The Global Centre for ICT in Parliament is currently undertaking a Technical Assistance Mission to the  Parliament of Palestine from 25 to 28 March. The Mission team focuses on the ICT organization, services, infrastructure, parliamentary website and information dissemination, and human resources. The Mission had fruitful meetings with the Secretary General, General Directors and MPs .

Within the framework of the European Commission funded project “Support to ICT Strategic Planning in the SADC Parliaments”, the Global Centre undertook a technical assistance mission to the Senate of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 26 to 30 March 2012. The mission focused on perception and understanding of the vision, mission and core values of the Senate and made an assessment of the ICT systems in order to deliver a report with strategic direction and recommendations.

The second technical mission to the Parliament of Guyana took place between 12 and 16 March. The mission was led by the Senior Advisor of the Global Centre for ICT in Parliament, supported by the National Project Officer of CARICAD. In addition the mission was integrated for two days by an expert from the National Assembly of Suriname to provide for visioning purposes a demonstration of the UNDESA-developed BUNGENI parliamentary information system.

The second mission to the Senate of the Dominican Republic took place between 19 and 23 March. The mission is supported by the Senate of Chile through the provision of senior technical expertise. In addition the mission is joined by senior expertise from UNDESA´s Africa i-Parliament Action Plan.

Following the Global Centre for ICT in Parliament's first technical assistance mission to the Parliament of Lesotho in October 2011, where an assessment of the Parliament's ICT capabilities was taken, a second technical assistance mission took place from 19 to 23 March 2012.

The assessment mission to the Parliament of Turkmenistan, in collaboration with UNDP Turkmenistan, was undertaken from 11 to 21 March. During the meeting with the Speaker the following priorities were defined:

1. Development of the Parliament website (2012)
2. Development of an Electronic Document Management System (2013)
3. Installation of the legislative networking infrastructure  (2014)

The second mission to the Parliament of Trinidad and Tobago took place between 5 and 9 March. The ICT Strategic Plan and Implementation Roadmap were successfully developed. There was a high level of leadership involvement and endorsement, as well as critical and valuable inputs from senior staff. The mission benefited from the excellent ICT planning expertise provided by the House of Commons of the Parliament of Canada.

Following the Global Centre for ICT in Parliament's first technical assistance mission to the National Assembly of Seychelles in September 2011, where an assessment of the Assembly's ICT capabilities was taken, a second technical assistance mission took place from 5 to 9 March 2012. The follow-up mission, which falls within the framework of the European Commission funded project “Support to ICT Strategic Planning in the SADC Parliaments”, finalised the assessment report from the first mission while also submitting a draft ICT strategic plan to the legislature for consideration.

In the framework of the European Commission funded project “Support to ICT Strategic Planning in the SADC Parliaments”, the Global Centre recently completed a technical assistance mission to the Parliament of Botswana from 27 February to 2 March 2012. The mission focused on perception and understanding of the vision, mission and core values of the Parliament and made the assessment of the ICT system in order to deliver a report with key findings and recommendations to further support the implementation of their current draft ICT Master Plan.

Between 20 and 23 February a second technical mission from the Global Centre for ICT in Parliament, consisting of the the Project Coordinator Mr. Avinash Bikha, and Mr. Vanderlei Batista Dos Santos, Electronic Archiving Expert from the Chamber of Deputies of Brazil, visited the National Assembly of Suriname, for facilitating the ICT strategic planning process at the Assembly.

The second assessment mission to the National Assembly of Tanzania took place from 20 to 24 February, in Dar es Salaam. The mission team UNDESA/SADC-PF discussed and adjusted the assessment report in accordance with comments and new inputs from the National Assembly and deliver the ICT Strategic Plan.

Read the Summary of the Meeting

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 organized the event Achieving Greater Transparency in Legislatures through the Use of Open Document Standards. The International Meeting was 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.