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Parliaments, Politics and AIDS3. The significance of parliamentary oversight3.1 Defining parliamentary oversightParliamentary oversight can be considered as part of the role of parliaments to ‘share, in varyingrespects, the function of providing some form of link between the government and the governed.’ 3MPs give voice to the aspirations of the people.Parliament uses its internal mechanisms and processes to act as an interface between governmentand the people – this is essentially the nature of representative democracy. A parliamentthat takes up this role in a serious and consistent manner will conceive of the oversight functionas being accountable to the people, i.e. citizens and non-citizens, voters and those who maybe barred from voting because of age or immigrant status. All people, regardless of their statusas eligible voters, are vulnerable and susceptible to HIV/AIDS.When parliamentary oversight is understood in a broader context, its practice is able tocontribute to the achievement of the democratic principles of transparent and accountablegovernment. In the process of exercising oversight, parliament monitors the nature and extentof the exercise of executive authority, including whether the stated objectives are being met andare responsive to the needs of the people.Parliament can only achieve a significant measure of success if it ensures both quantitative(how many of the expected results are the Executive meeting?) and qualitative (how is the Executivemeeting its goals and what is the impact?) government accountability.Therefore, parliamentary oversight cannot be restricted to a checklist of what has beendone and what has not been done. Instead, it should comprise a comprehensive examinationof pre-determined goals or objectives, detailed implementation plans, delivery on those plans,measuring of the extent to which those plans have been implemented and of whether theoutputs achieved the stated objectives. In addition, parliamentary oversight should involvean enquiry into the overall impact of the outputs in terms of a national framework which, dependingon the country, could be contained in one or more national plans. This necessitatesan enquiry into the process of determining the goals, compiling the plans and other planningand programming functions.3.2 Distinguishing between oversight and law-makingParliamentary oversight should be distinguished from legislative functions, i.e. approving oramending laws and monitoring and evaluating the implementation of law/policy.