Parliament-Watch-Bulletin_Mid-Term-Audit-2014

A Mid Term Citizens’ Assessment of the 9th ParliamentForewordThe institution of Parliament has popularly been referred to as the temple of democracy. Parliaments the world overare progressively being recognized as important agents of political society for delivery of effective democracies,and transforming economies. Despite their important role, Parliaments operate under very difficult circumstances,especially in nascent democracies.In 2009, as part of the process to generate the Citizens Manifesto for 2011-2016, it clearly emerged that the institutionof Parliament and its Members suffered a challenge of mixed expectations from their citizenry. The variance betweentheir roles and responsibilities and citizens expectations of them was evident indicating that their assessment was notbased on clear indicators.Informed by this reality and in preparation for the 2011 Presidential and Parliamentary elections a Citizens Manifestowas developed as a political statement of ordinary Ugandans and expressing their demands to the next government,and leaders. A Citizens Manifesto Charter for Parliament was derived from the Manifesto with 11 standards whichCitizens felt should be addressed by Parliament, and upon which performance of Parliament would be assessed.In the post 2011 elections epoch, the Uganda Governance Monitoring Platform (UGMP) has continued to use thischarter as a benchmark for assessing the performance of Parliament. This midterm audit of Parliament presentsfindings from a 3 year assessment of the 9th Parliament, based on the Citizens Manifesto Charter for Parliament. It’snoteworthy that a myriad of other independent assessments are being conducted on Parliament.Cognizant that parliamentary performance is also shaped by the context such as political systems, constitutionalprovisions, nature of political parties, domination of the executive and the wider social and cultural environment,which may not facilitate strong parliaments, any efforts towards parliamentary strengthening must take into accountthese various reasons.Independent efforts to assess the impact of the legislature remain limited, which makes this report a major milestonetowards increased scrutiny of the institution of parliament by the citizens.This Midterm Audit of the 9th Parliament therefore does not claim to tell the full story, nor does it paint a rosy andonly positive picture of the progress, but it does celebrate the achievements of the 9th Parliament, and also articulatesthe challenges based on the citizens manifesto demands as well as the performance indicators set by the 9th Parliament.We hope that you will find this Bulletin not only an interesting read but also useful to your efforts to deepen theLegislative, oversight, and representational role of members of Parliament and effectiveness of the Institution ofParliament.Richard SsewakiryangaExecutive Director,Uganda National NGO Forum (UNNGOF)UGMP September 20145