Document: Designing a Regulatory Impact Assessment for South Africa

The Small Business Project publication (Small Business Project, 2003) makes the case for regulatory assessment based on the experience and methodologies used in the UK, USA, Australia and New Zealand. This discussion document takes the debate one step further by evaluating the international models and the current South African regulatory regime. It identifies a number of principles for success and makes suggestions on how the process can be taken forward. The line of thinking presented here is based on the Regulatory Impact Assessments (RIAs) and Regulatory Impact Units (RIUs) discussed in the SBP document. These are not new concepts and similar models are followed in the UK, USA, Australia and New Zealand. This analysis considers how these models have been applied to inform the way ahead for Regulatory Impact Assessment in the South African environment.