Training on PRSPs Monitoring and Evaluation for African Members of Parliament, Parliamentary assistants, and CSO representatives

The Institute for Policy Alternatives (IPA), Ghana, in collaboration with the Africa Program of the Parliamentary Centre, has established a training and capacity-building initiative implemented over a three-year period for African Parliaments. The training includes two major components.

The first training component is targeted at MPs who are members of key oversight committees (such as Public Accounts, Finance and, in some cases, PRSP Monitoring Committees), and the secretariat of these committees. This aspect of the program is meant to raise the awareness of MPs to better understand and absorb the emerging results of the PRSP process, and to effectively evaluate its progress. The training also explores issues concerning civil society – how they work, and how collaboration can be established with them, and through them to communities. The course covers specifically:

• PRSP processes
• Indicators for Monitoring and Evaluation of PRSPs
• Basic Tools for use in ensuring social and public accountability
• Gender Equity considerations in poverty monitoring and Parliamentary oversight;
• Linkages and partnership development between MPs and Civil Society
• Citizen engagement and feedback.

The second component of the training program targets parliamentary staff and representatives of organized civil society, who will emerge to become core parliamentary research and interface staff, bridging the gap between parliaments and the civil society they represent. This course is designed to give the trainees a deep understanding of issues surrounding PRSPs as well as the monitoring and evaluation of poverty. A related objective is to build the skills of the assistants/CS representatives to work with MPs in shaping relations with civil society as part of the process of enhancing poverty-focused social and public accountability.

The course specifically contains:

• Broad development concepts and the PRSP theory and practice;
• Concepts and Practices of M&E Systems;
• Specific tools for M&E of PRSP;
• Parliament and its oversight functions;
• Social and Public Accountability oversight;
• Gender Equity considerations in poverty monitoring and Parliamentary oversight;
• Role and responsibilities of civil society;
• Developing reports; and,
• Citizen engagement and feedback strategies.

To date, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe have been involved with MP’s, parliamentary staff and civil society representatives from each country taking part in the training program.

After completing the training, each country group developed a post-training project to operationalize the skills acquired in one specific aspect of poverty monitoring by Parliament and civil society. The Parliamentary Centre and IPA supported these projects both technically and financially. For reports on the pilot projects, please click here.

Financial Oversight Function of Parliamentarians: Tools and Mechanisms for Optimum Government Budget Analysis

The extent to which parliaments and parliamentarians are able to carry out their legislative, oversight and representative functions in ways that engender good governance values of accountability, transparency and participation is of paramount importance. The budget process – preparation, approval, implementation, monitoring and evaluation – is key component of parliaments and parliamentarians’ functions as an arm of the state. This is because government budgets are about the allocation of scarce resources that affect the lives of the citizenry who parliamentarians in a democratic dispensation represent. It is therefore imperative that parliamentarians are equipped with the necessary tools with which to perform its role in the budget process, particularly, understanding the salient elements in the budget process that are of direct relevance, within the context of democratic sub Saharan African countries, in the poverty/development discourse.

To meet this need the Canadian Parliamentary Centre (PC) has developed a five-day training program called “Financial Oversight Function of Parliamentarians: Tools and Mechanisms for Optimum Government Budget Analysis” with support from the Austrian Development Agency(ADA). It aims to strengthen the capacity of parliamentarians to perform their financial oversight functions; and to equip parliamentarians with tools with which to analyze government budgets particularly identifying pro-poor and gender equity programs.

The program specifically contains:

• Understanding National Budgets
• Role of Parliamentarians in the Budget Process;
• National Budgets and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs);
• Analyzing Government Budget Statements: How Pro-Poor should a Budget be?
• Analyzing Gender Equity in Budget Statements: Key Issues

The presentations are the followed by carefully tailored group work to make the program as practical as possible. The subjects for discussions for the group work are as follows:

• Why are budgets described as economic, legal and political?
• Key issues in understanding the budget process;
• What roles do Parliamentarians play during – legislative scrutiny, legislative oversight, and legislative accountability;
• Track MDG related expenditures in national budgets;
• Identify MDG goals and targets in budget statements;
• Identify and track expenditure on Gender, and Pro-poor initiatives in the three national budget statements.

For more information about this training program, please contact info_ottawa@aprnetwork.org or info_accra@aprnetwork.org. For the next training session, see Upcoming activities.