From NCSL website:

U.S. - South Africa Legislative Program: South African Study Tour November 1-20, 2011

The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) is pleased to announce the completion of the third activity of the U.S. - South Africa Transparency and Oversight Exchange and Training Program. The third phase took the form of a study tour to South Africa for nine members and staff of the state legislatures of the United States. Leaders from Colorado, Illinois, New York, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and Wyoming travelled to South Africa to take part in an intensive three-week program focused on anticorruption and oversight in-conjunction with the provincial legislatures of South Africa. The tour took place November 1-20, 2011 and included visits to four South African provincial legislatures, including: Mpumalanga, Free State, Western Cape, and Eastern Cape. The tour was comprised of exchange meetings, formal discussions, technical training, observation, and individual consultation.

During this substantive tour of South Africa, the participants from the U.S. spent considerable time with experts and leadership of each provincial legislature discussing various topics relating to the focus of the program. Along with meetings with provincial legislative leaders, the U.S. delegation observed legislative procedures and committee meetings to better understand how the provincial governments operate during the site visits. Each legislature shared its expertise and lessons learned on these sensitive topics as well as their success stories of overcoming challenges relating to the topics of the study tour. The discussions demonstrated the need for improvement in the aforementioned topics as the challenges are continually changing in both of our countries and provided a platform for the South African participants to debut their processes and procedures.

The last two days of the program activity were composed of a technical training on oversight and anti-corruption, hosted by the Eastern Cape Provincial Legislature. The U.S. participants presented and trained the South African legislators and staff in attendance, utilizing their firsthand experience from their daily work in the U.S. Time was provided for the South African legislators and staff to present the progress they made on their personal action plans that they identified during the study tour to the U.S. Discussion centered on how they want to strengthen their own legislatures’ policies relating to the topics of the program, how they plan to incorporate the newly gained knowledge from the two-day training, and continue to pursue their original self-designed goals to improve their work and the work of their legislature.

The U.S. participants observed how the South Africans began to implement the concepts of independent ethics commissions, legislated ethics policies, codes of conduct for both staff and MPs, as well as the function of ethics committees they were trained extensively on during the U.S. Study Tour this past July. The U.S. participants shared case studies from their respective legislatures in implementing and maintaining transparency and oversight policies effectively as well as offered advice on how to further efforts of implementing strategies promoting the topics of the program as well as building upon initial action plans with additional information shared during this activity focusing on oversight and anti-corruption. During the course of the two-year program, it is hoped that these action plans will come to fruition, utilizing the resources shared during the program and the increased understanding of different approaches to common obstacles.

All South African and U.S. participants provided both verbal and written positive feedback on the program activity, the goals of the program, and the collaborative relationship between South Africa and the U.S. Participants of this program phase provided generous advice on the direction of the remaining program activity. Many participants intend to use what they learned during this phase to propose legislation, consolidate reports on findings, and make recommendations regarding many of the topics discussed during the tour. All parties involved in the discussions look forward to continuing to work with each other during the life of this program on these self-designed action plans.

The accomplishment of the South African study tour will allow subsequent program activities to build upon the strong bond that has been formed between U.S. and South African legislative minded individuals and the clear understanding of the desires and needs of the South African provincial legislatures on the issues addressed by the two-year program. NCSL staff are preparing for the next and final phase of the program to take place this spring.