Democracies and democratic institutions in Africa are confronted with various challenges, including the opacity of many of these institutions and the resultant decline in public trust in these bodies. National and Regional legislatures on the Continent, including the Pan-African Parliament – which are supposed to be the ‘Houses of the African People’ – do not seem to be as connected to the people as was envisioned, as they are getting further removed from citizens. These have led to the loss of credibility and legitimacy in the legislature and the resultant effect of a decline in democracy. With Open Governance becoming an important global conversation, state actors, civil society and other non-state actors on the Continent are striving to make gains in this area. These include efforts by parliaments to introduce best practices for reaching and including citizens in their work.
Why an Open Parliament is Particularly Relevant to PAP
The Open Government Partnership (OGP) defines an Open Parliament as one that encourages transparency, participation, and accountability throughout the legislative process. It is an essential part of an open government, as ensuring access to legislative information and creating mechanisms for public participation and accountability are critical to building an open, trusting relationship with citizens.
As an Institution that has been set up to among other things, encourage good governance, transparency and accountability, the Pan-African Parliament (PAP) is expected to lead by example in adopting open parliament principles within its own processes and practices, including measures to improve its accountability to the Africa people. This is because the establishment of PAP is informed by a vision to provide a common platform for African peoples on the Continent and in the diaspora, and their grassroots organizations to be more involved in discussions and decision-making on the problems and challenges facing the Continent.
Strengthening the PAP, Parliaments of Regional Economic Communities and National Parliaments in parliamentary openness will effectively ensure the full participation of the African peoples in the economic development and integration of the Continent as envisioned by the PAP Protocol.
This Presentation is therefore intended to share the findings from the Africa Open Parliament Index and recommendations on how the Continental Parliament, Parliaments of Regional Economic Communities and Member States, can adopt Open Parliament principles in their work and practices in the quest to achieve their core mandates. It will further look at some mechanisms put in place by civil society Parliamentary Monitoring Organisations (PMOs) in Africa to help sustain increased collaborative dialogue with PAP and other parliaments and to foster enabling environments for PMOs to monitor the work of the Parliaments and Pan-African Parliamentarians. It is designed to explore how some Open parliament Frameworks can be operationalised at the PAP level, and explore opportunities on how the continental organ can recommend benchmarks on parliamentary openness for use by Parliaments of Member States.
Some Open Parliament Frameworks
In this Presentation, we refer the PAP to three Global Benchmarks that speak to parliamentary openness, and establishes the scope of the various components of an Open Parliament.
1. Declaration on Parliamentary Openness – Launched about a decade ago, the Declaration 2 is a call to national, sub-national and transnational legislative bodies, by civil society parliamentary monitoring organizations, for an increased commitment to openness and to citizen engagement in parliamentary work. Recognizing the need for increased collaborative dialogue with the world’s parliaments on issues of parliamentary reform, the Declaration is intended not only as a call to action, but also as a basis for dialogue between parliaments and PMOs to advance government
and parliamentary openness, and to ensure that this openness leads to greater citizen engagement, more responsive representative institutions and, ultimately, a more democratic society.
2. The Open Government Partnership (OGP) in its Open Parliament Policy Area, argues that ensuring access to parliamentary information and creating mechanisms for public participation and accountability are critical to building an open, trusting relationship with citizens. It sets forth the processes for the development of Open Parliament Action Plans through a co-creation process between parliamentary institutions and civil society organisations.
3. With the PAP recognised as an Associate Member of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), we wish to refer you also to the IPU’s Indicators for Democratic Parliaments, which comprises a set of benchmarks for democratic parliaments that align with the commitments expressed under the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals Targets 16.6: Develop effective, accountable and transparent institutions at all levels and 16.7: Ensure responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making at all levels, adjusted to the institution of parliament.
4 All these Frameworks reaffirm the earlier cited definition of an Open Parliament as one that encourages transparency, participation, and accountability throughout the parliamentary process. The emphasized terms in the above definition, which are – Transparency, Civic Participation and Public Accountability – are explained as follows:
- Transparency: Parliament that discloses more information, improves the legal or institutional frameworks to guarantee the right to information, improves the quality of parliamentary information disclosed to the public, and improves the transparency of its decision-making processes or systems.
- Civic Participation: Parliament that creates or improves opportunities, processes or mechanisms for the public to inform or influence decisions; creates, enables or improves participatory mechanisms for minorities or underrepresented groups; and enables a legal environment that guarantees freedoms of assembly, association and peaceful protest.
