Legislative Process and Lawmaking Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Policy advisers, Parliamentary staff and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 16 Nov 2026 Course code SD-GPS-085

Before you join: Participants should have experience working with public policy, government programmes, regulation, parliamentary affairs, public administration or development projects.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Public laws determine how public money is spent, services are delivered, rights are protected and emergency powers are controlled. Yet many policy proposals reach the legislature with unclear legal authority, weak consultation records, untested implementation assumptions or drafting provisions that create unintended obligations. Officials, parliamentary staff and development partners need to understand the full route from a policy issue to an enacted, implemented and reviewed law, including the points at which evidence, political negotiation and procedural rules shape the result.

This course examines the legislative process from agenda setting and policy formulation through bill drafting, cabinet clearance, committee scrutiny, plenary stages, assent, publication and implementation. Participants learn to map legislative actors and decision rights, prepare regulatory impact assessments, structure consultation, write clear legislative instructions and assess amendments against policy intent. The programme addresses primary and delegated legislation, budget links, legislative scrutiny, constitutional constraints, emergency legislation and post-legislative review. Cases reflect public finance, social protection, public health, humanitarian response and public-sector reform.

Teaching combines short instructor briefings with annotated bill extracts, legislative process cases, group analysis, drafting clinics and simulated committee scrutiny. Participants work with a realistic policy proposal and progressively develop the documents needed to move it through a legislative system. They leave with a legislative development pack comprising a process map, stakeholder plan, regulatory impact assessment outline, drafting instructions and implementation checklist.

The course suits professionals who contribute to legislation but are not necessarily specialist legislative counsel. It is particularly relevant where governments, parliaments, regulators and development programmes must turn policy commitments into lawful, workable and accountable statutory measures.

What you will be able to do

  • Map a bill’s route through executive, parliamentary and assent stages
  • Distinguish primary legislation, delegated legislation and administrative instruments
  • Prepare a proportionate Regulatory Impact Assessment for a proposed measure
  • Develop legislative drafting instructions from approved policy objectives
  • Apply plain-language drafting principles to statutory provisions
  • Assess proposed amendments against legal effect, policy intent and implementation risk
  • Design a consultation and stakeholder engagement plan for legislative proposals
  • Produce a post-enactment implementation and review plan

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Contribute more credibly to cabinet, ministry and parliamentary legislative work
  • Identify procedural and legal risks before a bill enters formal scrutiny
  • Write clearer instructions for legislative counsel and subject-matter specialists
  • Respond to committee questions and amendment proposals with structured analysis
  • Build a portable legislative reform portfolio for public-sector roles

For your organisation

  • Reduce rework caused by incomplete policy approvals and unclear drafting instructions
  • Improve the traceability between policy objectives, legal provisions and implementation duties
  • Strengthen consultation records and evidence supporting proposed statutory measures
  • Prepare officials for more effective committee, cabinet and stakeholder engagement
  • Increase the likelihood that enacted laws can be implemented and reviewed properly

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can identify the legal authority, institutions and procedural routes governing a proposed law.

  • Constitutional hierarchy: constitution, statutes, delegated legislation and administrative guidance
  • Separation of powers and legislative authority within different government systems
  • Cabinet, ministries, parliament and courts: distinct lawmaking responsibilities
  • Bicameral and unicameral procedures affecting bill passage and amendment
  • Private members’ bills, government bills and committee-initiated proposals
  • Legislative calendars, session deadlines and carry-over rules for bills
  • Judicial review risks arising from ultra vires legislative action

Participants can determine whether legislation is an appropriate response to a defined public problem.

  • Problem definition using causal analysis, baseline evidence and affected populations
  • Theory of change linking statutory measures to intended public outcomes
  • Options appraisal comparing legislation, regulation, guidance, funding and enforcement
  • Legal authority check before committing resources to legislative development
  • Policy objectives converted into measurable legislative design criteria
  • Distributional effects assessed across households, firms, agencies and vulnerable groups
  • Ministerial submission structure for seeking approval to develop legislation

Participants can build a practical plan for developing, clearing and progressing a bill.

  • Legislative footprint records decisions, evidence, consultations and drafting changes
  • Critical-path schedule from policy approval through commencement and review
  • RACI matrix assigns bill-development responsibilities across government institutions
  • Cabinet clearance requirements, collective responsibility and confidentiality controls
  • Dependencies mapped between budget decisions, regulations and implementation capacity
  • Issue log tracks unresolved policy choices, legal questions and political risks
  • Version control protocols for draft clauses and supporting documents

Participants can prepare proportionate evidence and impact analysis for a legislative proposal.

  • Regulatory Impact Assessment scope, problem statement and policy objectives
  • Cost-benefit analysis identifies compliance, administration and enforcement costs
  • Risk assessment tests likelihood, consequence and proposed mitigation measures
  • Small-business, gender and human-rights impacts identified through structured screening
  • Administrative data, surveys and stakeholder evidence tested for reliability
  • Implementation burdens estimated for frontline agencies and regulated parties
  • Explanatory memorandum links evidence, options and recommended provisions

Participants can design defensible consultation and engagement arrangements for proposed legislation.

  • Stakeholder mapping identifies rights-holders, duty-bearers, opponents and implementation partners
  • Consultation plan sets purpose, questions, methods, timing and decision rules
  • Public consultation documents distinguish open questions from settled policy decisions
  • Targeted engagement reaches affected groups facing language, access or safety barriers
  • Consultation responses coded by issue, evidence quality and proposed action
  • Feedback statements explain accepted, rejected and partially adopted recommendations
  • Political stakeholder analysis anticipates coalition building, objections and amendment pressure

Participants can translate policy decisions into clear instructions for legislative drafting.

