Improvements in technology over the last decade offer parliaments new opportunities to foster the democratic values of transparency, openness and accountability. Making information available on a timely basis in machine readable and re-usable format has become a vital means for enhancing the transparency of legislative bodies and for improving public access to parliamentary documents. The use of open document standards is one of the essential and effective ways of achieving these goals through technology.
To address these challenges in an international context, the United Nations, the Inter-Parliamentary Union and the U.S. House of Representatives are organizing the event Achieving Greater Transparency in Legislatures through the Use of Open Document Standards. The International Meeting will be held at the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington, D.C. on 27, 28 and 29 February 2012.

Following the Global Centre for ICT in Parliament's first technical assistance mission to the Parliament of Swaziland in June 2011, where an assessment of the Parliament's ICT capabilities was taken, a second technical assistance mission took place from 23 to 27 January 2012. The follow-up mission, which falls within the framework of the European Commission funded project “Support to ICT Strategic Planning in SADC Parliaments”, used the findings made in the assessment and aim to assist the legislature in developing an ICT strategic plan.

Following the first technical assistance missions carried out by the Global Centre for ICT in Parliament in September and November 2011, respectively to the National Assembly of Belize and the Parliament of Barbados in the framework of the European Commission funded project “Support to ICT Strategic Planning in Caribbean Parliaments”, the second missions took place between 19 January and 1 February with the aim of assisting each legislature with the formulation of a shared vision for ICT and a strategic plan. In addition the technical missions will advise on the technical implementation options.

USAID’s funded parliamentary program implemented in Beirut by the State University of New York/Center for International Development (SUNY/CID)  and the Global Centre for ICT in Parliament organized the regional seminar on “Emerging Trends and Challenges for ICT in Parliaments" on 16 and 17 January 2012.  The event, addressed to Arab parliaments, took place at the newly established Arab Institute for Parliamentary Training and Legislative Studies, within the premises of the Lebanese Parliament, under the sponsorship of the Arab Inter-Parliamentary Union (AIPU) and the Lebanese Parliament.

The Workshop “ICT Strategic Planning in the SADC Parliaments”, held from 26 to 28 July 2010 in Windhoek, Namibia, provided a regional platform to raise awareness among the SADC parliaments on the potential of ICT in parliament and on the importance of strategic planning for the effective adoption and integration of ICT in parliamentary processes.

In the framework of the European Commission funded project “Support to ICT Strategic Planning in SADC Parliaments”, a first technical mission has been undertaken to the National Assembly of Namibia (12 to 16 December 2011) to carry out an assessment of the status of ICT in the Parliament and make initial recommendations for the development of an ICT Strategic Plan.

In the framework of the project “Support to ICT Strategic Planning in the SADC Parliaments”, a second technical assistance mission was conducted to the National Assembly of Angola (5 to 9 December 2011) by the Global Centre for ICT in Parliament and the SADC Parliamentary Forum, with support from experts from the Assembly of the Republic of Portugal and the Chamber of Deputies of Brazil. Following the initial assessment undertaken earlier this year, the second mission focused on collecting additional information about the ICT environment of the Assembly, reviewing and updating the assessment report from the first mission, and drafting an ICT strategic plan for the Parliament with specific objectives and a roadmap for implementation.

The technical assistance mission team from the Global Centre with support from the Chamber of Deputies of Brazil, succesfully completed the first mission to the National Assembly of the Republic of Suriname. Besides assessing the ICT infrastructure, organization, services delivery within the institution a thourough analysis was made of the archiving standards, policies and needs.

From 5 to 9 December in the framework of the European Commission funded project “Support to ICT Strategic Planning in Caribbean Parliaments”, a first technical assistance mission visited the "Red House" and other parliamentary buildings, to carry out an assessment on the state of ICT at the Parliament.

At the request of the Inter Parliamentary Union (IPU), the Global Centre for ICT in Parliament fielded a technical assistance mission to analyse the current use of information and communication technologies in the Parliament of Sierra Leone, from 21 to 25 November 2011. The mission focused on the assessment of the state of technology of the parliament taking into consideration the existing parliamentary process, procedures and organizational framework.

Following the first technical assistance mission carried out by the Global Centre for ICT in Parliament to the House of Assembly of Dominica, from 14-18 November 2011 in the framework of the European Commission funded project “Support to ICT Strategic Planning in Caribbean Parliaments”, the second mission took place with the aim of assisting the House of Assembly with the formulation of a shared vision for ICT and Strategic Plan.