In response to the encouraging developments relating to our LSRA programme in francophone Africa and as a follow-up to the conclusions and recommendations of the Limuru Seminar, the ICJ decided to hold two seminars on legal services in rural areas.
One seminar is for the anglophone West African countries, the other for the Southern and central African countries.
The West Africa seminar was organised jointly with the African Centre for Democracy and Human Rights Studies in Banjul (The Gambia) from 8 to 11 November 1989. The seminar brought together persons having experience of non-governmental organisations working at grass-roots level, representatives of Bar Associations, academics, lawyers, women lawyers and social scientists from The Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.
The Southern and central Africa seminar was held in Harare (Zimbabwe) from 9 to 12 February 1990. It was organised together with the Legal Resources Foundation and the participants, with the same backgrounds as those who attended the West Africa seminar, came from Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Both seminars benefited from the valuable contribution of Dr. Kumado, an ICJ member as well as Drs. Kourouma and Gnanapragasam, respectively Senegalese and Indian experts on legal services in rural areas.
Paralegals in rural Africa-seminar report-1990-eng (full text in English, PDF)