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Pierre Dandjinou[1]
“The Web can transform an ailing system of representative democracy into a more robust form of participatoty democracy. The virtualization power of IT can provide transparency and a certain accountability in the government’s decision-making.”
Digvijay Singh, Minister, Government of Madhya Pradesh, India
This concept paper is based on the belief that the new information and communication technology (ICT) creates unprecedented opportunities for the development of participatory democracy, an improved communication between the parliament, the government, the civil society on the one hand, and the organisation of communication and decision making through a parliamentary network on the other hand. The paper takes stock of on going initiatives that are fostering e -participation and seeks to highlight a few opportunities that could yield to the creation of a virtual Africa network of parliamentarians that will most specifically deal with issues that are at the heart of the continent’s socio economic development, including the newly enshrined New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD).
A brief project proposal on the use by the africa parliamentarian network of ICTs for providing a follow up and monitoring of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) is appended.
Introduction
With the advent of ICTs , we are now witnessing a changing
environment where all human activities are being impacted by what has become
the information and knowledge revolution. The concept of e parliament should
be closely associated to the ones of e society and e government. Most importantly,
it should be viewed within the framework of a greater perspective that is being
termed e-democracy. E-democracy represents the use of information and communication
technologies and strategies by democratic actors (governments, elected officials,
the media, political organizations, citizen/voters) within political and governance
processes of local communities, nations and on the international stage. To many,
e-democracy suggests greater and more active citizen participation enabled by
the Internet, mobile communications, and other technologies in today’ s representative
democracy as well as through more participatory or direct forms of citizen involvement
in addressing public challenges. Thus, eDemocracy can be defined as the use
of Internet and information and communications technology (ICT) to support
the democratic process.
Much has been written about eGovernment, which tends to focus on the executive branch of government, and is concerned with the electronic delivery of government services. On a recently launched forum on e-governance issues in Africa, participants noted that most e-government initiatives are at early stages, although African countries vary considerably in conceptualizing, developing and implementing e-governance programs. Countries such as Egypt, Morocco, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia are leading the process. Most of these countries have also instituted good governance programs and it is more and more obvious that the level of e-governance might reflect the status of transparency, accountability and democracy in a given country. As to implementation of e-parliaments on the continent, what has been achieved so far is the automation of certain functions and at best the development of websites. Hardly has any interaction with the electorate been initiated.
1-ICTs and new media in the parliament : the rationale
New media and Ict in particular are now appearing as supportive instruments for strengthening democracy and participation., as well as the old media. The communication battery at the disposal of parliaments and government thus includes speeches, rituals, letters, books, journals, newspapers, telephone, television, but also the Internet, the data bases, e-mails, e-forums etc. There is a belief that the concepts of legal state, civil society and communication are inter linked and media theoreticians would claim that the electronic media environment as a forum of society is becoming an increasing more powerful factor shaping political behaviour.
According to Aare Kasemets[2], the other reasons why ICTs and the new media environment matter for parliaments and governments alike are the following : the declining confidence in political institutions, including legislature and laws calls for the establishment of a ‘parliament and government’s public relation strategy; then, this new dynamically changing environment will require new strategies for political planning and action. It is quite obvious that the press and electronic media make a contribution to making political decision making process more transparent as well as simplifying the political and legislative information to the ordinary citizen.
Challenges to the parliaments are manifold in their roles of representation of a nation, oversight of government (including budgetary and non budgetary), and leading the legislative procedure. For instance, questions to be answered could be : who are the people interested in the activities of the parliament? How can different population groups channel their will in periods between elections? MPs and public service officials need to have an idea about the comprehension of and the need for information of members of society. Adding to these concerns, the availability of the information gathered might not be guaranteed due to mis management of the communication and information system, information overload, luck of time and unclear parliamentary agenda.
How could Icts help face these challenges and in the specific case of the necessary reform of African parliaments which hopefully wish to play a major role in the overall development of the distinct nations and the African continent in general? The following table summarizes a few opportunities Icts offer to the fulfillment of the functions of parliaments that are modern, effective and fully in phase with the local and regional development programmes.
