Middle East

Initial Programming

The Parliamentary Centre has undertaken parliamentary development programs in the Middle East since the mid 1990s. The first of these initiatives was a Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) funded project to strengthen relations between the Parliament of Lebanon and Lebanese civil society organizations. During the 17-year Lebanese civil war, civil society organizations – many of them religious and other charities – assumed responsibility for the provision of basic social services including health and education. With the end of the war, the Lebanese government began to reclaim its responsibility for provision of these services and tensions arose between the civil society organizations and new governmental agencies. For these and other reasons, a broad coalition of Lebanese NGOs was formed to initiate dialogue with political leaders, including members of parliament. In partnership with the Lebanese NGO Forum, the Parliamentary Centre facilitated dialogue through study visits to Canada on social policy and round table meetings In Beirut involving Members of Parliament and civil society representatives. The project led to the creation of an office in Parliament to facilitate this work on an ongoing basis.

In addition to this project in Lebanon, the Centre has invited representatives from a number of Arab parliaments to the Laurentian Seminar, has posted parliamentary interns at the Palestinian Legislative Council and undertaken a parliamentary assessment mission to the Parliament of Kuwait.

Arab Parliaments, Poverty Reduction and WTO Accession

The UNDP Arab Human Development Report 2002, while noting significant progress in some areas of human development, concluded that "the predominant characteristic of the current Arab reality seems to be the existence of deeply rooted shortcomings in Arab institutional structures. These shortcomings pose serious obstacles to human development and are summarized as the three deficits relating to freedom, empowerment of women and knowledge."

This CIDA funded project aims to strengthen the capacity of Arab parliaments – one of the weakest Arab institutions – to address policy issues related to poverty and WTO accession. The project grows out of the Parliamentary Centre program on Parliament and Poverty Reduction. As the result of an assessment mission to a number of Arab parliaments, it was concluded that economic liberalization and specifically WTO accession was one of the poverty related issues highest on the Arab parliamentary agenda. While generally accepting that liberalization will have long-term economic benefits, there was and is widespread fear that rapid or careless liberalization could worsen poverty and contribute to political instability. Hence the interest in a program for parliamentarians that would attempt to address these issues.

Although conceptually solid, the execution of this program has been plagued by last minute delays in holding scheduled activities and disappointing participation of Arab parliamentarians. Our response to this situation has been to strengthen partnerships with strong regional organizations, including the UNDP and the Arab Inter-Parliamentary Union. By early 2003 these efforts were beginning to pay off in the form of solid plans for activities during the year in Lebanon and Jordan.

An additional link on Parliaments and the WTO: http://www.cpahq.org/topics/inttrade/