PARLIAMENT AND DEMOCRACY - Inter-Parliamentary Union

An effective parliament (II): Parliament’s involvement in international affairs I 163
■ In Niger, the National Assembly was involved from the beginning of the
PRSP process. Members participated in thematic groups covering the key
areas of development concern. The final PRSP document was approved by
the Cabinet of Ministers and was submitted for discussion to the National
Assembly. (p.48)
The examples provided above suggest that two forms of greater parliamentary
involvement in the PRSP process have proved workable in practice:
■ Involvement of parliamentarians in the development of the country’s policy
through a special parliamentary committee and participation by sectoral
working groups; and
■ Monitoring implementation on the ground not merely for its financial
soundness but especially for its effectiveness in delivering poverty
reduction.
The difficulties confronting parliaments in maintaining oversight on
poverty reduction strategies are also well recognised by the UNDP, which is
responsible for overall coordination and monitoring of the MDGs. Among
many of its initiatives the publication with the National Democratic Institute
(NDI) of three handbooks on strengthening parliamentary involvement in
reducing poverty is noteworthy. The handbooks list a number of useful strategies
for briefing parliamentarians and identify the types of information they
need and possible sources for obtaining it, how they can use the PRSP process
itself to empower parliaments and the need to factor in sufficient time into the
process to allow for genuine legislative debate on key issues. The latter is
particularly important since the executive and legislative branches work on
different time scales.
The accompanying diagramme from the UNDP handbook identifies the
typical areas where parliamentary interventions may have an impact.