PARLIAMENTARY LEARNING FROM PEER NETWORKS: BEST PRACTICES FROM GLOBAL EXPERIENCE

Thomas Kahn served as Staff Director for the Budget Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives for over twenty years and before that served on the House Committee on Oversight. He is now a distinguished faculty fellow at American University, a public policy advocate, and a regular contributor to IRI programming.

Erin McMenamin is a Senior Program Manager at the International Republican Institute (IRI) and formerly a Senior Legislative Assistant at the U.S. House of Representatives for her hometown member of Congress.

Members of Parliament around the globe have demanding and challenging jobs. They often share many of the same challengeslong hours, lack of staff resources and other support, citizen frustration and disillusion, and executives encroaching on parliamentary powers. These challenges make legislative achievements especially impressive. And while Parliamentarians would greatly benefit if they had access to institutions which could offer professional development and other resources, these opportunities are few.

Parliamentary networks, like the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) and the House Democracy Partnership (HDP), have proven to be invaluable resources in building resilient democratic champions and facilitating knowledge-sharing across countries in a peer-to-peer paradigm. HDP, founded in 2005 by bipartisan Members of the U.S. Congress and co-implemented by the International Republican Institute (IRI) and the National Democratic Institute (NDI), supports the development of responsive, independent and effective Legislatures in over 24 nations. HDP creates a platform for partnership between legislators and their staff with their counterparts across the world.

Almost 20 years after its establishment, and with thousands of legislators engaged, the HDP model has proven effective at connecting Parliaments globally to learn from one another and advance legislative democracy through bolstering institutions, building political will for reform, and equipping legislators and their staff with the knowledge and skills needed to succeed. Over the past four decades, IRI has built a vast network of experts and a trove of best practices that are shared with partners through support to HDP and other legislative programming.

First, a cadre of professional staff is vital for the work of effective Parliaments. Staff can assist Committees, individual MPs and leadership in meeting their myriad responsibilities. MPs face packed schedules and many competing demands, including constituent meetings, Committee hearings, campaign events and constituency travel. Staff members offer expertise and experience in drafting legislation, organising hearings, and assisting citizens.

Many public policy issues often require the technical background of lawyers, accountants and other experts. Staff can also act as critical extensions of MPs and allow Members to conduct more work than the MP would ever be able to do on their own.

Parliament should prioritise the hiring and development of professional staff that can aid Members in carrying out their duties; utilising a mix of civil servants that are non-partisan as well as political staff, both of whom can work to advance the priorities of Members and the institution of the Legislature. For example, in the Legislature of Liberia, MPs have the resources to hire multiple staff who are able to support the MP’s activities in both the capital and constituency offices. Staff are tasked with specific duties and responsibilities that correspond to Member priorities and values, including legislative work, constituency communications and office management.

Additionally, the Parliament maintains independent offices, like the Legislative Information Service and Legislative Budget Office, to act as a resource to its members. Another example is the National Assembly of The Gambia, where the National Assembly employs professional staff who support the functions of legislative drafting, policy analysis and research, as well as communications and constituent support. These staff resources in The Gambia and Liberia provide MPs with needed support to fulfill their duties and responsibilities with greater reach than they could alone.

Second, Parliaments should use Committees and commissions to conduct some of its most important work. Parliaments are often too big and lack both the time and expertise that Committees offer. As a result, Parliamentary Committees often play the role of ‘miniLegislatures’. They hold hearings where they debate issues, study problems and conduct aggressive oversight. Most Committee activities should be open to the public. Public hearings offer Committees and the public an opportunity to hear from Cabinet Ministers explaining and defending their government’s programs. Hearings are also a chance for civil society representatives from private business, trade unions, environmental groups and academics to share their views. In Mongolia, public hearings have been used to bring light to public health and pollution issues, debate and advance anti-corruption efforts and confirm high-level public appointments.

