> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://research.docs.laws.africa/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://research.docs.laws.africa/orientation/what-laws-africa-does.md).

# What Laws.Africa does

What Laws.Africa does, and where you fit in

{% hint style="info" %}
**What you will be able to do**

* Explain in two minutes what Laws.Africa does and why it matters
* Describe what happens to a law between the gazette and a public website, and which part is yours
  {% endhint %}

{% hint style="info" %}
Laws.Africa is a non-profit that makes African legislation free and easy to use. We turn laws published in government gazettes into structured, machine-friendly documents, keep them up to date as they are amended, and publish them on partner websites where anyone can read, search and share them.
{% endhint %}

### Where the work ends up

The legislation we digitise is openly licensed and published on partner sites. The main ones are the national legal information institutes (LIIs), such as NamibLII for Namibia and ULII for Uganda. [AfricanLII has the full list of LIIs](https://africanlii.org/en/#national), under "National law and policy". We also publish on:

* [OpenByLaws.org.za](https://openbylaws.org.za), up-to-date South African municipal by-laws
* [Gazettes.Africa](https://gazettes.africa), our free collection of African government gazettes

### From gazette to website

Every law passes through the same stages. Researchers own the first three.

| Stage | What happens                                                                                                | Who                           |
| ----- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------- |
| 1     | The gazette arrives on Indigo as a source document                                                          | Automatic, or a researcher    |
| 2     | The gazette is indexed: every law in it is created or linked as a work, with its metadata and relationships | Researcher                    |
| 3     | A second researcher reviews and approves the works, which creates tasks                                     | Researcher (reviewer)         |
| 4     | The text is converted, then imported and marked up; amendments are applied                                  | Conversion team, then editors |
| 5     | The law is published on partner websites                                                                    | Editors                       |

The quality of everything downstream depends on stage 2. If a work has the wrong number, a missing amendment or no publication document, every editor and every reader after you inherits the mistake.

### Check yourself

<details>

<summary><strong>Which stages of a law's journey belong to researchers?</strong></summary>

<mark style="color:$primary;">**Answer.**</mark> Getting the gazette onto Indigo as a source document, indexing it, and reviewing and approving the works. Conversion, import, amendments and publishing belong to editors.

</details>

<details>

<summary><strong>Why does a mistake at indexing matter so much?</strong></summary>

<mark style="color:$primary;">**Answer.**</mark> Every later stage builds on the metadata and links you create. Editors import at the dates you set and apply the amendments you link, so an indexing error travels all the way to the public website.

</details>