ParlAmericas shares experiences in international seminar on the role of the legislative branch in the evaluation of public policies
From December 2 to 4, the Chamber of Deputies of Brazil, in collaboration with its Association of Legislative Consultants and Budget and Financial Inspection Consultants (Aslegis), Association of Consultants and Attorneys of the Brazilian Federal Senate (Alesfe), and Union of the Servers of the Brazilian Congress and of the Federal Court of Accounts (Sindilegis), hosted the international seminar on the “Role of the Legislative Power in the Evaluation of Public Policies.”
On December 3, Ms. Emilie Lemieux, Deputy Director – Open Parliament and Sustainable Development, represented ParlAmericas in a Round Table on Public Policy Evaluation alongside Mr. Richard Kelly, House of Commons Library, United Kingdom; Dr. Helaina Gaspard, Director of Governance and Institutions at the Institute of Fiscal Studies and Democracy; and Prof. Fabiana Soares, Legislab, Federal University of Minas Gerais. The panel discussion highlighted the importance of parliamentary oversight of governments’ responses to the COVID-19 pandemic; the value of fiscal scrutiny, where money is used as a lens to evaluate the effectiveness of public policies; the usefulness of creating mechanisms to evaluate the implementation of adopted legislation; the relevance of designing methodologies for drafting legislation that foster access to information and accountability; and improving the curriculum in legal training programs for lawyers who draft legislation.
Ms. Lemieux shared the key challenges and strategies provided by member parliaments at the ParlAmericas Virtual Meeting on Strengthening Oversight of Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic and explained, “One of the mechanisms by which parliaments can strengthen their oversight capacity is through Open Parliament Action Plans or Legislative Commitments in Open Government Action Plans – through the Open Government Partnership. In previous years the Congress of Brazil has opted for the latter, which has led to a web portal with tools on openness, transparency and participation that have been used by many local legislatures, and the current development of tools to improve transparency of the progress of bills through the legislative process. Such plans, in which the commitments are co-created by parliaments and civil society representatives, are also an opportunity to work on strengthening accountability measures, which can reinforce parliaments’ oversight work. They aim to improve parliament’s functions to improve trust between citizens and public institutions; and this trust is crucial as nations recover and rebuild following this global pandemic.”
For more information on the work carried out by ParlAmericas, go to www.parlamericas.org and follow @ParlAmericas on social media.