- Public Accountability: Parliaments whose Members are answerable to citizens on their performance and integrity of their conduct in office; and Parliaments that report on their institutional performance regularly and in a transparent manner.
The Africa Open Parliament Index (OPI)
Released for the first time in July 2022, the OPI 5 is a biennial assessment of the level of openness of national parliaments in Africa, the PAP and Parliaments of the various Regional Economic Communities. It is an initiative of Parliamentary Network Africa and the Africa Parliamentary Monitoring Organisations Network (APMON) intended to encourage improvements in the level of openness in the various parliaments through challenging parliaments to aspire towards improved scores in future OPIs as compared to the previous.
This Maiden Release served as a pilot project that only focused on the PAP and also ranked the various West African National Parliaments against each other. West Africa was selected for this Pilot phase because it represents over a quarter of all Member States and presents interesting diversity dynamics including language, types of parliaments, the case of measuring the OPI in countries that have experienced Coup D’états etc. It is expected to be scaled up to other Regions of Africa, yet the observations and recommendations from this pilot phase are considered useful to all parliaments across the Continent.
Observations
It was observed that despite some efforts at ensuring an Open PAP and Open Parliaments across the Continent, there still remain more room for improvement, as the regional average for Open Parliament stood at 44.59%. It was also noted that aside the Transparency Dimension, which saw many parliaments scoring more than half of the expected score, performances in the other dimensions – civic participation and public accountability – are lagging behind.
Public Accountability of Parliament produced the worst performance, as more and more parliaments, including the PAP, are not reporting regularly and in a transparent manner, as they continue to show opacity in their financials, budgets and expenditures. Additionally, Members of the PAP do not seem to account to their respective countries on their stewardship at the Continental Legislature just as is the case of Members of Parliament at the national levels not being accountable to their electorates in a satisfactory manner.
Some other specific observations worthy of note are as follows:
There is a situation of improved access to information laws and policies, yet implementing them to ensure easy access to parliamentary information remains a challenge. Parliaments are yet to come to terms with the fact that parliamentary information belongs to the public and hence African people should have unfettered access to parliamentary information, with any exemptions and restrictions being those that are narrowly defined by law.
With the proliferation of media platforms (traditional and new media) to help reach out to citizens from different walks of life, the PAP and other parliaments have not leveraged these well enough, although there are some noticeable efforts.
The extent to which parliamentary websites – which are primary sources of information on parliaments, especially the PAP – have been improved, regularly updated with relevant information, and provides privacy protection for users, remains another area of concern.
Although PAP in particular makes all its Plenary and Committee sittings open to the public except under special circumstances according to it Rules, closed Committee sittings seem to be the order of the day at most national parliaments, thereby denying citizens the opportunity to keep an eye on committee work which remains integral to the work of parliaments.
The point immediately above goes to affect the level of citizens’ engagement on draft legislation and other referrals to Committees, while in the case of PAP, there is still little understanding among the people of Africa (especially civil society organisations and other interest groups) on how to engage the Parliament on issues of concern.
One critical aspect of parliamentary openness that seems to be missing in all the parliaments assessed, in the unavailability of records of how Members of Parliaments vote, as voice votes and roll calls remain the order of the day. This deprives the public of the opportunity to ensure accountability of their Members of Parliament for their voting behavior.
There is still very limited information available publicly about Members of Parliament and their integrity. Global best practices require that parliaments publish online, a list of all current members, biodata, photo, constituency, party affiliation, committee membership and roles in parliament, contact information, parliamentary activities and other similar data [such as electoral mandate, attendance to plenary and committee sittings, identities of personal staff and working contact information of parliamentary and constituency offices] where applicable.
Although the following are also required of an Open Parliament – information on their administrative functioning, the structure of staff that manages and administer parliamentary processes, contact information for staff responsible for providing information to the public, hiring announcements; Parliament’s constitutional role, structure, functions, internal rules, administrative procedure and workflow, including those of Committees, many of the Parliaments assessed, including the PAP are not proactive in disclosing such information.
Three policy documents, considered very necessary for all parliaments to have in their quest to promote openness are Transparency Policies, Codes of Conduct, and Parliamentary Oversight Models. These were found to be largely unavailable or difficult to access and assess. By adopting such explicit policies, parliaments signal a necessary commitment to transparency and openness to the people of Africa.
