CASE No - Inter-Parliamentary Union

- 15 - CL/183/SR.1
strategy and recorded on budget. Capacity building of parliaments in partner countries was
crucial to enable them to analyse development strategies, budgets and results-oriented audits,
particularly in countries in post-conflict situations. Capacity building should include the
improvement of parliamentarians’ working conditions and research support. South-south
exchanges of information on best practices in parliaments should also be encouraged, and
donor and partner country parliamentarians should also exchange best practices and
experiences.
The second session, on reforming conditionality and tied aid had concluded that many
donor countries were shifting from outright conditionality towards building partner countries’
capacity for good governance. Much more investment in that regard was still required, as well
as to ensure an improvement in controls and procedures for transparency, checks and balances
and accountability. Aid given in support of parliaments should go directly to those parliaments.
Conditions should always be transparent and acceptable to all parties, and should therefore be
referred to as "mutually agreed objectives". Conditions were, however, often negotiated
behind the backs of parliaments and civil society. Conditions should be derived from a
nationally-led consultation process, and parliaments and civil society actors should be involved
in establishing development plans and monitoring their implementation. There should also be
a balance between conditions and aid given, since requirements should be relative to the
quantity of aid allocated. Parliamentarians had agreed that the practice of tied aid should come
to an end.
The third session on assessing aid modalities such as budget support, project aid and
technical assistance had concluded that from a parliamentary perspective, budget support was
the best aid modality, since it afforded more direct oversight while keeping transaction costs
down and ensuring more direct alignment of aid with national development plans. A portion
of budget support should also aim to strengthen national structures in order to ensure
transparency and accountability. Budget support as an aid modality required the role of
parliaments to be strengthened in the budgetary process in partner countries. Parliaments
should at least have an opportunity to debate the financing of the government budget through
the presentation of an annual report by the Government. Parliaments should also interact with
local communities and civil society organizations to assess whether their needs were being
addressed by government budget proposals. In performing their budgetary role, parliaments
must ensure that all aid and loans from bilateral and multilateral donors, NGOs, local
authorities and others were included in development budgets and were subject to
parliamentary oversight.
The Governing Council took note of the report on the Stakeholder Forum on the role
of national and local stakeholders in contributing to aid quality and effectiveness.
(e)
Panel Discussion on parliaments, peace-building and reconciliation
(CL/183/11(e)-R.1)
The Secretary General introduced the report on the panel discussion on parliaments,
peace-building and reconciliation, which had been held in New York on 13 June 2008.
The Governing Council took note of the report on the panel discussion on
parliaments, peace-building and reconciliation.