Parliamentary Centre in Haiti

Haiti Parliamentary Support Project (HPSP)

Context

As part of Canada’s broader support in the renewal of the democratic process in Haiti, the Parliamentary Centre was selected by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), within the framework of Canadian efforts to strengthen good governance and democratic institutions, as the executing agency for the Haiti Parliamentary Support Project (HPSP).

This four year (2007 to 2010) five million Canadian dollars (5M CAD$) project has for objective to contribute to the strengthening of political governance and the promotion of a national dialogue. Its goal is to increase the effectiveness of the Haitian legislature through structured participation of parliamentarians around four themes:

• Capacity development of parliamentarians (senators and members) and of the parliamentary staff, in particular by strengthening its legislative and oversight role;
• Improvement of the executive - legislative relations by promoting dialogue between the Parliament and the Executive;
• Opening Parliament to citizens as well as civil society;
• Effective management and functioning of the two houses, in particular the work undertaken by parliamentary committees.

The HPSP proposes to reach its objectives in the following manner:

• Support to Government’s legislative agenda by training parliamentarians of key committees, and the services that support them, such as budget, public accounts, justice, poverty reduction, health (HIV/AIDS), gender and other ad hoc committees made up of members from the different political affiliations;
• Thematic workshops, study days, forums conducive to exchanges and information circulation, on topics such as gender equality, anticorruption and poverty, as to develop the professional capacity of Parliament;
• Communication training for parliamentarians on their role as parliamentarians and representatives of their communities;
• Establishment of a continuous professional development program targeted and adapted for the administrative personnel of the Parliament;
• Establishment of management systems for the Secretariat in each of the Houses.

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