Parliamentary examples of good budget transparency practices were completely missing in all parliaments assessed, including the PAP. Proactively publishing information on Parliament’s own budget, including information about their budget execution, bids and contracts were almost non-existent. These accounted for why all the parliaments assessed had very low results on the Accountability Dimension.
In the face of shrinking civic space across the world, civil society organisations in the various countries engaged for this OPI expressed mixed reactions about the levels at which their parliaments participate in exchanges with them and the public in parliamentary processes and decision-making. This was even more profound in the case of PAP. Parliament-media engagements also remain an area that need further
improvement.
Recommendations and Conclusion
There is no doubt the OPI has served as a useful baseline that will further enhance efforts at ensuring parliamentary openness on the Continent. However, it requires deliberate commitments to ensure that Parliaments remain open and work for the people. The OPI approach of releasing an Index every two years is useful in checking whether improvements have been recorded or we are stagnating with parliamentary openness.
We recommend to the PAP, through this Committee to consider the following actions:
1. Undertake the ongoing revision of its Rules of Procedure through Open Parliament lenses. This requires ensuring that the Rules will further enhance access to the PAP and information emanating from the Parliament, ensure maximum accountability from Pan-African Parliamentarians and the PAP Institution to the people of Africa, and put citizens understanding and participation in PAP’s work at the center of everything PAP does.
2. Develop an Open Parliament Action Plan through a co-creation process with civil society. The existence of the Pan-African Parliament Civil Society Platform, the African Parliamentary Monitoring Organisations Network (APMON) and the African Parliamentary Press Network will be useful in getting PAP to work with civil society to create, implement and publicize actions on openness. PAP should encourage Parliaments of the Regional Economic Communities and in Member States to do the same, as civil society working and engaging parliaments are available to collaborate at national and regional levels. APMON is ready to work with the PAP and other stakeholders to facilitate these engagements.
3. PAP may consider developing a Benchmark on Open Parliament to be used by Member States and Regional Economic Communities Parliaments, and further leverage its relationships with these Parliaments as envisaged in Article 19 of the PAP Protocol, to ensure that Consultative Fora on the subject of Open Parliaments are held with these regional and national Parliamentary bodies.
- Open Government Partnership (OGP) Policy Area on Open Parliament
- https://openingparliament.org/declaration/
- https://www.opengovpartnership.org/policy-area/open-parliaments/
- https://www.parliamentaryindicators.org
- www.parliamentafrica.com/OPI
Trafficking for Forced Labour in Europe—Report on a study in Czech Republic
January 7, 2025Saved as a favorite, I like your website!
https://childcentre.info/
flue gas analysis
January 7, 2025I’d been just browsing every now and then but happened to be to learn to read this post. I must say that i’m within the hand of luck today in any other case getting such an excellent post to learn to read wouldn’t are actually achievable personally, no less than. Really appreciate your articles.
https://www.pocketpc.ch/members/217940_gasengineers101.html
emergency gas repairs
January 7, 2025If conceivable, as you clear knowledge, would you mind updating your blog with more information? It is damned helpful in return me.
https://movieo.me/users/gasengineers573-jntpsh
plumbing
January 7, 2025Have you ever thought about writing an ebook or guest authoring on other websites? I have a blog centered on the same ideas you discuss and would love to have you share some stories/information. I know my audience would enjoy your work. If you are even remotely interested, feel free to shoot me an email.
http://polskie-milton-keynes.phorum.pl/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=122004
software to create seo links for gambling
January 7, 2025Excellent site you have here.. It’s difficult to find quality writing like yours nowadays. I truly appreciate individuals like you! Take care!!
https://gonm.biz/
telegram – @seokaya
January 7, 2025An intriguing discussion is definitely worth comment. There’s no doubt that that you need to publish more on this topic, it might not be a taboo subject but typically folks don’t discuss these topics. To the next! All the best.
https://www.hexenmod.com/
ゼノジーヴァ 英語
January 7, 2025He arrange places of work within the capital at Nashville.
https://bandori.party/user/245567/iztqono/
ドント方式
January 7, 2025The mortgage curiosity rates to buy home represent solely the rate itself, whereas the APR extra precisely represents the “true” value of the mortgage by accounting for the added prices of lender fees and spreading those fees out across the life of the mortgage.
