The Parliamentary Centre in Pan Africa

Africa-Canada Parliamentary Strengthening Program

The Parliamentary Centre has been given the responsibility by the Canadian government to operationalize this four-year, $9-million program, under the broad auspices of the CIDA Canada Fund for Africa. Over the next four years, the program will strengthen the capacity of democratic African Parliaments to:

• increase transparency in decision-making;
• achieve effective Parliamentary oversight and accountability over anti-corruption efforts, poverty reduction strategies and gender equality actions; and
• participate in the effective and inclusive implementation of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD).

Project planning and identification of priorities relied heavily on an expert group of African parliamentarians representing 18 national parliaments and regional parliamentary institutions, with additional input from African policy/training institutes and civil society groups. Given the need for African parliamentarians to share on issues and challenges from their respective parliament’s experience and from past or ongoing parliamentary strengthening initiatives, the program is based on three parliamentary networks focused on gender, poverty-reduction and anti-corruption, complemented by initiatives focused on NEPAD and on generally improving the oversight capacity of parliaments.

The Gender Equality Network

The Gender Network brings together women parliamentarians and supporting partners including male MPs and representatives of civil society who have the common goal of furthering the integration of gender considerations in the development of Africa.

The African Parliamentarians’ Network Against Corruption (APNAC)

Founded in 1999, APNAC brings together African parliamentarians to share information, experience and lessons in strengthening parliament in the fight against corruption and the promotion of good governance. Its secretariat is in Kampala, Uganda.

The African Parliamentary Poverty-Reduction Network

The Poverty-Reduction Network brings together parliamentary committees involved in the PRSP process, either for its design, its implementation or, as in most cases, for oversight of the process for greater group dialogue amongst members as well as opportunities for ensuring effective implementation of poverty reduction programs, particularly through local level monitoring with community-based civil society groups.

Building Parliamentary Oversight and Policy-Making Capacity

Some program initiatives cut across parliaments, involve more than one network, and are meant to build capacity of these parliaments for oversight and policy-making. Though this is a separate component with specific activities, the area of work will remain focussed around the three networks and bring in these networks when relevant. Activities include training, support initiatives, study visits and other activities developed in individual parliaments, initiatives for improved oversight work on key social concerns as well as the Parliamentary Policy Dialogues .

NEPAD

CIDA’s Canada Fund for Africa, or which this program emanates, is a direct response to the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) presented by African leaders at the G8 summit in Kananaskis in 2002. Given the growing momentum about NEPAD on the continent and internationally, which will directly affect any program dealing with governance and parliaments, it is crucial that the ACPSP maintain ties with the NEPAD implementation structures and institutions. A Senior Governance Representative associated with the program will work with Africa-level institutions, including the African Union, to maintain ongoing contact and communication and help contribute to stronger interaction between the developing Parliamentary Networks and the continent-wide work of NEPAD. The ongoing dynamics of the APRM (African Peer Review Mechanism) is one focus of this work and gender policies of NEPAD is another. The Parliamentary Centre was present at the recent opening session of the Pan-African Parliament and will continue to closely follow its developments.