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key parliamentarian functions |
Opportunities for parliamentary procedures |
Opportunities for MPs as individuals and Groups |
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Representation (parlia-ment’s image, activities as projected to the public at large) |
Backoffice, website, electronic bulletins... |
Personal web site, emails |
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Oversight of Gov. And other authorities |
Statistics and social databases..links to gov. Data bases, intranets |
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Legislation and assessment of its overall impacts |
Legal and Judiciary data bases, online public surveys.. |
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Public consultations |
Backoffice; statistical data management |
Online polling , e-mails |
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Contribution to national & regional developmental agendas (DRSPs, NEPAD) |
In house data bases, GIS |
e-forums, e-publications |
Information and communication technologies (ICTs), through automation of technical routines, like registration and documentation procedures, may help guarantee accountability and transparency and save time for intellectual work. They could better public image of parliaments and provide means for contributing to national and regional agendas. This certainly explains why many initiatives are currently being conducted on both local and global levels, in a view to harness information and communication technologies toward a better governance and participation.
2. e-Parliament initiatives across the globe
2.1 Global e-Parliament
A new initiative is underway to further global democracy through the creation of an “e-Parliament.[3]” Through this , it is expected that the world’s elected legislators can engage in a joint search for effective solutions to global problems such as climate change, AIDS, children’s rights and poverty. From the conceptual presentation of the initiative, it is noted there are three critical gaps in the way we deal with global problems today:
· A democracy gap. Ordinary citizens have little voice in global decisions that increasingly affect their lives.
· A decision gap. The current global decision-making system, in which more than 100 national governments must all agree before action is taken, is proving too slow and cumbersome to cope with mounting global problems.
· A resources gap. The funds available to protect the global environment, to meet the needs of the poorest citizens and to prevent conflict fall far short of what is needed.
The e-Parliament initiative is therefore meant to assist the world’s 25,000 democratic legislators (who represent 60% of humanity) to:·Establish a joint process for generating creative and effective solutions to global problems that face all national parliaments.
· Bring more democratic accountability to global decision-making.
·Focus on generating new funds to meet global needs.
An e-Parliament Council will be elected through an online poll, with at least one representative from each democratically-elected national or supranational parliament and with larger countries having additional representation. The Council will oversee the work of the e-Parliament. Any group of legislators may create an e-Parliament InterGroup on an issue of common concern. These will be international, internet-based and inter-party working groups. The InterGroups can enable legislators to:
·Connect with colleagues around the world who share the same interest.
·Inform each other by sharing information on the issue from each country.
·Question key international decision-makers online.
·Develop solutions to global problems through joint drafting and consultation.
·Poll the world’s parliamentarians on proposals, to test world-wide political opinion.
·Act together to encourage implementation of global solutions by national parliaments and governments.
Some of these InterGroups may be initiated, supported or advised by civil society groups or research institutes. Citizens from any country, including those which do not yet hold democratic elections, will have the opportunity to express their views on all policy recommendations as they are developed.
• A World Future Council will be created to advise the e-Parliament on integrating the interests of future generations in current political decision-making. The members of the World Future Council will include respected moral figures, distinguished former members of parliament, and civil society and youth leaders.
Every member of a national or supranational legislature from countries that hold open and democratic elections will be entitled to participate in the e-Parliament. Participating legislators will each decide the level of their own involvement. The e-Parliament is being launched by a group of interested legislators from all parts of the world and across the political spectrum. During 2001 and 2002 the following first steps have been taken:
• Held international meetings of legislators and representatives of citizen groups in Venice, Italy and Tenerife, Spain to develop the proposal.
• Consulted individually with legislators in all parts of the world. These consultations have found strong support for the e-Parliament initiative in every parliament.
• Convened an international study group, coordinated by the Global Negotiation Project at Harvard University, to help design the e-Parliament.
• Created a new entity, the e-Parliament Initiative, with a board containing parliamentarians from around the world, which can guide the launch process until a Council can be elected by the world’s members of parliament and congress.
• Taken the first steps to create e-Parliament InterGroups on Children’s Rights, on Climate and Energy and on accelerating the development of an AIDS vaccine. Already hundreds of legislators have signed up to participate in these early InterGroups.
• Begun consultations with IT companies in India, Europe and the United States about their possible involvement in building and managing the e-Parliament website.