https://www.showmethesite.us/lazychicken/ActivityFeed/MyProfile/tabid/2622/UserId/704812/Default.aspx
cross-links
January 7, 2025You ought to take part in a contest for one of the best sites on the internet. I’m going to highly recommend this blog!
http://mhpa.ge/
Afton Brummond
January 8, 2025After I initially commented I appear to have clicked the -Notify me when new comments are added- checkbox and from now on whenever a comment is added I receive four emails with the same comment. Is there a way you are able to remove me from that service? Kudos.
https://limitless-solutions.it/i-nostri-servizi/il-valore-degli-allestimenti/
Metaphysical landscape paintings
January 8, 2025A fascinating discussion is worth comment. I think that you should write more about this issue, it might not be a taboo subject but usually people don’t discuss such subjects. To the next! Many thanks!
https://dalebeckman.com/
seo telegram
January 8, 2025I’m pretty pleased to find this web site. I need to to thank you for your time just for this wonderful read!! I definitely loved every part of it and i also have you saved to fav to see new information in your website.
http://mhpa.ge/
東京歯科大学病院
January 8, 2025Syncopation refers to shifting the emphasis of a song’s rhythm, or beat pattern, to weak or unaccented beats and notes.
https://www.outdoorproject.com/users/qydrixofy-tqhjn
https://izonemedia360.com/
January 8, 2025I really like looking through a post that will make men and women think. Also, thanks for allowing me to comment.
https://izonemedia360.com
Hall of Fame - District of Columbia State Athletic Association
January 9, 2025Having read this I believed it was really informative. I appreciate you taking the time and effort to put this information together. I once again find myself spending way too much time both reading and posting comments. But so what, it was still worthwhile!
https://www.dcsaasports.org/
阪大医学部夏休み
January 9, 2025Legal consistency has been defined as not having multiple verdicts for a similar case.
https://www.divephotoguide.com/user/emgvvmvfuxycikvhdw
シュミット・ダニエル身長
January 9, 2025In the course of the Han Dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE), the usage of glass diversified.
https://rant.li/ohgphirhi/a-href-drapt-mk-co-kr-comm-link-htm
かき氷 歴史
January 9, 2025Models like the GMC Typhoon and Syclone, the Dodge Black Widow and a few others have been placing out performance figures that put some sports activities automobiles to disgrace!
https://divisionmidway.org/jobs/author/nckdvhyc/
USA traffic
January 9, 2025Pretty! This was an incredibly wonderful article. Many thanks for supplying this information.
http://emojicheap.com/
Dunbar High School
January 9, 2025Hi, I do believe this is an excellent website. I stumbledupon it 😉 I’m going to return once again since I book marked it. Money and freedom is the best way to change, may you be rich and continue to help others.
http://www.dcsaasports.org/
Empty anchor
January 9, 2025Everything is very open with a clear explanation of the issues. It was really informative. Your website is very helpful. Many thanks for sharing!
https://www.hexenmod.com/
software to create seo links for gambling! telegram – @seokaya
January 10, 2025I’m more than happy to discover this great site. I need to to thank you for your time for this wonderful read!! I definitely savored every part of it and I have you book marked to check out new information in your blog.
https://gonm.biz/
schedule reddit posts
January 10, 2025An outstanding share! I have just forwarded this onto a friend who has been doing a little research on this. And he actually ordered me lunch simply because I discovered it for him… lol. So allow me to reword this…. Thank YOU for the meal!! But yeah, thanks for spending the time to discuss this topic here on your site.
https://social-rise.com/schedule-reddit-posts
地心地平とは
January 10, 2025It stands out from the crowd and is one of the most recognized modern structures in entire Asia, outside the continent.
http://www.if-hgtib.xyz/blog/what-flowers-are-white
種子島発射場
January 10, 2025Futures agreement is the ancient way of investing in commodities.
http://www.least-hi.xyz/blog/are-cars-meeting-illegal-regulations
Mot Reading
January 10, 2025I truly love your blog.. Great colors & theme. Did you make this site yourself? Please reply back as I’m planning to create my own personal site and want to find out where you got this from or just what the theme is called. Cheers!
https://www.mot-centre.com/
https://ecrypto1.com/
January 10, 2025Aw, this was an exceptionally nice post. Taking the time and actual effort to produce a superb article… but what can I say… I put things off a whole lot and never manage to get nearly anything done.
