| Meeting Report
1. Hugh Bayley MP introduced the
final meeting in this series, which focused on African voices and
how parliamentary strengthening is shaped by wider political forces.
2. Rasheed Draman said he would address four topics:
i) the work of the Canadian Parliamentary Centre;
ii) recent work the Centre has been doing in Africa on poverty reduction;
iii) factors that shape parliamentary effectiveness (legal constitutional
issues, political parties, MP-citizen relations);
iv) and some lessons.
3. He gave an overview of the work of the Canadian Parliamentary
Centre. It was originally established in Ottawa to support the Canadian
House of Commons. Over the years, it took the experiences of Canadian
legislatures (federal and provincial) and applied them to parliaments
around the world. The Centre studies parliaments in Africa, Asia,
Eastern Europe and Latin America. The Africa programme works with
around 20 parliaments, around five of which are bilateral programmes.
In some, assistance is given to oversight committees. Each regional
programme at the Centre is led from the field and by people of regional
descent.
4. He set up a poverty reduction programme at the Centre that has
now been running for five years. The programme runs in conjunction
with work on anti-corruption, the role of gender in political discourse
and the role of parliaments in HIV/AIDS. Particular attention has
been paid to the role of MPs in financial oversight and how this
impacts on the implementation of Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers
(PRSPs) and thus on poverty reduction.
5. In 2004, the Parliamentary Centre conducted a study about parliamentary
involvement in PRSPs in Ghana, Tanzania, Malawi and Niger. The study
found that the notions of participation and country ownership inherent
to the PRSP process did not exist in these countries. Another conclusion
was that parliaments did not have the space to operate in poverty
reduction strategy processes because of legal and constitutional
constraints. The role of women in PRSP oversight was also very limited
in these countries. Two years later, in 2006, he revisited these
countries and Kenya and Zambia. He said that not very much had changed,
except sometimes parliaments had begun to assert themselves in the
PRSP process, especially in Tanzania and Ghana.
6. The Centre also works in Francophone Africa, which has very
different constitutional systems to Anglophone African systems.
There is very little oversight of the budget process in parliaments.
7. He stressed the importance of a good working environment for
MPs. Many MPs in Africa have very rudimentary research support and
IT Systems, or even rooms for committee discussions. Many African
parliaments suffer from a severe lack of financial and human resources.
Often committees must conduct their business with only one clerk
or researcher.
8. He said that the legal or institutional framework often restricts
MPs' abilities to oversee poverty reduction, such as outdated constitutional
arrangements.
9. He highlighted the restrictions placed on MPs by their political
parties. Donors and NGOs avoid dealing with political parties, for
fear of entanglement and partisanship. However, parliamentary strengthening
must include working with parties. Independent-minded MPs are often
disciplined by their party bosses or removed from committees. The
freedom of MPs is particularly curtailed in Francophone Africa because
of the party-list system, where dynamic individuals are often demoted
or removed from the party list.
10. Benjamin Kunbuor MP explained that development
activism led him into politics. He is pleased that the connection
is being made between development and parliamentary strengthening.
He gave a history and overview of the Ghanaian system, which has
its roots in Africa's first all-African parliament, instituted in
1951. Ghana has suffered from a legal pathology - the coup d'etat.
Ghana's parliament has developed little as it was normally the first
body suspended by military juntas. However, there is now considerable
political freedom; Ghanaians are free to join political parties,
which must be national and not drawn along ethnic lines.
11. Dr Kunbuor stressed the centrality of the political party in
the development of parliamentary democracy. He noted the difficulty
of instituting financial oversight when parliamentary democracy
and parliamentary independence were not fully appreciated by political
parties. A recent potential set-back in Ghana’s development
is the Representation of the People (Amendment) Act (ROPAA), which
made expatriate Ghanaians eligible to vote. He wonders how such
an expensive and impractical measure is defensible when Ghana is
still so poor and under-developed. He suggests that this is a matter
of shopping for votes.
12. He explained the composition of political parties and institutional
arrangements in the Ghanaian system. This is explained in detail
in the PowerPoint presentation.
13. He highlighted the problematic relationship an MP has with
his constituents. The District Assemblies’ Common Fund apportions
at least 5% of total revenue to the districts, as a constitutional
basis for fiscal decentralisation. Money is apportioned to MPs for
development activities, which profoundly affected the relationship
between MP and constituent. MPs are not properly assessed for their
abilities or performance, rather by what they do with Common Fund
money. Therefore, MPs spend most of their time lobbying ministers
for spending, establishing disturbing patronage networks. He said
that an MP is seen primarily as a development officer, a role that
belongs to the executive. Because voters do not understand this,
MPs tends to avoid their constituents until electioneering. This
has seriously weakened parliamentary oversight in Ghana.