• Begun discussions with UN agencies and the European Commission about possible areas of cooperation.
At one stroke, it can take a large step towards giving the world’s citizens a greater say in world affairs, through their directly-elected representatives. The Silicon Valley of India, Bangalore is all set to construct this virtual Parliament or “e-Parliament”. This Website, likely to be named e-parl.net, will facilitate interaction of citizens and Parliamentarians across the world to find a solution to the global problems.
A conglomerate of industry players and Parliamentarians will be established to explore the funding possibilities for this project. The initiators hope that the e-Parliament itself might become a means for disbursing funds through UN agencies. According to Nicholas Dunlop, Bangalore will be the hub of the e-Parliament activity because of the city’s abundant software and technical talent. The e-Parliament is initially expected to include 25,000 democratically elected Parliamentarians from about 130 countries.
2.2 Parliament for youth in the Baltic Sea region
Recently the gateway to a new parliament was opened. The parliament is open
for young people from all over the Baltic Sea region and is unique in that it
exists only on the Web.
In the eParliament - www.eParliament.net< - as the parliament is called-,
young people from Byelorussia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania,
Poland, Russia and Sweden can write proposals, take part in discussions and
vote. It is hope that the eParliament will contribute to a more intensive cooperation
between young people in the Baltic Sea region and increase their participation
in the public debate. According to the project co-ordinator John Hultén, the
discussions are exciting as the parliament members come from different countries
and have different cultural backgrounds.
eParliament.net has been available on the Web for just over a month, but as
many as ca. 500 young people from different countries in the Baltic Sea region
have already chosen to become members. A considerable number of motions dealing
with everything from legalization of prostitution to cancellation of the European
Song Contest have been sent in. The discussions have been very animated.
The following are facts about eparliament in the Baltic region :
2.2 Other initiatives
The world Forum on electronic democracy is another initiative worth mentionning which regularly convenes in different cities to discuss progress on issues such as e-voting and e-public initiatives around the world. Participating members all share the conviction that ICTs will ultimately modify relationships between politicians and their constituents. At one of such meetings in Issy les Moulineaux, France, the ‘’Global Cities Dialogue”[4] was introduced as well as the e –Europe programme which all put a stress on the fact that the technological developments should accompain the one of concret improvements of relationships at all levels of decision making on both country and regional level.
CYBERVOTE, one of the projects to which the city of Issy-les-Moulineaux participates tends to demonstrate feasibility of online voting. In fact, e voting is getting more and more popular as was demonstrate in a polling in the UK where 35% of respondants to a questionnaires indicated that they would prefer to vote by telephone, while the same percentage would like to vote online.
‘EVE’ (Evaluation et Validation des pratiques et des technologies dans le domaine de la E-démocratie), is another initiative of the European Union which aims to federate most on the national initiatives around e-democracy.
As far as local and participative democracy is concerned, the Panel Citoyen[5] established by the city of Issy – les-Moulineaux is another proof of the feasibility of an electronic agora.
In the US, Congress Online Project funded by a grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts and conducted by George Washington University and the Congressional Management Foundation has been assessing Congress in a view to better its relationships with the ordinary citizen. The programme has already committed two major reports including one on ‘’E-mail Overload in Congress: Managing a Communications Crisis’’ and the other one on ‘’Assessing and Improving Capitol Hill Web Sites’’.
3. Use of ICTs across parliamentsIcts in Parliaments are being used for modernizing overall management of the House on the one hand, and for communicating with the world at large on the other hand. While other have been using software packages for handling hosts of emails which overfload their Parliament, others have only computerized their budgetary functions.
Thus, in the UK, FaxYourMP.com enables people to send a Fax to their local Member of Parliament detailing their grievances through the use of Internet. Ukonline.gov.uk on its part enables individuals to contribute to gobernment policy making through official consultations, and discuss views with other citizens. Citizens can also find information about their elected representatives and get information on elections, or how to vote and how to make complaints about public services.
Bangladeshi Parliament[6] has a web site which covers many pages on topics such as general information, legislature information center, parliamentariy reforms, business of the House, and the Institute of Parliamentary Studies. The web site proposes two languages, i.e. english and Bangladeshi.
