Conducting an indepedent impact evaluation of the Tanzania Legal Information Institute (TanzLII)

We recently conducted an independent impact evaluation of the Tanzania Legal Information Institute (TanzLII). The results were promising.

Across Sub-Saharan Africa, the law is surprisingly hard to find. Legal Information Institutes (“LIIs”) exist to close that gap by publishing the law online, in full and for free.

TanzLII, which was established in 2018, goes beyond user value and positively impacts how Tanzania’s justice system behaves:

• Before TanzLII, judges, magistrates, and small firms had no affordable, authoritative, and up-to-date sources of law. Now, they do.
• With support from AfricanLII and Laws.Africa, TanzLII now holds more than 110,000 judgments, alongside various legislation and gazettes. These judgments are published at a fifth of the cost of equivalent services.
• 69% of judgments now cite the TanzLII database, with citations rising 25-fold over the past decade.

Most importantly, our evaluation found that TanzLII has become “an indispensable part of Tanzania’s Justice System.”

We are thankful to Mariya Badeva and the team at Laws.Africa for the brief, to Sarah A. Sutherland from Parallax Information Consulting Ltd. for the data analysis, and to colleagues at Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH for funding this initiative.

Our project team was led by Wendy Trott, supported by Andrew Songa.

Access our impact evaluation and learn more about TanzLII here: https://lnkd.in/dFYFQZ43.