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Key Text Parliamentary Development

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Date: 2003
Size: 28 pages (33 KB)

Summary

Recognising that democracy does not automatically lead to human development, what services can donors provide to promote democratic governance? Prepared by the Institutional Development Group, Bureau for Development Policy (BDP) of UNDP, this practice note establishes a policy framework for UNDP's parliamentary development services. Future efforts must take into account the interdependence of parliaments and the electoral processes that give representative institutions their legitimacy.

Parliaments play a fundamental role in establishing the rule of law, protecting human rights, overseeing transparent governance processes, and ensuring national compliance with international obligations. In recent years, there has been a surge in requests to provide long-term support for democratic governance. The role of UNDP in supporting parliaments derives from the central role played by the UN in nation-building, conflict resolution and democratic development.

Parliamentary development encompasses activities that aim to enhance the representative, legislative or oversight capacity of representative institutions in the governance process. Programmes aimed at strengthening democratic governance comprise assistance to parliaments, judiciaries and electoral bodies. Lessons learned in UNDP's parliamentary development programmes include:

Needs assessments should go beyond the identification of institutional limitations to analyse the political context of parliamentary development. Independent assessors with parliamentary experience, local interlocutors and use of participatory assessment strategies are valuable elements of a needs assessment.
Technical assistance to party caucuses can be given in areas including party discipline and internal decision-making, inter- and intra-party relations and coalition-building. In the case of a bicameral parliament, it is preferable to include both houses in parliamentary development efforts.
Appropriate timing is crucial. A programme can benefit from post-electoral enthusiasm for democratic development.
To ensure continuity, relationships should be developed with a range of members of parliament and staff leaders.
To maintain balance in the programme and for the benefit all actors, working through executive ministries is generally not recommended. There are good experiences with multipartisan committees heading parliamentary development programmes.
Parliamentary development advisory services can come from interparliamentary organisations, membership-based NGOs, political party institutes, academia and other parliaments.

Parliamentary development needs to become an increasingly integrated component of UNDP packages of conflict-reconciliation and post-conflict support. To ensure the participation of senior parliamentary leadership, UNDP country offices and the Resident Representative must exhibit strong commitment towards the process. Recommendations to policy makers include:

Many requests for support focus on infrastructure, equipment and information technology, but experience suggests that support should become more process-oriented.
Technical assistance aimed at improving committee processes is an important mechanism for moving parliamentary control out of strict party structures and into more multiparty settings.
Where decentralisation is a component of national governance strategies, support to regional institutions such as regional parliamentary associations and/or training institutes should be encouraged.
In politically volatile environments, issue-based approaches are useful strategies for bringing diverse political actors together to facilitate relationship-building and, ultimately, capacity development. Civil society organisations and the media are good entry points for support in societies where the parliament is not open to direct assistance.
Developing law-making processes has been a central focus of capacity-building activities. Future programmes also need to address the functions of oversight and representation, including constituency relations, budget negotiations and accountability of government ministries.
Strong parliaments require transparent, fair and inclusive electoral practices. There is a greater need for assistance with respect to the role of parliaments in representation.

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Source: UNDP, 2003, ‘Parliamentary Development’, Practice Note, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
Author: Oslo Governance Centre, http://www.undp.org/oslocentre/