The UK Government recently released a major paper on e-democracy titled, "In the service of democracy" (http://www.edemocracy.gov.uk ), with an online consultation which is likely to spawn similar policy development and e-democracy projects in other nations.
The IPU[7] is the international organization of Parliaments of sovereign States (Article 1 of the Statutes of the Inter-Parliamenary Union). It was established in 1889. The Union is the focal point for world-wide parliamentary dialogue and works for peace and co-operation among peoples and for the firm establishment of representative democracy. IPU constitutes an online information resource on parliaments, with general information on each participating Parliament’s chambers, a descrption of electoral system, results of most recent elections and update information on the mandates and status of members of Parliaments. IPU offers a set of databases including PARLINE, a derivative of Parliaments on-line, and PARLIT, a derivative of Parliament and Literature.
In Africa, efforts are now in place to use Icts to facilitate
work within parliaments as well as fostering efficient service provision to
the public. Thus, in 2001, Botswana’s National Assembly took a first step in
using information technology to promote good governance. With the assistance
of UNDP, the legislature’s Office of the Clerk has set up a computer information
system to integrate document management to enhance public access to information
from the National Assembly and the House of Chiefs. The project includes two
elements : an intranet facility for the Office of the Clerk and a human resource
management system for Members of Parliament and the House of Chiefs. As the
Clerk of the National Assembly puts it “the project fulfills one of the Office’s
key priorities : -making information available- and provides a good fundation
for the Office to transform itself into a more efficient service provider”.
4 Feasibility of E-parliaments in the African Environment
4.1 The overall ICT environment [8], listed 11 key areas
of opportunity to be pursued by African governments , private sector and civil
society if the continent has to ever bridge the digital divide. These were : ·That rural access continues to be a challenge
despite the fast growth of telecommunications in Africa ·Access to low cost devices/user terminals on
the existing telecom platforms for the rural areas ·Transition of technologies and resistance to
change by incumbent operators ·Reducing the cost of expansion of infrastructure ·Nurturing local entrepreneurhip ·Economies of scale to enhance bargaining power ·Invest on e-commerce in Africa ·Provide access to skills and education ·Provide access to government services ·Advance democratization in Africa ·Promote African participation in the international
policy making meetings 4.2 Current Usage of ICT in African parliaments As per the International Union of Parliaments (IPU), close to 31 African parliaments
have a web site. Less than 20 of them operate the site from their own premises
and hardly 10 have developed an interactive mechanism which allows citizens
to interface with the parliaments. Observation of the African parliament shows
that currently, information and communication technology (ICT) is used for
the following : ·Secretarial work : generally 2 to 4 PCs, not
linked, to deal with day to day secretarial work of the parliament. Practically
no Commission has a distinct equipment and parliamentarian groups or sub groups
are not yet using icts for their work. Internet connectivity is seldom and plans
to network the whole parliamentary functions does exist in places, but still
awaiting funding. ·Budget : Computer and spreadsheet are most used
for monitoring the budget of the parliament, but are not related to the budgetary
control which is a key function of parliaments. ·In house databases are being developed, which are yet disconnected
from the overall management resources. Mostly, documentation and library files
form the bulk of the resources. Archiving is still mostly down the traditional
way. Practically no statistical data are stored and made accessible to Parliamentarians
and the Media. Keeping track of the text of bills and amendments has been a serious logistical
problem in most Parliaments. In few places in the past, disputes have arisen
over exactly which version of a bill was passed. A simple Intranet could make
the current text of all proposed and passed legislation available to all of
the representatives. And the same system, made available on the Internet, could
be used to keep the people informed - down to the letter - on what their Assembly
is up to. The extend to which email is used and form part of the PR
function of the MPs and the Parliaments itself rests to be assessed. In very
rare cases do we have the parliamentarian information system integrated in a
national intranet We have good examples of a few african parliament website pages which really
seek to provide more information on the Parliamentarian work on the one hand,
and to promote intractivity with the citizens on the other hands. The Parliament
of Namibia for instance has clearly formulated and self explanating messages
such as “ Here is your chance to participate in the processes of Parliament,
discussions and debates as well as an opportunity to stay up to date with the
happenings of the Namibian Parliament and your elected representatives.
