 2005 – November 2005

1. Purpose:

The purpose of the Southern African Outreach Programme is to extend the Constitutional Court’s Virtual Library project to other courts in the region. The methodology will be to conduct a pilot phase to identify problems and collect information. The data collected will assist in completing the full project proposal and outline for the roll-out of the Outreach Programme to southern African Courts.

This document sets out the detailed project proposal and outline for the pilot programme. Planning for the completion of the full project is in the early stages and some preliminary notes are included.

2. Project Methodology

2.1 Pilot project:

The aims of the pilot project are to:

a) establish the infrastructure (technology and human resources) for the African Court judgments project.

b) develop procedures to collect and publish judgments from Courts in Africa.

d) conduct training and introduce the services offered on the Virtual Library Website.

2.2 Outreach Project implementation:

The aims of the project are to

a) Facilitate efficient access to the Constitutional Court’s Virtual Library Website consisting of its enriched catalogue, links to free web-based legal information and South African Court judgments database.

b) Train Court staff (researchers and librarians) in retrieving information available on the Virtual Library Website.

c) Build a web-based database of southern African Court judgments.

3. Pilot Project Plan

3.1 Pilot Project Timeframe (01 August 2005 – 31 October 2005) (See Appendix 1)

The pilot project is expected to be completed within 3 months. The following activities are planned:

a) Selection of pilot country:

(11 August – 13 August 2005, at the annual general meeting of the SAJC)

Questionnaires will be sent to all countries in the region to establish the extent of their IT infrastructures. An analysis of the responses will assist in preparing for the pilot meeting and the subsequent roll out of the project.

b) Planning for the Pilot Meeting (29 August – mid September 2005)

This will include finalizing travel arrangements and preparations for the meeting.

c) Pilot meeting (to be completed by early October 2005).

d) Final report and project proposal for Southern African Outreach Programme (end October / November 2005):

.3.2 Pilot Project Budget: (See Appendix 2)

An amount of R 40 000.00 is required to fund the travel arrangements for five people to participate in the pilot project meeting, plus an additional R 10 000.00 for the fees of the desktop support person / network engineer who shall be placed at the Constitutional Court during the duration of the tech audit at the pilot court. There are sufficient funds in the Ford Foundation grant to conduct the pilot meeting.

4. Final project proposal for Southern African Outreach Programme (August - Oct/Nov 2005)

a) Planning has started and will be accelerated when the pilot questionnaires are analysed in August 2005. The findings of the pilot project meeting will be based on reports submitted by the Team Members. Ruth Makhambeni will be responsible for drafting the final plan. She will liaise with Merle Ruff, the Team and the Website Committee.

b) It is estimated that there will be 14 Courts included in the project, which superior courts are of the following countries:

i. Angola,

ii. Botswana,

iii. Kenya,

iv. Lesotho,

v. Malawi,

vi. Mauritius,

vii. Mozambique,

viii. Namibia,

ix. Seychelles,

x. Swaziland,

xi. Tanzania,

xii. Uganda,

xiii. Zambia, and

xiv. Zimbabwe.

The project is expected to be completed within 12-18 months

c) Funding will be a major component, since it is anticipated that IT infrastructure (hardware and software costs will be high).

d) Resources will need to be funded at both the Constitutional Court and the Courts participating in the project

TASK

RESP

AUG 1-5

AUG 8-12

AUG 15-19

AUG 22-26

AUG 29 SEP 2

SEP 5-9

SEP 12-16

SEP 19-23

SEP 26-30

OCT 3-7

OCT 10-14

OCT 17-21

OCT 24-28

NOV

APPENDIX 1: PROJECT PLAN

SELECTION OF PILOT COUNTRY

List of SAJC contacts

RM

Tech questionnaire

SN+ZN

Send tech questionnaires

RM

8-Aug

Selection of pilot country

SAJC

11-13 Aug

Receive completed tech questionnaires

RM

15-Aug

Evaluate questionnaires

TEAM

22 Aug

Additional IT person for tech audit

22-26 Aug

PLAN PILOT MEETING

Confirm with pilot country

Identify primary contact person & participants @ pilot court

Book flights & accommodation

RM

Plan programme

TEAM

Collect training materials

SL + MR

Arrange venues / training room

RM

PILOT MEETING

to be conducted mid Sept / early Oct 05

COMPLETION OF PILOT VISIT (post pilot meeting)

Report on meeting: divided into the following parts:

1 week

tech

judgments

training

FINAL PROJECT PROPOSAL

3 weeks

Proposal

Plan

Budget (includes I.T.)

APPENDIX 2: TOTAL COST SUMMARY
Item No	Description	Est. Rand Costs	Actual Costs	Total Est Rand Costs	Total Actual Costs
A	TRAVEL COSTS
A1	Airfares including taxes for 5 persons @ R5 000.00	R25 000.00
TOTAL:	TRAVEL COSTS			R 25 000.00
B	HOTEL ACCOMMODATION
B1	Tech audit consultants & collection of judgments: 2 persons @ R1500.00 per night for 2 nights	R 6 000.00
B2	Trainer: 1 person @ R1500.00 per night for 2 night	R 3 000.00
B3	Reporting: 1 person @ R1 500.00 per night for 4 nights	R 6 000.00
TOTAL:	HOTEL ACCOMMODATION			R 15 000.00
C	FEES: DAILY RATE FOR AN IT CONSULTANT/ NETWORK ENGINEER
C1	at an estimated daily rate of R 5 000.00 per day for 2 days	R 10 000.00
TOTAL:	FEES			R 10 000.00
TOTAL	AMOUNT			R 50 000.00