14. Ghana's economy is donor-driven, yet there is little parliamentary
oversight of bilateral and multi-lateral financial instruments.
This has made external interventions ineffective. There have been
serious reversals since the wave of democratisation in West Africa
in the 1990s. He suggested that African parliaments should be able
to learn from the mistakes of long-established parliaments.
15. Hugh Bayley raised the issue of donor agencies
presenting themselves to recipient parliaments, perhaps in a select
committee environment, in order to encourage financial oversight.
He said that both DFID and the World Bank are reviewing this possibility.
16. William Shija said that he could relate to
the problems highlighted by the previous speakers, having served
as an MP and minister in Tanzania, as chair of the foreign affairs
committee and as a presidential candidate. He explains that he was
voted by his constituents for his honesty and that he received most
of his support from women.
17. He suggested that three factors were vital for an effective
parliament:
i. relative peace;
ii. relatively low levels of corruption;
iii. and progress in education.
18. In terms of poverty reduction, he stressed the importance of
land redistribution. Much progress has been made in access to land
for the poor in Tanzania. The other priority of MPs is to pass the
budget and oversee foreign assistance.
19. He concurred with the difficulties raised by the speakers concerning
MPs’ relationships with their constituents. He suggested a
need to improvise, such as setting up a constituency office to provide
constituents with access to their representative. Many new MPs do
not know what to do with the petitions of individual constituents
or whether to give assistance from their personal funds.
20. Inter-party consultation, through committees, is vital to bridge
the gaps between religious and other groups. He added that it was
time for Africa to achieve self-reliance.
Discussion
21. Questions raised in the discussion included:
• Is it possible for African institutions, such as NEPAD,
to encourage parliamentary scrutiny and best practice?
• Are Western concepts not particularly helpful when approaching
the demands or expectations of constituents in societies with strong
traditions of patronage?
22. Benjamin Kunbuor responded by citing that
many African leaders visit Western capitals to secure financial
assistance so as to consolidate their own position at home. Western
leaders need to disengage these diplomatic relationships where adequate
standards are not being met. He said that no elections are better
than bad ones, which diminished the sanctity of the ballot box.
He also emphasised the part of globalisation of democracy; he noted
that all African constitutions since 1987 are carbon copies of a
Western model. Innovative, African constitutional approaches tend
to be rejected by African Constituent Assemblies.
23. Rasheed Draman said that, in the long term,
Africans must solve their own problems. He said that development
was dependent on institutions that will work and that outsiders
cannot provide this. There are crucial roles for the media, civil
society and parliaments. Although huge challenges remain, over the
last 10 years the media has helped to allow individuals to question
government policy. He also noted the importance of mobile phones
in disseminating information. He conceded that, in the short run,
there was a role for outsiders in strengthening parliaments.
24. Further questions were raised:
• What should donors be doing to strengthen parliaments, especially
in terms of the relationship between MPs and their parties and constituencies?
• What role can effective media coverage play in better scrutiny
and oversight?
• What is the role of women in parliamentary strengthening
and how do women MPs respond to their constituencies?
• How can parties regain the trust of the people and become
real representatives?
25. Rasheed Draman responded by stating that,
although donors are engaged in parliamentary strengthening, their
engagement has been patchy and not substantial. They can be very
little impact from a one or two-year project.
26. Benjamin Kunbuor said that most donor money
was going to the executive because donors see parliaments as being
too partisan. He reiterated the importance of a good working environment
for MPs, who in Africa often do not have e-mail and are paid much
less than members of the executive branch. There needs to be greater
balance in capabilities between the executive and legislative branches.
He noted that the media landscape in Africa is becoming very interesting.
Although some newspapers are providing admirable scrutiny of public
policy, many media outlets are being co-opted as they cannot afford
to stay afloat without government advertising.
27. William Shija pointed out that some African
countries (e.g. Tanzania and South Africa) have adopted a formula
for agenda representation and the gender balance is improving.
28. Hugh Bayley said that the series ended on
a high point. He felt that meetings had emphasised the dangers of
pork-barrel politics and agreed that parliaments have an important
role in breaking patrimonial models and inappropriate relations
between leaders and donors. The Africa APPG will be publishing a
report on parliamentary capacity-building to improve British international
development assistance.
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