“ or “ Involve yourself in the process and make Parliament truly representative
of the Namibian people.” It is against this background of non intensive Internet access and use, and
of profound needs for a reinforcement or implementation of local intranet that
one should consider the concept and implementation of an African e-parliament.
It is also within an environment of accrued efforts from regions and subregions-
the SADC Parliaments forum has an ambitious activity plans for 2001-2005-; and
a renewed importance of the Parliamentary involvement in the development of
the African continent that one needs to apply ICTs as one of the enabler of
the necessary integration of efforts of governments, the Parliaments civil society,
and donor agencies. 5. Pointers to an African e-Parliament While considering the overall need for Parliamentarians to
better communicate among themselves, and taking into consideration the necessity
for them to follow up and contribute to monitoring the Nepad process, it become
clear that if well applied, ICTs could be a tremendous tool to be made available
across parliaments. Hence the possibility of initiating a process of creation
of an African e-parliament which basically would do the following : ·Ensure online communication between parliamentarian
in Africa and the ACP on the one hand , and their Europian counterparts on the
other hand; ·Facilitate interaction with citizens of distinct
african regions who could place concerns and concerns about the rolling up of
Nepad; ·Access up to date data and information on African
development; ·Produce assessments reports and any deemed documentation
for the continuous information of the citizens; ·Reach consensus on burning issues and proposals
to help refine the Nepad and/or keep it on track. Hence two pointers or prerequisites for the design of such an e-parliament
: 1-Transforming african parliaments into knowledge factories
for accrued participation and democracy. This will
request institutional reforms and agenda development. 2-Contributing to better knowledge of the working of representative
institutions and to the strengthening and development of their means of action.
This will request institutional and capacity building Among the tools to be used,
e-mail has the potential
for a profound and positive impact on the democratic system. If effectively
utilized, the public - including interest groups - could engage in a more open
and informative dialogue with their elected officials, improving communication,
and potentially reducing the cynicism and common misperceptions that currently
weaken public confidence in government. Web sites anf electronic forums constitute
another sets of tools at the disposal of such electronic parliament, the overall
objectives of which should be to provide a backstopping to a parliamentarian
network. An e-parliament model in Africa should encourage distinct parliament
to move away from static web presence and internal automation (creation of databases,
statistical and financial systems) towards interactive information systems that
increase citizens participation. Strategies should be put in place to increase civil
society, private sector and government interaction in planning and implementing
projects. Some of the challenges to be faced range from network security and
confidence issue to finding the good balance between personal freedom and security,
and tackling the issues of lack of infrastructure and inadequate human resources.
An African e-parliament will therefore focus on five key strategic
actions : ·Increase awareness and knowledge of NEPAD’s objectives, Protocols and
procedures (Institutional capacity building) This implies facilitate
sharing of information and building of a knowledge base of the parliamentarians
and staff ·Facilitate implementation of NEPAD through advocacy
and awareness building among citizens of the region : this implies adoption of communication strategies
for mobilizing specific groupings of the civil society such as women, youth
, the non for profit sector as well as the private sector ·Encourage and support inter-parliamentary cooperation in pursuit of regional
integration; the e-parliament will be a support for a parliamentarian
network. At a parallel event for Legislators at the World Summit on Sustainable Development
in Johannesburg, Mark Malloch Brown of UNDP had this to say : "The key
to whether the world can meet the Millennium Development Goals is every bit
as much about politics as economics. It is about whether we can generate and
sustain the political will among governments of the South to focus clearly on
their own development challenges and on generating the political will in the
North to support those good faith efforts with real support from trade to aid
to technology. In all these efforts, parliamentarians have a critical role to
play -- it is democratically elected parliamentarians who are on the political
frontline, it is they who are directly accountable to their constituents on
these issues, and it is ultimately they who can best drive their goverments
to concrete action -- and monitor those action to ensure they achieve real results."
