News from the parliamentary monitoring community:
In Afghanistan, the Free & Fair Election Forum of Afghanistan (FEFA) released its six-month report on parliamentary activities. Findings of the report include the number of plenary and committee sessions held, the number of laws approved, positive developments and shortcomings, as well as recommendations for improvement. The report is published during a critical period in Afghanistan, with the government in the midst of extended political gridlock preventing the enactment of much needed reforms. FEFA also signed a MoU with the Meshrano Jirga, the upper house of parliament, to conduct a similar assessment, with aims to increase public awareness on parliament’s activities and strengthen the level of cooperation between parliament and civil society.
In Costa Rica, the Alliance for Open Assembly, which includes ACCESA, Abriendo Datos, Costa Rica Íntegra, Iplex, Proledi, and Ojo al Voto, partnered with the Fundación Directorio Legislativo to foment major strides toward openness within the Costa Rican legislature. Together they created and signed a commitment seeking to promote openness, transparency, and accountability. The commitment includes a variety of different components, each working to counter the existing lack of trust in Costa Rican institutions. This commitment combined with the drafting of an action plan for legislative opening seek to strengthen and enable “a more democratic democracy.”
In Mexico, for the tenth anniversary of the Collective for Transparency campaign, Fundar launched #ArmonizaTuLey, an initiative to monitor the process of harmonizing state laws with the new federal regulatory framework for transparency and access to information. With the approval of the constitutional reform in 2013 and the General Act in 2014, Mexico has set up a robust framework that safeguards these rights. Fundar reports that while the deadline for adoption of the new regulatory framework is fast approaching, 29 states in Mexico still have not completed this obligation. The Collective for Transparency calls on legislators to fulfill their legal obligation of harmonizing state laws, respect this timeline for action, and engage citizens in this effort.
In Kenya, Mzalendo Trust announced the second People’s Shujaaz Awards to recognize Parliamentarians for championing issues of high public interest in the National Assembly and Senate in 2015. The final selection was made based on the legislators’ demonstration of leadership, factoring in the motions that were put forth, and statements and petitions they represented. The nominees were chosen in consultation with civil society groups under the Parliamentary Initiatives Network. While Mzalendo hopes that the People’s Shujaaz Awards helps to spotlight the positive achievements and key contributions made in Parliament, Mzalendo also issued a list of lessons learned, with recommendations for the legislature to strengthen its image, communicate its work more effectively with citizens, and find new ways for civic engagement using technology and social media.
In the US, the OpenGov Foundation received a $200,000 grant from the Rita Allen Foundation to support the continued development of an open-source platform to digitize Chicago’s legislative process over the next two years. In partnership with Chicago’s City Clerk’s office, the project aims to keep legislation in standardized, accessible formats, and allow citizens to better share feedback with their elected officials.
In India, PRS Legislative Research published two op-eds on legislative reform in major news outlets. The authors called to question the effectiveness of India’s legislature, highlighting in particular the decrease in legislative productivity caused by disruptions and lapses in conduct by members. With a detailed breakdown of how time was used during parliamentary proceedings, the articles underscores the necessity of urgent reforms to restore both the Parliament’s role as an effective deliberative body, as well as citizens’ faith in Parliament as a representative institution as a whole.
In Tunisia, Al Bawsala published an annual report, which assesses the work of the first session of parliament. The report evaluates the legislative work done in general, as well as the performance of the House of Representatives, using quantitative and qualitative measures, and offers recommendations for more effective legislative functioning.
In South Africa, the Parliamentary Monitoring Group published its annual report, which details the activities, controversies, and highlights from the year’s parliamentary sessions. The group also produced an infographic that includes basic statistics on the year in parliament, including the number of plenary sittings and committee meetings, the number of bills signed by the president, and the response rate during question time.
In Jordan, Al-Hayat Center for Civil Society Development (RASED), in cooperation with the Parliamentary Legal Committee, organized a national conference to present a new draft election law. The draft law was developed through broad consensus from political party members and civil society, and is considered a foundation for political reform, with the potential to greatly impact the performance of parliamentary councils. Development of the law is marked by collaboration with the Jordanian government and a high level of citizen participation, with 6,842 citizens that participated in the Commission’s dialogues on the law, including 34% participation by women.
