Executive Summary
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4. Strategy
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Rationale
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Four strategic approaches have been identified to guide the implementation strategy of the Action Plan and ensure its success and sustainability:
- build human resource capacity in information and knowledge management at all levels of the parliamentary business;
- maximise sustainability and economies of scale through a Pan-African approach;
- leverage the experience and tools of "developed" Parliaments to greatly shorten the learning curve of African Parliaments.
a) Building Human Resources capacities
The lack of qualified human resources in general and, in the context of this Programme, the lack of capacity to manage information and knowledge in Parliaments, is arguably one of the most urgent needs that have to be addressed. The quality of human resources has far reaching implications on key areas of development like public policy analysis and formulation, auditing and accountability of the central government's activities, legal and regulatory framework of social and economic activities, democratic participation, and oversight of civil society and economic groups.
More specifically, the lack of capacity is particularly dramatic in information management and IT. This inefficiency prevents Parliaments from exploiting the potentialities of ICTs in providing them with better and more focused information services; making Parliaments more transparent and responsive; and facilitating strategic connections with government and other institutions by making Parliamentary documentation and other resources more directly accessible.
There is an urgent need in African Parliaments for quality information, knowledge and training services. Technologies are just tools, and are not a shortcut to the empowerment of Parliaments that has to be focused on strengthening human resources and building the capacity of staff in the African Parliaments.
b) Maximising Sustainability and Economies of Scale with a Pan-African Approach
As the "Strengthening Parliaments' Information Systems in Africa" Project has shown, despite the differences among Parliaments, the workflows, functionalities, skills and information services required are essentially the same among Parliaments. The Parliament/country level is not adequate to deal with many of the information and knowledge issues. Even in the so called "rich countries", despite the resources available, consortia are usually created in order to gain favourable access to existing value-added information services and to produce sustainable information services. Resources are pooled together to develop training materials/modules that can be shared and delivered using shared e-training/e-learning platforms to support pre and post training activities.
Building information and knowledge services at a level of quality that guarantees sustainability is only achievable in Africa by leveraging both providers and users at regional and continental level. Only at this level it will be possible to gather a critical mass that will be able to create a virtuous circle of supply and demand.
Besides the issues of quality and sustainability of services that demand a regional/continental perspective, the creation of the Pan African Parliament and the strengthening of the continental dimension in several other organisations have also created a genuine demand for services geared to continental issues to support the exchange of information and experience on a regional/continental basis.
The Pan African approach of this Programme is dictated by the emerging regional/continental dimension of Africa's development and by the critical mass required to provide, on a sustainable basis, the quality of information and ICTs services
c) Leveraging the Experience and Tools of "Developed" Parliaments
Another strategic feature of this Programme will be leveraging the tacit knowledge, experienced staff and tools of "developed" Parliaments and benefiting from parliament-to-parliament internship and training programmes. The possibility of making available to African Parliaments the experience of other Parliaments with consolidated democratic experience, independence and resources will greatly enrich the learning experience of African Parliaments.
The partnerships with "developed" Parliaments will also be strategically important from the political point of view because developing direct dialogues between Parliaments will, in fact, greatly enhance the political stamina of African Parliaments in seeking independence from the Executive and playing a proactive role in the political arena.
The sustainability of the Programme will also be greatly enhanced by the involvement of "developed" Parliaments because of the more institutional long-term kind of relationships that parliament-to-parliament cooperation brings in.