And Kofi Anan’s declaration at the opening of the UN conference on NEPAD sounds
like an echo when he insisted that “NEPAD is first of all a partnership between
African leaders and their people”. Equipping parliamentarians so that they are in a position to better understand
the new vision being promoted by NEPAD on the one hand, while altogether accomplishing
their functions as representatives of the citizens, and legitimating implementation
of NEPAD on the other hand , become of paramount importance. ICTs will certainly
be an enabler of the necessary reforms and an e-parliament, if properly designed
and applied, would forster parliamentarian reforms, open up new avenues for
parliamentarian networking and at large participation of citizens from all African
regions. The outlined proposal for an African e-parliament – to be
later interconnected with the global e-parliament- will require further field
studies and consensus building, but will ultimately gain most if it were started
from sub regional nods. References http://europa.eu.int/yourvoice www.parliamentofbangladesh.org http://www.electronic-government.ch http://developmentgateway.org/node/130619 http://www.netpolitique.net
http://www.edemocracy.gov.uk http://www.congressonlineproject.org http://www.parliament.uk/commons/selcom/infohome.htm
Annexe 1 PROJET : E_PARLEMENT (Les NTIC au Service de l’Assemblée Parlementaire Paritaire ACP-UE Les Parlementaires africains face au NEPAD) Née d'un désir commun de rapprocher les représentants
élus de la Communauté européenne, députés au Parlement européen et les représentants
et élus des Etats d'Afrique, des Caraïbes et du Pacifique ("pays ACP")
signataires de la convention de Lomé, l'Assemblée Paritaire ACP-UE est devenue
une institution unique au monde. C'est la seule assemblée internationale dans laquelle
les représentants des différents pays siègent ensemble, régulièrement avec pour
objectif la promotion de l'interdépendance Nord-Sud. Son rôle s'est renforcé depuis l'entrée en vigueur
du Traité sur l'Union européenne et l'élargissement de celle-ci. L'Assemblée
Paritaire consacre une partie importante de ses travaux à la promotion des droits
de l'homme et de la démocratie et aux valeurs communes à l'humanité qui ont
fait l'objet d'engagements communs dans le cadre des conférences des Nations
Unies. Ces objectifs d’interdépendance et de promotion
peuvent être améliorés ou renforcés si un espace de dialogue virtuel convenablement
modéré se crée à l’aide des Nouvelles Technologies de l’Information et de la
Communication. Le présent projet vise à instaurer ce cadre et surtout permettre
une meilleure implication des parlementaires ACP-UE dans le nouveau partenariat
pour le développement de l’Afrique (NEPAD). Le présent projet vise à créer un cadre d’échanges,
de concertation et d’action pour l’intégration des parlementaires à divers niveaux
et des gouvernements et institutions qui à un titre quelconque pourraient être
amenés à intervenir dans ces échanges. a. Objectif
n° 1 Mettre en place les infrastructures adéquats de
dialogues et d’échanges Produit n° 1.1 : Un serveur internet et trois
stations de travail acquis et rendus opérationnels Il s’agira d’acquérir un matériel serveur pouvant
héberger les foras de discussion, jouer le rôle de serveur de mail DNS et web. Produit 1.2 : Mettre en place une option de
connectivité Internet zéro tolérance de panne. Il s’agira, à la suite d’une analyse comparative
des options technologiques, de sélectionner l’accès par fibre optique ou par
VSAT au réseau Internet selon le site qui sera identifié pour abriter les espaces
de dialogue et d’échanges. b. Objectif
n°2 Mettre en place une Banque de données d’informations
parlementaires ACP-UE. Produit 2.1 : Création de liens vers les textes
existants sur les sites déjà développés. Produit 2.2 : Développer un site web de l’Assemblée
Parlementaire Paritaire ACP-UE Ce site permettra de présenter les synthèses des
divers échanges, va jouer le rôle d’annuaire des Assemblées, et surtout faire
ressortir les diverses initiatives de l’Assemblée Paritaire ; il devra
offrir un interface web mail permettant au parlementaire d’avoir accès à la
messagerie quelque soit l’endroit où il se situe ; présenter selon le cas
l’historique des débats qui ont conduit à l’adoption de certaines lois jugées
comme des références. Ce site devra également autoriser l’enregistrement
d’interrogations de la part des parlementaires, des gouvernements et même des
administrés ; un espace de suggestions et de conseils de spécialistes pourra
ainsi être constitué pour appuyer les débats et les prises de décision. c.
