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The Parliamentary Centre in Ethiopia

Ethiopia Parliamentary Capacity Building Project

The Parliamentary Centre in Ethiopia The Ethiopia Parliamentary Capacity Building Project was implemented between 1999 and 2008. The project focused primarily on cooperation with Ethiopia’s House of Peoples’ Representatives and involved three main components (Support to Parliamentary Committees, Support for Research, and Support to the Human Rights Commission and Office of the Ombudsman) and two cross-cutting initiatives (Civil Society Outreach and Gender Equality). Funded by the Canadian International Development Agency, the 150 activities implemented under these components and initiatives contributed to a number of outcomes, including the following.

  • Committees conduct more extensive public hearings, make site visits to hear directly from citizens, interact more regularly with government bodies and devote more time to oversight. These measures are helping to widen participation and make possible greater accountability.

  • A system of recording committee meeting information and proceedings is now in place.

  • With ongoing project support, the Women’s Affairs Standing Committee made significant gains. The committee pushed for gender considerations to be added to the mandates of all committees, and sends members to other committees’ meetings to monitor gender mainstreaming. The committee also launched both a Women’s Caucus and a forum for women leaders outside Parliament to advance the rights and opportunities of Ethiopian women.

  • Through multiple training workshops, dialogues and study visits, MPs’ have increased knowledge of key policy issues such as poverty reduction, and more capacity to perform effective legislative review and oversight.

  • With improved consensus-building capacity, parliamentary leaders revised House rules and procedures in ways that enlarged political space for all parties. They created a Public Accounts Committee, chaired by an opposition MP; allowed for private member’s bills; established an Opposition Day; and increased the frequency of Question Period.

For additional information, please contact Rasheed Draman.

 

Ethiopian MPs Build Understanding, Consensus

Since participants in January’s discussions on committee work identified consensus-building as a priority, Ethiopian MPs have worked hard to come together across party lines to stake out common ground. Their efforts and achievements have been considerable and Canada’s Parliamentary Centre has been privileged to work with them. More ...

Ethiopian committees work to build effectiveness

In countries across Africa, parliamentary committees are working to hold governments to account for delivery on development goals. Unique in so many ways, Ethiopia, in this respect, is no exception. Here, a dozen standing committees have mandates to oversee executive bodies and review draft laws. And in Ethiopia, where there were elections in May 2005, most committee members are new to their duties. In cooperation with the House of Peoples’ Representatives, the Parliamentary Centre recently held a week-long session for more than 140 members in order to examine key topics in committee work.

Joint discussions focused on accountability, transparency, budget processes, staff roles and consensus-building in multi-party legislatures, with former MPs from Canada and counterparts and scholars from Ethiopia, Ghana and Kenya serving as resource persons.

These were, in the words of the Speaker of the House, Hon. Ambassador Teshome Toga, ‘very successful two-way discussions, discussions among equals.’ ‘We’ve learned how to share responsibilities,’ said another MP, ‘and, whether from opposition or governing parties, how to build patience and respect.’ With this aim of developing capacity patiently and respectfully very much in mind, the Parliamentary Centre and the Parliament of Ethiopia look forward to continuing their work together.

The event took place at the UN Conference Centre in Addis Ababa from January 23rd to 27th and was sponsored by the CIDA-funded Ethiopia Parliamentary Capacity Development Project.

 
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