By Thierry Amoussougbo and Sizo Mhlanga, 28 March 2006

In collaboration with the Government of the Kingdom of Swaziland, the Development Information Services Division (DISD) is currently facilitating a 4-day Member of Parliaments (MP) training workshop on "Empowering MPs for building an Inclusive Information Society in the Swaziland" from 27 to 30 March 2006 in Mbabane. More than thirty (30) MPs and staff are participating in the training workshop.

The workshop is organized in the context of ECA’s e-Policy Resource Network for Africa (ePolnet), which was set up with support from the Government of Canada to provide expertise, guidance and advice to African countries implementing national e-strategies and financial support from the Government of Finland.

The objective of the workshop is to train MPs in:

mainstreaming ICT in their daily activities;

enhancing awareness and understanding of the country's national e-strategy

engaging them in discussions on how to actively participate in the NICI process, through the establishment of an ICT Committee within the Parliament.

In her opening remarks, Honourable Thandi Shongwe, Minister for Tourism Environment and Communications advised the MPs that the process of developing the NICI in Swaziland was complete and there was a need for MPs to play an active role in the implementation of ICT development activities in their various constituencies and to support the mainstreaming of ICT in various development agendas including the establishment of desired enabling environment.

Honorable Sgayoyo Magongo, The Speaker of the Parliament hailed the event as a first for MPs and urged them to acquire skills required in the Information era in other to be able use ICT to:

enhance efficiency in their internal activities;

interact with their respective constituencies and the public in general;

improve the scrutiny of the executive; and

contribute at regional and global levels to the debate on the Information Society.

Thierry Amoussougbo, ECA Regional Adviser explained that the role of parliamentarians as publicly elected officials and lawmakers of the country placed them at the centre of the process of harnessing ICT for socio-economic development. The ECA vision was to witness the reality when Information Society issues were no longer the burden of ministries of ICTs but a shared responsibility of the Government, the Parliamentarians and other stakeholders, he concluded.