ADF IV PARLIAMENTARIANS AND GOVERNANCE FOCUS GROUP

ISSUES PAPER

Introduction

Good governance is the main requirement necessary for mobilising, securing, and optimising the management of resources. Political and economic governance represents the central point in implementing the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), a programme of action that enshrines the core values and initiatives for a progressing Africa. The "governance system" of a country is comprised of a wide complexity of relationships that involve political parties, viable sectors of the civil society, the civil service, a strong and independent judiciary and the media; thus, governance institutions interconnect the population as a whole.

Parliaments represent the best opportunities for all societal forces to be represented at the national level in the policy-making process, since points of entry into the executive and judiciary more restrictive in terms of expertise and political affiliation. Thus, Parliamentarians are the "trustees" of the public mandate: it is assumed that they will uphold national and public interests over other narrow and parochial interests. Parliamentarians, through enactment of national legislation, good oversight and control over the executive organs, efficiently operating in harmony with the effective key players in the civil society and through appropriate outreach, are expected to lay down the fundamentals for establishing peace and security, democracy, good governance and sound economic management and taking measures to promote and overcome social inequalities, eliminate poverty and promote sustainable and equitable development for all citizens. In a nutshell, Parliaments provide arena for peaceful resolution of conflicts or compromise on divisive issues within nation-states.

Objective of the Focus Group

The purpose of the Parliamentarians and Governance Focus Group is to reflect on the legislature as an important arm of government and its crucial role in establishing necessary checks and balances to the Executive. It will expand on issues of independence, legislative activism, standards of transparency and accountability, training and skill-building needs, particularly in the areas of policy analysis and review and budget control.

Key Issues

1) Legislative and committee oversight

If the legislature is to be a crucial actor in establishing the constraints under which the Executive operates, it needs to have independence from the Executive. Yet in the field of legislation, government bills are dominating the legislative work in most African parliaments, while individual members bills are incomparable in number. The legislature must have the means to research issues that come before it in laws and to analyze legislation.

In more established democracies, individual members and parliamentary committees can draw on staff to provide technical assistance. They have recourse to research services and libraries, as well as to a range of expertise from outside parliament itself, while their own parliamentary records are an additional source of information. Few African parliaments have access to these sorts of resources. Further, where parliamentarians lack adequate education, skills, the experience in parliamentary procedures, or the facilities, there is a serious limitation in research and legislative drafting capacities.

There is also need to strengthen the role of parliamentary committees in both areas of legislation and control through the following arrangements:

a) Committee hearings on issues referred to the committees by the house, and through maintaining closer linkages between parliamentarians, parliamentary Committees and the civil society organizations, linking up with networks, e.g. on combating corruption or poverty reduction.

b) Setting up monitoring and evaluation mechanisms that allow parliamentary committees, parliamentarians and parliaments to have a more effective tool to assess activities and concrete progress made in different fields.

Some issues to consider:

• What can be done to overcome these research and drafting capacity gaps? What are best practices in training programs in this area?

• How can parliaments and civil society work better together to fill the knowledge gap?

• How can the communication gap with constituents and civil society be bridged?

• How can parliaments develop links, networks and exchanges with other parliaments and committees across the continent? What are best practices in this area?

• What are other ways that parliaments can ensure that expertise is shared and institutionalised?

• What kind of monitoring and evaluation can be done to assess parliamentary effectiveness?

2) Financial and budgetary oversight

Parliaments' role in ensuring transparency and accountability in relation to the management of public funds is critical. Public Accounts Committees, in particular, form the heart and core of parliamentary oversight over the Executive in the budget process, fund allocations, implementation of the poverty reduction plans and in the approval of loans and international business transactions. This role includes review of the auditor general's report, and the office itself, to assure its independence. Some issues to consider:

• What can be done so parliaments can better establish audit services that are independent, responsible and accountable?

• How can parliaments better advocate for and encourage improvement of state capacity to address and handle matters related to corruption?

• How can parliaments strengthen their involvement in the budget process by conducting public consultations to enhance transparency and make the process more inclusive of vulnerable groups, such as minorities and women?

• How can parliamentarians play a more effective role in the implementation of Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs)?

3) Other issues of Parliamentary effectiveness

The advancement of political expertise and the development of political management is important to ensure good governance and democracy. Training needs include, among others, enhancing skills and knowledge of members to effectively participate in the legislative processes and increasing their capacity to serve constituencies. Consultations with constituents before legislation is passed can build public support for policy measures. Further, Parliamentarians themselves, should to be accessible to constituents.

Public access to parliaments and procedures is important as well for confidence building and can be promoted through such mechanisms as public hearings, expert committees, and public galleries, etc. Media coverage and informed commentaries from think tanks can increase public awareness of important issues too. Use of electronic communications is becoming increasingly popular for information sharing, but informal written information about legislation is still critical and must be easy to understand and be broadly accessible.

The effective functioning of parliaments in democratic political systems is also dependent on the existence of a serious and appropriately involved opposition. Minority parties and independent parliamentarians broaden the spectrum of political choice, offer legitimate dissenting views, and provide a check on executive power. Ensuring representation and participation of all groups is a challenge facing multi-ethnic societies throughout the world. Minority groups need to believe that they enjoy equal rights, that their interests and needs are taken into account, and that they can be included in mainstream political parties.

A few issues to consider:

• How can the dialogue and exchange be strengthened among African parliamentarians to further professionalize the office?

• How can parliamentarians better work to maximize openness and the involvement of individual citizens in decision-making?

• How are challenges of informing constituents about legislative decisions being met and expanded?

• What role can ethics rules, disclosure procedures, and parliamentary codes of conduct serve to define the parameters of acceptable behavior and responsibilities? Are they working?

• In an attempt to level the playing field, strategies such as establishing quotas for women candidates, or reserving a number of parliamentary seats for women have been employed in a number of cases. Are they working?

• How is the move to represent different social groups and interests playing out in practice? What other advancements can be made in this area?

• How can local government serve as training grounds and a starting point for parliamentary careers within government and opposition parties?

Conclusion

These are some of the issues that the Parliamentarians and Governance Focus Group will need to consider before the ADF IV in October 2004. The group's agreement on key areas of concern, and consensus on recommended actions, is intended to guide the plenary deliberations, with other stakeholders and selected heads of State, at the Forum itself.