  • Drafting instructions state purpose, legal mechanism, scope and commencement
  • Operative provisions specify duties, powers, prohibitions, rights and offences
  • Definitions drafted only where ordinary meaning creates material uncertainty
  • Conditions, exceptions and discretion framed to limit arbitrary decision-making
  • Cross-references checked against existing statutes, regulations and repeal provisions
  • Commencement clauses align legal effect with institutional implementation readiness
  • Plain-language drafting reduces ambiguity without sacrificing legal precision

Participants can select appropriate legislative instruments and control associated constitutional risks.

  • Primary legislation reserves core policy choices for elected legislative authority
  • Delegated legislation powers defined by purpose, scope, procedure and limits
  • Affirmative, negative and super-affirmative procedures determine parliamentary control
  • Henry VIII clauses assessed for necessity, safeguards and constitutional concern
  • Money bills, appropriations and taxation measures follow special procedural rules
  • Emergency powers require thresholds, duration limits, reporting and renewal mechanisms
  • Sunset clauses and review clauses control temporary or uncertain measures

Participants can support a bill through parliamentary scrutiny and assess amendment proposals.

  • First reading, second reading, committee stage and third reading purposes
  • Committee evidence sessions test necessity, drafting quality and implementation feasibility
  • Briefing packs prepare ministers for debate, questions and committee examination
  • Amendment papers analysed for legal effect, fiscal impact and policy consistency
  • Marshalled lists, grouping and selection procedures organise proposed amendments
  • Legislative scrutiny considers constitutional, rights and delegated-power implications
  • Conference or reconciliation procedures resolve differences between legislative chambers

Participants can plan the operational actions required after a bill becomes law.

  • Assent, promulgation and official publication establish formal legal status
  • Commencement planning sequences provisions, regulations, guidance and operational readiness
  • Implementation plan assigns owners, milestones, resources and dependency controls
  • Operational guidance translates statutory duties into frontline procedures and decisions
  • Training needs analysis identifies affected officials, inspectors and service providers
  • Public communications explain new rights, obligations, dates and complaint routes
  • Compliance and enforcement models align powers, sanctions and due-process safeguards

Participants can evaluate enacted legislation and plan evidence-based amendment or repeal.

  • Post-legislative scrutiny compares enacted effects against original policy objectives
  • Monitoring framework defines indicators, data sources, reporting cycles and owners
  • Implementation reviews separate design flaws from capacity and compliance failures
  • Evaluation questions test effectiveness, efficiency, equity and unintended consequences
  • Statutory review clauses trigger formal evidence gathering and legislative reporting
  • Amendment, consolidation and repeal options assessed against legal certainty
  • Personal application plan identifies an upcoming legislative contribution and next actions

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Legislative process map template
  2. Bill development critical-path plan
  3. Regulatory Impact Assessment outline
  4. Legislative drafting instructions template
  5. Consultation and stakeholder plan
  6. Post-legislative review framework

Who should attend

  • Policy advisers — translate approved policy into legally workable legislative proposals
  • Parliamentary staff — support bill stages, committee scrutiny and member briefings
  • Government legal officers — coordinate policy, drafting instructions and legislative clearance
  • Regulatory agency managers — prepare statutory powers, rules and implementation arrangements
  • Development programme managers — support legislative reform with realistic process planning
  • Civil society advocacy leads — engage constructively in consultation and parliamentary scrutiny

Skills and tools covered

Legislative process mappingRegulatory impact assessmentLegislative drafting instructionsCommittee scrutinyStakeholder consultationPost-legislative review

Tools and standards

Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA), Legislative footprint, RACI matrix, Gunning Fog Index

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short briefings to establish legislative concepts, followed by case analysis drawn from public-sector reform and development settings. Participants examine policy papers, bill clauses, explanatory memoranda, committee reports and amendment papers. Small-group work applies process mapping, Regulatory Impact Assessment and drafting instruction techniques to a realistic proposal. Simulated cabinet and committee discussions test how evidence, political priorities and procedural rules affect legislation. Facilitated reflection links each method to participants’ own legislative responsibilities and produces an individual application plan.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have experience working with public policy, government programmes, regulation, parliamentary affairs, public administration or development projects. They should be able to read policy papers and follow basic legal and institutional terminology, such as statute, regulation, minister, committee and public consultation. Familiarity with a national constitution or parliamentary rules is useful but not essential. This is not a legal drafting qualification, and no law degree, prior bill-drafting experience or detailed knowledge of one country’s standing orders is required.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

Participants should have some exposure to public policy, government administration, regulation, parliamentary work or development programming. A law degree and previous drafting experience are not required.

Participants should bring a current or anticipated policy issue, legislative proposal or regulatory challenge where possible. Publicly available bills, consultation papers or procedural guidance from their institution can also be useful.

The course is designed for policy officials, parliamentary staff, legal officers, regulators, development practitioners and advocacy professionals. It is most useful for people who contribute to legislative work without serving as specialist legislative counsel.

This course addresses the full lawmaking cycle, including policy design, impact assessment, consultation, parliamentary procedure, implementation and review. It teaches participants how to prepare and assess drafting instructions, rather than qualifying them to draft legislation independently.

Participants can use the templates to structure a live bill, statutory instrument, regulatory reform or parliamentary briefing. The methods also help teams identify approval, consultation and implementation gaps before formal legislative stages begin.

Each training day runs from 08:30 to 16:30 and provides about 6.5 contact hours. The programme contains ten modules taught in sequence, combining process briefings, document analysis, discussion, simulations and application planning.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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