BACKGROUND
In December 1996, DESA/DPEPA was invited by the countries of the region
to provide technical assistance for the formulation of a co-operation
programme to establish conditions to strengthen Central American Parliaments
through capacity building. On 26 May 1998, a "Memorandum of Understanding"
was signed between DESA and PARLATINO to formalize the co-operation
modalities.
Latin America has one main regional parliamentary organization, PARLATINO, with 22 member countries.
Three sub-regional institutions - PARLACEN (Central American countries),
PARLAMAZ (countries of the Amazonian region), and PARLAND (Andean countries) - were established to co-ordinate
legislative matters within the sub-regions. Recently, a "Forum of Presidents of Legislative Powers" (FOPREL) was established.
Each institution works independently in legislative issues related to their common interest.
During the Summit of the Americas held in Miami in 1994, for the first time specific attention was
given to the need of modernizing and strengthening national legislative institutions of the region,
as well as their related bodies.
THE ROLE OF THE UNITED NATIONS
In May 1996, with the resolution 50/255 on public administration and
development, the 50th Resumed Session of the General Assembly gave the
Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), through its Division
for Public Economics and Public Administration (DPEPA), the mandate
to assist developing countries and countries in transition in strengthening
key governmental institutions, in particular Parliaments.
DESA approached the Italian Government to seek funding for capacity-building
initiatives. The Italian authorities agreed to provide funds for a pilot
activity to assess regional needs and capacities in order to develop
a regional programme. DPEPA organized a regional capacity-building workshop
"Los Parlamentos de Centro América y la República Dominicana ante el
año 2000" held in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, 20-21 May 1999.
In order to effectively disseminate information on the program, DPEPA created and now maintains
this Web Page with the generous support of the Government of Italy.
OUTCOMES OF THE REGIONAL WORKSHOP
A) Parliamentary Declaration of Santo Domingo
The parliaments should represent and consolidate democracy. This development
is secured through an institutional development strategy. It should
work oriented on: Represented pluralism, construction of consensus,
judicial safety, sense of direction of the society, economic efficiency,
social equality, transparency of the political culture and credibility.
The parliament should strengthen legislative powers institutionally
and organizationally.
B) Goals
1. Developing strategies to improve institutional relations between
the Legislative Power, other State organs and the civil society for
a better direct communication with the public.
2. Strengthening and modernizing politically the parliament by: Avoiding
the displacement of the debate and the leadership to other instances.
Promoting the institutional development. Improving the level of economic
and financial autonomy. Developing the political discharge functions
Conciliating the approximation of the people to the decision making
processes. Promoting effective development of transparent systems of
accountability to strengthen the quality of the political representation.
3. Implementing special programmes to accompany the legislative powers
for organizational, administrative, and procedural improvement by: Harmonizing
the parliamentary organizations with their social transformation and
the evolution of their demands. Modernizing legislative powers. Putting
international laws into practice. Improving legislative techniques.
Following-up the application of laws. Establishing and/or improving
technical advisory services and services for institutional support.
Strengthening and renewing the advisory service systems to legislators
of the budgetary and fiscal areas.
4. Supporting regional horizontal inter-parliamentary cooperation as
a basis for the institutional and organizational strengthening of the
parliaments of the region. In the context of the Parliamentary Declaration
of Santo Domingo, DPEPA and the Central American Parliament signed a
"Convenio de Colaboratión" on 27 October 1999.
The agreement was to enable the Follow Up programme.
OBJECTIVES OF THE FOLLOW-UP PROGRAMME
1. Institutional Enhancement: Improving the quality of the representation
of the Parliament and related bodies; technical strengthening of the
electoral process; reforming norms regulating the political parties
and their internal electoral processes.
2. Operational Strengthening of Parliaments: Strengthening legislative processes, consensus building processes,
and negotiation capacity; enhancing the relationship among executive, judicial and legislative branches; developing
information technologies (IT) and technical capacity for communication; reinforcing all other operational aspects
of parliaments, including public relations.
3. Strengthening mechanisms for an accountable, transparent and effective legislative budget process.
STRATEGY
These objectives will be pursued through capacity building (training workshops, seminars, field visits, and parliamentary exchanges)
and human resources development, dissemination of best practices and lessons learned. In addition, there will be an Institutional Analysis
to highlight the countries' needs, a Country Needs Assessment to understand the context in which each Parliament operates, as well as technical
assistance, provided to introduce new technologies for the legislative process, and the use of multimedia instruments for education and research.
A Parliamentary Documentation and Information Centre (PDIC) may be
established for the region. This Center will disseminate documentation
on legislative processes, parliamentary elections, legislators' resumes,
legislature calendars, national electoral institutions, political parties,
electoral systems, and national constitutions. The PDIC may include
a database on laws, decrees, governments' decisions, treaties, conventions,
and other national or international legal instruments to help National
Parliaments increasing their efficiency in its legal reference works.
BUDGET
The cost of the first face of the follow-up Regional Capacity Building
Programme is estimated at US$ 2,500,000. This Programme will cover Central
American and Caribbean countries, and will last two years. It started
in mid-1999. The Inter American Development Bank is interested in pursuing
the Parliamentary Declaration of Santo Domingo in joint activities.
Italy has been the main sponsor of this project.
The DPEPA works to strengthen public institutions and provides advisory services for capacity building in the public sector,
including civil service reform, policy development, human resources development and performance improvement.