In Argentina, Asociación Civil por la Igualdad y la Justicia (ACIJ), Asociación por los Derechos Civiles (ADC), Fundación Directorio Legislativo, and Poder Ciudadano collaborated to create the Agenda de Transparencia para Argentina. The reform agenda highlights issues that President Macri will face as he enters office, and offers ways to address these issues through engaging citizens and activist groups. The agenda includes proposals for an open budget process, employee and administrative data, as well as access to session and commission meetings.
In Albania, the Coalition of Domestic Observers (CDO) published a statement that expresses its support for the adoption of the draft-law, “For local self-governance”, though also calling for the establishment of a feedback mechanism for the law’s implementation to help bring local governance closer to citizens. CDO also released a statement that expressed its concern for the limited role that the Assembly of Albania, deputies, and parliamentary parties have had in replacing two members of the Central Election Commission, whose mandates had expired more than one month previously. In the statement, the Coalition highlighted the lack of a legal framework and enforcement as a major challenge that negatively impacts the aim and spirit of reforms in Albania.
Other related news:
More than 4,000 people attended Populusaurio 2015, the third annual gathering of civil society organizations. Over 58 civil society organizations were represented at the event. The formal declaration of the conference proposed implementing mandatory civic, ethical and human rights training in all schools and universities; establishing an official ombudsperson to ensure the protection of human rights; and to raise and clarify ethical standards to govern transactions in the public and private sectors.
The Open Knowledge Foundation, together with the Open Definition Advisory Board, added to their Open Definition, creating version 2.1. Revisions include updates to several issues, including open license, machine readability and open format.
Transparency International Georgia (TI) covers the developments of a proposal to amend the Election Code of Georgia, which aims to reduce the difference in the sizes of majoritarian districts, and thereby grant an equality of votes to each constituency and lessen the disparity in representation. TI presents their assessment on the Constitutional Court’s ruling, pointing out the shortcomings of the draft law, and calling into question whether the proposed system complies with constitutional and international standards. TI-Georgia re-asserts its stance that the 2016 parliamentary elections should be held in a fully proportional electoral system
The Scottish Alliance for Lobbying Transparency (SALT) pushed forward their campaign for greater transparency in lobbying, putting their demands to parliament and calling for amendments to be made to a key lobbying bill. This follows the release of poll results that reflect high public support for stronger measures to restrict lobbying, with 91% of respondents agreeing that the lobbying register should cover more than just face-to-face meetings, and include lobbying of all public officials. SALT also demands that the scope of the bill be expanded to require lobbyists to declare how much they spend.
The Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy (NIMD) held a conference to promote technological innovation in government. OpenGov Foundation, along with four other civic technology organizations from Argentina, Iceland, Italy and New Zealand, joined to discuss their work with elected officials and representatives from numerous Dutch and Georgian political parties.
Mzalendo also reports that the constituency development fund (CDF) law was signed. Although unanimously passed by the Kenyan National Assembly, it has been met with resistance from Senate as well as civil society. The new law makes CDF funds a mandate of MPs to supplement national government development projects, and allows for citizen engagement to decide how the funds will be used. The signing of the law follows calls by civil society earlier in the year to declare the CDF unconstitutional, as it is viewed to violate the division of power between the the national government and the legislature.
Resources:
Transparency International Slovenia has created a new tool, Zakonodajni Monitor, in the pursuit of uncovering the “legislative footprint”. The platform combines a database of legislation from the National Assembly, data about members of the National Assembly, reported lobbying contacts, and other sources of data to provide a holistic view of the legislative process. Transparency international Slovenia hopes that journalists, civil society activists, NGOs, and concerned individuals can utilize the tool to find information and to support their advocacy work.
The Open Knowledge Foundation launched Datawijs, an interactive video series that aims to introduce the concept of open data to young adults and teenagers. Datawijs has three layers of videos, each with different aims and capabilities. With this resource, the Open Knowledge Foundation seeks “to turn digital natives into open data literates”.
The Open Institute released the alpha version of the SDG Tracker, a dashboard that will monitor and visualizes on the progress made on the Sustainable Development Goals over the next 15 years.
Upcoming events:
Open Data Day will take place around the world on March 5.
Personal Democracy Forum: Poland and CEE 2016 will take place in Gdansk, Poland on March 17-18.
Transparency Camp is coming to Europe! Open State Foundation will host the first TCamp EU in Amsterdam on June 1.