Above: In the margins of the Post-Election Seminar for the Parliament of Kenya in January 2023, the Speaker of the National Assembly, Rt Hon. Moses Wetang’ula (centre) met with officials from the International Republican Institute (IRI) who were participating in the seminar along with the CPA. The IRI delegation was led by Thomas Kahn and included IRI Program Manager for the House Democracy Partnership, Erin McMenamin; IRI Resident Program Director for Kenya, Yomi Jacobs; and IRI Program Officer for the Center for Global Impact, Reed Dhein.

Image credit: Parliament of Kenya.

Another strength that effective Committees can offer is expertise and specialisation. After years of service, defence Committee members become specialists in military equipment and national security while health Committee members become experts in medical challenges. In addition, health Committees are often comprised of physicians and nurses, while judiciary Committees frequently include lawyers. Committees can spend several days debating, writing and amending budgets or complex legislation before the Bill goes before the full Parliament.

In the absence of a strong Committee system, caucuses and working groups can serve similar purposes to create an area where legislative work, consensus building and cross-party dialogue can take place. In Sri Lanka, the Women Parliamentarians’ Caucus of the Parliament invites all women Parliamentarians from across party, geographic, ethnic and religious lines to work together towards the empowerment of women and the elimination of violence against women and girls in the country. Every female MP of the current 2020 to 2025 session of Parliament, are members of the caucus. The caucus priorities include policy advocacy to advance women’s rights and legal reforms, gender responsive budgeting, representation of women MPs across parliamentary bodies and combatting gender-based violence.

Third, the capacity and willingness to conduct oversight and relatedly exercising the power of the purse. Strong Parliaments engage in active and diligent oversight. Oversight is essential to ensure that the laws are being enforced in line with legislative intent, that government is addressing critical societal needs and that the private sector is acting appropriately. Effective oversight is designed to root out corruption, cut government waste and make sure tax dollars are being spent most wisely. When Parliament suspects Ministers are not enforcing the law or doing their jobs properly, public hearings can be an effective tool to hold the government accountable. Oversight hearings give Parliamentarians the opportunity to ask civil servants to justify their actions and defend their policies and can often identify problems before they turn into crises.

In Serbia, the National Assembly instituted its Law on Parliament and new Rules of Procedure with transparency and accountability provisions, including provisions for public hearings to review legislation and monitor implementation, which led to significant budget oversight via online and ‘real-time’ tracking of Ministry of Finance expenditures as well as funds available to MPs.

Fifth, the power to budget - deciding how to spend money and whom to tax - is one of Parliament’s greatest authorities and responsibilities. A budget showcases the priorities of a government – and the citizens who elected them – in how their resources should be used. Parliament is the voice of the people and so legislators must play a central role in writing the budget and setting budget priorities. Parliaments which abdicate their budgeting power to the Executive become empty talking chambers which deny power from the people who elected them.

Sixth, strong integrity mechanisms within Parliaments are essential to build and maintain public trust. Whether actual or perceived, the specter of government corruption breeds mistrust and cynicism and corrodes confidence in the democratic process. Codes of conduct, ethics rules and Parliamentary Advisory Committees establish clear rules of the road and inculcate a sense of propriety and professionalism in Parliamentarians so that they can do their jobs. In the U.S. House of Representatives, the Committee on Ethics advises and educates on ethical conduct and rules, conducts investigations into wrongdoing, issues penalties and reviews financial disclosures for Members and senior staff to safeguard and promote integrity of the institution and its Members. Parliaments should endeavor to establish and support ethics codes and commissions, educate their Members on proper conduct, investigate and punish wrongdoing, and maintain transparency and reporting disclosures for Members and their families and senior staff. Preventative measures can help mitigate institutional failures and insulate bodies from scandal and the costs of faltering public trust.

The work of Parliamentarians is demanding, and while every democratic nation is different, the challenges Parliaments face often have parallels. Parliamentarians have much to learn from one another, and continued support for programs that facilitate knowledge-sharing are a critical tool in setting democracies up for success.

To find out more about the work of the International Republican Institute (IRI) please visit www.iri.org