Objectif n° 3 : Initier périodiquement des foras entre
membres Produit 3. 1 :
Création de plusieurs foras de discussion sur le NEPAD ; Foras ouverts
ou restreints. Des thèmes relatifs aux objectifs de NEPAD, sélectionnés
par des comités intellectuels, ou des points focaux devront être publiés sur
des listes de discussion crées au niveau du serveur. Un modérateur recruté devra faire des synthèse
à la suite des débats . Ces synthèse devront constituer des inputs au Comité
national de NEPAD. Ces thèmes devront porter sur : -La bonne gouvernance publique -La bonne gouvernance de l’économie privée -Les infrastructures, -L’éducation, -La santé -Les Nouvelles Technologies de l’Information et de la Communication, leur
appropriation et surtout par rapport aux grands projets de NEPAD, -L’Agriculture, -L’Environnement, -L’Energie, -L’Accès aux marchés des pays développés d.Objectif n° 4 : Mettre en place un cadre institutionnel adéquat Produit 4.1 : identification des points focaux
au niveau de chaque parlement L’accès de ces points focaux à l’espace de dialogue
se fera par l’intermédiaire de l’interface web ; il suffira d’avoir un
abonnement internet par modem commuté pour mettre à jour les données, pour participer
aux foras ou pour utiliser l’espace de messagerie Web-Mail. Produit 4.2 : Mise en place au niveau de chacune
des Assemblées, de Comités Intellectuels Parlementaires. Désigner 3 à 5 personnes au niveau des parlementaires,
qui d’une manière rotative, devront faire la synthèse des thèmes à proposer
pour les débats, la synthèse de l’historique des débats de référence, sur les
serveurs de discussion et à travers les points focaux. Produit 4.3 : Recruter deux administrateurs
(un pour hard et un pour soft) et un modérateur au niveau du site central ·Increase awareness and knowledge of NEPAD’s objectives, Protocols and
procedures (Institutional capacity building) ·Facilitate
implementation of NEPAD through advocacy and awareness building among citizens
of the region ·Encourage and support inter-parliamentary
cooperation in pursuit of regional integration; ·Develop capacity for training of parliamentarians
and their staff [1] Pierre Dandjinou : currently holds
the position of Policy Specialist, Information and Communication Technology
(ICT) for Development at the West Africa Sub regional Resources Facility (SURF)
of the UNDP in Dakar. I wish to express my gratitude to the colleagues at
Undp, namely Magdy Martinez–Soliman, governance policy advisor and Thierry
Amoussougbo for our enriching discussions on feasibility of an african e-parliament.
Kindly note that the views expressed in this paper are those of the
author and do not necessarily reflect those of the UNDP [2] Aare Kasemets is Head of Department
of Economics and Social Information, Riigikogu Chancellery, Estonia ;
he authored a paper on ‘Communication planning between parliament, government,
local government and different social groups : problems and solution’,
presented at the international conference Electronic Governance for Russia’s
Northwest : Western Experience and Russian Trends, feb. 5-6, St petersburg. [3] The promoters of the e-parliament initiatives
are : Nicholas Dunlop, Executive Director, e-Parliament
Initiative. Email: wye@earthaction.org.uk and Jesper Grolin, Associate Director, e-Parliament
Initiative. Email: grolin.ioa@cbs.dk [4] Global Cities Dialogue : réseau international
de maires engagés à promouvoir une Société de l’Information pour tous, regroupant
aujourd’hui 105 membres de tous les continents. Pour plus d’informations
: www.globalcitiesdialogue.org [5] A cyberpanel was established in 2001 with a sample of
700 inhabitants who were questioned every three month by the means of the
Internet. They could thus constitute a key mechanism for sound decision making
on city matters. [6] www.parliamentofbangladesh.org [7] www.ipu.org [8]The Africa Computing & telecommunications and East Asfrican Internet
Forum, Nairobi, 6-8th August 2002 I.
CONTEXTE
II.
OBJECTIFS GLOBAUX
III.
OBJECTIFS SPECIFIQUES
PLANNING D’EXECUTION
BUDGET