An innovation in parliamentary staff training.

• Author: Pozer, Vienna

In June 2012 the pilot session of a global first--an International Executive Parliamentary Staff Training Program--was hosted by McGill University's Institute for the Study of International Development. Organized as a collaborative venture between ISID, the World Bank Institute, the Canadian Parliamentary Centre, the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association and the State University of New York, with support from other organizations around the globe. The program brought together participants from 11 countries.

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Assistance to parliaments has historically included activities intended to improve the skills of Members of Parliament. And, more recently, to help improve the infrastructure, such as libraries and information technology, within parliaments. However, experience has shown that focusing on these areas alone yields limited results. The effectiveness of parliaments depends on more than structure and capacity of their premises, equipment and technical services and of the skill-sets of MPs, important as these are. Over the past decade, there has been increasing recognition of the importance of enhancing the institutional memory of parliament and thus combating the problem of skills loss at election times, when in some countries the turnover of MPs is 80% or higher. Building institutional memory in parliament requires a focus on training of parliamentary staff.

The Need for Parliamentary Staff Development

Starting in the early 2000s the development of training programs geared towards meeting the specific needs of parliamentary staffers has expanded dramatically. Leading the way in this new approach to parliamentary strengthening were several of the world leaders in international development; the World Bank Institute (WBI), the Canadian Parliamentary Centre, the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) and the State University of New York's Center for International Development (SUNY-CID), among others. However, early attempts in the development and delivery of training programs for parliamentary staff lacked coherence, and were usually delivered on an ad-hoc basis, not interwoven with broader staff development initiatives within parliaments. Furthermore, because these early programs relied mostly on traditional face-to-face training methods, there was an issue of equity of access. International organizations and bilateral donors tended to focus on a few favoured countries, such as Bangladesh, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, with francophone nations and smaller jurisdictions being excluded due to unavailability of resources.

Concerned about these and related issues, the World Bank Insitute undertook a 'capacity enhancement review' in order to help it to best manage the burgeoning demand for parliamentary staff training globally, in the face of only slowly increasing--and more recently declining--aid budgets. The review identified two challenges to providing support to parliaments globally; sustainability and scalability. The review...