PN Africa launches The Open West Africa Project

The Parliamentary Network Africa (PNAfrica), has launched the Open Parliament Engagements and Networking in West Africa (OPEN West Africa) project at the Fiesta Royal Hotel in Accra.

The objective of the project is to enhance peer-to-peer sharing of experience and best practices towards promoting parliamentary openness across national and sub-national legislative bodies, among others.

The role of parliamentary monitoring by non-state actors towards the promotion of openness has been emerging in Africa over the years. Studies have shown that Parliamentary Monitoring Organizations (PMOs) encounter enormous challenges in their monitoring of parliament, especially in relation to having access to information.

This and the lack of platforms or communities of PMOs within and across sub-Saharan Africa does not help to achieve the ultimate goal of effectively strengthening parliamentary transparency, accountability, responsiveness, and increasing citizens participation in African parliaments.

It is to help address these challenge that the OPEN West Africa project is being implemented by PNAfrica with support from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). The project seeks to establish a community of PMOs in the West Africa sub-region for the purpose of sharing experiences and best practices towards promoting parliamentary openness in the ECOWAS Parliament and national parliaments in the Region, and strengthen parliamentary openness across national and regional legislatures in West Africa through a legislative transparency tool.

Through the OPEN West Africa project PNAfrica will support the creation of platforms that will enhance peer learning and experience sharing among PMOs in West Africa through regular dialogue and resources sharing in order to equip them with skills that will strengthen the capacities of PMOs to effectively monitor parliaments which are cornerstone of democracy in Africa, and towards strengthening transparency, accountability and inclusiveness across the parliaments in the sub-region, including regional Parliaments.

The project inception meeting hosted parliamentary experts from across the world to share lessons of network building and maintenance, effective parliamentary monitoring, and identified the challenges that PMOs face on the continent of Africa.

Parliamentary Network Africa (PNAfrica) is a civil society parliamentary monitoring organization (PMO) promoting Open Parliaments across Africa. The organization achieves its objectives through the strengthening of parliamentary institutions, convening networks of PMOs in Africa, supporting media and access to information, and ensuring accountability, inclusion and promoting livelihoods.

PNAfrica has over the years been involved in convening and strengthening networks that seek to engage national parliaments in Africa towards enhancing transparency and encouraging citizens participation in the parliamentary process.