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Africa Parliamentary Strengthening Program (APSP) for Budget oversight APSP First Advisory Board Meeting- 26th June 2010 

The Parliamentary Centre (Africa) is implementing the 5 -year Africa Parliamentary Strengthening Program (APSP) for Budget oversight which is funded CIDA. A key outcome of this program is the setting up of the Budget Advisory Unit (BAU) with an advisory Board to provide strategic direction, input and advice on the program.

The Advisory Board held its first meeting on 26th June 2010 at the Training and Resource Unit of the Centre in Accra, Ghana. The purpose of the meeting was to among other things introduce members to PC (Africa) and it’s Program particularly APSP, to get members to have a firsthand experience with other colleague members from partner parliaments and most importantly to discuss Organizational and operational strategies of the APSP.

The Advisory Board is a nine-member board (5 males and 4 females) made up of current and former members of parliament as well as members from the public finance sector who are very competent in budget field. They are selected from the seven partner parliaments namely Benin, Ghana, Kenya, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia which are supported under the APSP Program.

The Parliamentary Centre cordially invites you to attend a panel discussion:

Strengthening Governance:
the state of parliaments

An Update From the Parliamentary Centre

Moderator: Amelita Armit, President and CEO, Parliamentary Centre

• Governance and Parliaments: Views from the Field

Africa: Charity Wakaba, Advisor, Anticorruption, Parliamentary Centre
Asia and Eastern Europe: Ivo Balinov, Senior Program Officer, Parliamentary Development, Parliamentary Centre
Americas:  Emmanuelle Pelletier, Program Coordinator, Inter-Parliamentary Forum of the Americas (FIPA)
 - Haiti:  Marie-Édith Hilaire, Parliamentary Centre

• Reflections on Governance in Canada: the State of Parliament
  C.E.S Franks, Professor Emeritus, Queens University

Tuesday, June 22, 2010
10:00 – 12:00, Parliamentary Centre Learning Centre
Suite 806, 255 Albert Street

The Parliamentary Center held its 40th AGM on Thursday June 3rd 2010 from 10:00 to 11:45. 

As part of the presentation of the Parliamentary Center’s Annual Report, the Hon. Don Boudria made a presentation on his Assessment Mission Report on Governance in Haiti.

Parliamentary Centre Annual Report

Emerging Leaders in the Americas
Study Tour February 1-5, 2010

Through the Emerging Leaders in the Americas Program (ELAP) sixteen graduate
students were invited to Ottawa the first week of February to learn about the culture of Canadian democracy. The program, funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada (DFAIT), and administered by the Canadian Bureau for International Education (CBIE) in cooperation with the Parliamentary Centre, hosted students from across the Americas who have for the past few months studied at Canadian universities across the country.  

The participating students represented eight countries; Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Jamaica, Mexico and Nicaragua. The students’ fields of study encompassed a wide range of disciplines which brought a rich combination of perspectives to the discussions.  The broad aim of the ELAP study tour was to expose the students to a relevant continuum of institutions and expertise that reflects Canadian democratic culture and values. As Canada seeks to strengthen long-term, mutually beneficial partnerships with the Americas, engaging with these future leaders represents a shared investment in the future. More...

Africa Parliamentary Strengthening Program (APSP) for Budget Oversight Baseline Study and Capacity Building Assessment of Partner Parliaments (November 2009 to February 2010)

The baseline study and capacity-building assessment of the seven partner parliaments of the APSP (Benin, Ghana, Kenya, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia) aim to provide key information to the APSP stakeholders on the current state of: parliaments’ responsiveness to citizens’ needs in the budget process; parliaments’ authority and involvement in the entire budget process; and parliaments’ capacity to fulfil their pro-poor budget oversight roles and responsibilities. More ...

APSP PSC Meeting Sept. 2009

The Project Steering Committee meeting was the first for the Africa Parliamentary Strengthening program (APSP) for Budget Oversight which commenced on the 1st of April 2009 following the signing of the Contribution Agreement between CIDA and the Parliamentary Centre (PC). More ...

State Reconstruction

Rebuilding Haiti will take more than just bricks and mortar. It will also mean restoring good governance.

By Amelita Armit President and CEO of the Parliamentary Centre.

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

Some 100 participants at Plenary Meeting in Ottawa

Ottawa, September 15, 2009. Some 100 participants from 22 countries of the Americas participated in the Sixth Plenary Meeting of FIPA which ended today with the approval of several recommendations and the re-election of Brazilian Congressman Luiz Carlos Hauly as president of FIPA for another two years. OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza acted as keynote speaker during the opening ceremony. For the first time, delegations from China and Russia participated as observers. More ...

Call for Experts
Legislative Strengthening

The Parliamentary Centre, a Canadian not-for-profit, non-partisan organization devoted to improving the effectiveness of representative assemblies around the world, is working to update its expert roster. If you have expertise and experience in any of the following fields we would like to hear from you:
Areas of Expertise:

• Parliaments’ participation in the budget process: preparation, approval, budgetary oversight;
• Internal administrative,  financial and information technology management in parliament;
• Human resource management in parliament;
• Parliamentary research services;
• Involving civil society and the broader public in parliaments’ work;
• Officers of parliament (state audit institutions, ombudsmen);
• Parliaments’ interaction with the media;
• Legislative process and legislative drafting;
  
• Gender and parliaments (gender budgeting, women parliamentarians). 

More ...

Governor General of Canada Extends Vice-Regal Patronage to the Parliamentary Centre

Her Excellency the Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean, C.C., C.M.M., C.O.M., C.D., Governor General of Canada, has extended vice-regal patronage to the Parliamentary Centre for the duration of her mandate. The Governor General actively endorses the objectives of select organizations by formally granting them patronage, thereby providing them with the name and prestige of the vice-regal office.