Parliamentary Centre offers training for parliamentary staff

Following several requests from parliamentary staff to develop a training to cater to their specific needs, the Parliamentary Centre developed training material on focusing on their role in the budget process and how they can better assist Members of Parliament in fulfilling their roles during this process.

The training was initially piloted in two phases in order to properly test the material and allow for comments and input from the participants regarding the relevance and usefulness of the material as well as to identify information gaps and comment on how it can be improved it in order to reflect their needs better.

The first phase of the pilot training for parliamentary staff entitled the Role of Parliamentary Staff and Parliamentary Committees during the Budget Process took place in Kampala, Uganda September 29-October 3, 2008 with 18 participants from Kenya, Tanzania, Southern Sudan, Uganda and Zambia. The training was planned and delivered in cooperation with the Parliament of Uganda, where several people from their Parliamentary Budget Office helped with the preparations and also delivered training on the role of legislative budget offices.

The second phase of the training took place in Accra, Ghana February 2-6, 2009. All the same participants, except the committee clerks from Zambia who were in the middle of their country’s budget process, partook in the training.

Another staff training took place May 16-24, 2009. This time, the material from the first and second phase was presented on one occasion instead of two, as it had shown difficult to ensure the availability of all participants on two different occasions. The 18 participating staff came from Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania and Zambia. This training saw the addition of the training unit “The revenue side of the budget”, and some of the other training modules were combined during the presentation to be able to cover as much as possible during the eight day training. More time was given to properly learn the practical tools LFA and Community Score Card.

For more information on these trainings, please go to Past Activities.

Providing tools on budgetary oversight to Parliamentarians and parliamentary staff

Since 2006, the Parliamentary Centre has offered training on budgetary oversight to the Members of Parliaments and parliamentary staff of both Anglophone and Francophone APRN member countries with positive effects. These training workshops have been made possible with funding from the Austrian Development Agency (ADA). During this relatively short period, 75 MPs and 33 parliamentary staff from 16 different countries have benefited from this training program so far. The results thus achieved are beginning to impact positively on the work of parliaments in budget oversight responsibilities in beneficiary countries.

In 2009, the following trainings on budgetary oversight took place:

• March 16-24, 2009 in Accra Ghana for 11 MPs and 5 committee staff from Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and Tanzania.

• May 16-24, 2009: Accra, Ghana - The Role of Parliamentary Staff and Parliamentary Committees during the Budget Process

• June 2-5, 2009: Dar es Salaam, Tanzania - Parliament and Financial Oversight: Tools and Mechanisms for Optimum Government Budget Analysis

• November 9-13, 2009: Accra, Ghana TRAINING ON BUDGETARY OVERSIGHT in which a total of 25 MPs from Ghana, Malawi, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe participated.

For more information on these trainings, please go to Past Activities.

New Executive Committee

The Executive Committee plays a leading role in the development of the APRN and is responsible among other things to review past activities of the network; plan and discuss the direction of APRN; and review work plans, budgets, areas and issues of focus for the coming year.
The Executive Committee is elected based on the following criterion developed by the steering committee:

• Regional Balance
• Anglophone/Francophone Consideration
• Gender Consideration
• An Abiding Dedication to Duty and Self-Sacrifice

During the APRN annual general meeting which was held on October 22, 2009, the following members of Parliament were elected to serve a two-year term as part of the new APRN Executive Committee, to steer the affairs of African Parliamentary Poverty Reduction Network (APRN).

• Hon. William Okecho (Uganda)- Chairman
• Hon. Koala Kabore K. Aline  (Burkina Faso) -Vice Chairperson
• Hon.  Clement Kofi  Humado (Ghana) Member
• Hon. John Mbadi Ngongo   (Kenya)   Member
• Hon. Gaye Ndeye Cissé   (Senegal) Member
• Hon. Agnes  Penumlungu   (Malawi) Member 
• Hon. Emmanuel M. Hachipuka    (Zambia) Member

APRN Newsletter

The December 2009 issue of the APRN Newsletter is now available. Published bi-annually, the newsletter provides a platform for MPs, parliamentary staff, CSO advocates, researchers, and practitioners to share on poverty reduction issues. The theme of this newsletter is "Making Poverty Reduction and Budget Oversight Center Stage Issues for African MPs". This issue also features articles on some of the recent activities of the APRN. If you would like to be on the mailing list, or to submit articles, contact Ricardo Lesperance, Program Officer at info_Ottawa@aprnetwork.org.

The Parliamentary Centre invites you to submit articles

APRN and the Parliamentary Centre want to make sure that our members are well informed about key issues linked to parliamentary strengthening, and in particular the role parliaments play during the budget process from a pro-poor perspective.

We would therefore like to invite you to send us your contributions on parliamentary strengthening– and specifically on how parliament can play an increasing role in poverty reduction through the budget process. A select number of articles will be published in the APRN Newsletter. Please send your contribution to info_Ottawa@aprnetwork.org.

The Parliamentary Centre develops training material on HIV/AIDS

The Parliamentary Centre has recently developed a complete training material for Members of Parliament and parliamentary staff for the World Bank Institute called Parliaments and HIV/AIDS. This material is now available on WBI's special on-line training site.

Please visit www.parliamentarystrengthening.org/
HIVmodule/index.html for more information

Inauguration of the Parliamentary Centre Training and Resource Unit

The official inauguration ceremony of the Parliamentary Centre’s new Training and Resource Unit in Accra, Ghana, took place on March 6, 2008.  Representatives from the Public Accounts Committee of Ghana were present as well as the Auditor General, representatives from CIDA, DFID, USAID, WBI among others. In addition, Members of Parliament (MPs) and parliamentary staff from Malawi, Nigeria, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda participating at the ongoing training on budgetary oversight were also present.

For more information, click here

PRSP UPDATE

The following new PRSP documents and annual progress reports are available:

Benin: Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper – Annual Progress Report (2007)

Burkina Faso: Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper – Annual Progress Report (2006)

Ghana: Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper – Annual Progress Report 2006

Liberia: Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (2008-2011)

Niger: Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (2008-2012)

Mali: Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (2007-2011)

Rwanda: Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy (2008-2012)

Tanzania: Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper – Annual Progress Report (2006/2007)

For additional PRSP documents and annual progress reports, please visit www.imf.org/external/np/prsp/prsp.asp?
view=all&sort=date#cp