Development Account Projects
Strengthening the capacity of Parliaments in Africa to harness information and communication technologies
Background:
Access to information and knowledge-sharing tools can help Parliaments connect and network globally, learn about and follow up on national and international legal frameworks and laws, sustain inter-parliamentary dialogue, foster parliamentary learning networks on global issues and maintain more effective linkage and consultations with their local constituencies. However, the potential of ICT to modernize Parliaments in Africa is still largely untapped. The project is aimed at establishing a network for information and communication technology in Parliament administrations with a view to promoting dialogue and cooperation among Parliament administrations, academia, centres of excellence, international organizations, civil society and the private sector. The network will act as a catalyst and clearing house for information, research, innovation and technology in Parliament, and facilitate the sharing of experiences and best practices to assist capacity development for African legislatures.
Objective:
To strengthen the capacity of national and regional legislatures in Africa to harness information and communication technologies to improve their networking and access to knowledge relevant to executing their constitutional legislative, representative and government oversight mandates.
Expected accomplishments:
- Improvement in parliamentary processes in Africa through the use of information and communication technology tools
- Increased ability of Parliament administrations, academia and research centres to concretely share best practices, lessons learned and new experiences
Implementation status:
Preparatory activities have begun through the existing initiatives on which the project will build on, namely the Global Centre for ICT in Parliament and the Africa i-Parliament Action Plan. The programming and preparation of the first workshop to be held in March 2007 in Abuja, Nigeria, and titled “Towards the establishment of an Africa Knowledge Network on ICT, legislation and documentation in Parliament” are well underway and into their final phase. The workshop, organized back-to-back to the Conference “African Legal Resources: challenges and opportunities of legislative informatics”, aims to build networking capabilities among stakeholders through a substantive discussion focusing on goals and rationale of the network. The workshop, scheduled for the end of 2006, needed to be rescheduled in early 2007 to ensure coordination with other regional activities beneficial to the project. Contacts have also been established with network partners and, through the Global Centre for ICT in Parliament, a pilot portal has been designed and a virtual network using open source software is being tested with the support of the managers’ working group of the SADC Parliamentary Forum. The preparatory activities mentioned above have already raised the interest of many African partners and gather consensus from representatives of universities and centre of excellence.
A relevant web site link to follow on the advances of this Development Account project is The Global Centre for ICT in Parliament.