https://ecrypto1.com/
eq 投資
January 10, 2025SW LA Veterans Residence in Jennings offers many senior care choices, together with nursing residence care and dementia care.
https://postheaven.net/zag4mdbrly
花粉症顔浮腫む
January 11, 2025Consequently, many communities have fallen into the behavior of storing objects in the swimming pool pump rooms.
https://www.divephotoguide.com/user/hxdltrhjnubectkpetx
Empty anchor
January 11, 2025After looking over a number of the articles on your web site, I really appreciate your technique of writing a blog. I book marked it to my bookmark website list and will be checking back soon. Please visit my website as well and let me know what you think.
https://www.hexenmod.com/
buy health supplements
January 11, 2025Good article! We will be linking to this great article on our website. Keep up the great writing.
https://supplementfind.com/
イワクラ全身タイツ
January 11, 2025Share prices can be very volatile, which make sure high potential for both losses and profits, it depending on which side of the market trade you are on.
https://z2b1bnbsk0zt8z.gallery.ru/
先物取引 レバレッジ 楽天
January 12, 2025291. The latest French ladies vogue accessories are seen in the form of a montage of photographs.
http://www.whole-hdpsr.xyz/blog/1736324713527
gemwin
January 12, 2025I blog frequently and I really thank you for your information. Your article has really peaked my interest. I am going to book mark your site and keep checking for new information about once per week. I subscribed to your Feed too.
https://www.htcdev.com/?URL=https://gemwinaz.weebly.com/
gemwin
January 12, 2025Oh my goodness! Amazing article dude! Thank you so much, However I am having problems with your RSS. I don’t understand the reason why I cannot subscribe to it. Is there anyone else having similar RSS problems? Anyone who knows the solution can you kindly respond? Thanks!
https://spot-car.com/?URL=https://gemwinaz.weebly.com/
VPN
January 12, 2025Great blog you have got here.. It’s difficult to find quality writing like yours these days. I truly appreciate people like you! Take care!!
https://donovanmcrgv.blog2news.com/32666644/top-guidelines-of-proxy
東山温泉街 地図
January 13, 2025Want to know more tricks to rock this step?
http://www.lbatm-law.xyz/blog/1736268774788
オムロン 求める人材
January 13, 2025There are also great alternatives to purchase property with in-built fairness because the banks continue to liquidate their inventory.
https://telegra.ph/0107-fzhgjbuofxgrmg-01-07
ดู ซี รี่ ย์ ฟรี 24 ชั่วโมง
January 13, 2025Hello there, I do think your site may be having internet browser compatibility problems. Whenever I look at your web site in Safari, it looks fine but when opening in I.E., it’s got some overlapping issues. I just wanted to provide you with a quick heads up! Other than that, wonderful site!
https://www.series-hot.net/
Renetta Nicolosi
January 14, 2025Howdy! This article could not be written any better! Going through this article reminds me of my previous roommate! He always kept preaching about this. I’ll forward this information to him. Pretty sure he’s going to have a great read. I appreciate you for sharing!
https://fxon.fr/cle-de-voiture-tout-ce-que-vous-devez-savoir/
Gi8
January 14, 2025I’m very happy to uncover this page. I need to to thank you for ones time due to this wonderful read!! I definitely enjoyed every little bit of it and i also have you book marked to see new stuff on your web site.
http://images.google.com.co/url?q=https://gi8vnd.com/
cheap adult webcams
January 14, 2025May I simply say what a comfort to uncover a person that genuinely knows what they are discussing online. You certainly understand how to bring an issue to light and make it important. More people should check this out and understand this side of the story. I was surprised that you’re not more popular since you most certainly have the gift.
https://bdsmlinks.net
cctv installation dubai
January 15, 2025Can I simply just say what a relief to find somebody who genuinely knows what they’re talking about on the internet. You definitely understand how to bring a problem to light and make it important. More and more people should check this out and understand this side of your story. It’s surprising you’re not more popular given that you most certainly possess the gift.
http://cctvinstallationsdubai.com/
side effects of clomid hot flashes
January 16, 2025clomiphene for sale A damaged cervix can prevent sperm from entering the vagina and be a barrier to pregnancy
Binance推荐码
January 16, 2025Thank you for your sharing. I am worried that I lack creative ideas. It is your article that makes me full of hope. Thank you. But, I have a question, can you help me?