ParlAmericas participated in the House Democracy Partnership Global MP Exchange
On June 2 and 3, 2021, ParlAmericas participated in the House Democracy Partnership (HDP) Global MP Exchange organized by the National Democratic Institute (NDI) which brought together legislators from Colombia, Guatemala, Indonesia, Iraq, Lebanon, Liberia, Peru, The Gambia, Tunisia and the United States to address the importance of legislative openness and transparency in legislative institutions to create inclusive processes that ensure governments and public officials are held accountable to citizen priorities.
As part of this exchange, Member of the Chamber of Deputies Javier Macaya (Chile), President of the ParlAmericas Open Parliament Network (OPN) participated as a panellist in the session Improved Methods to Curb Corruption through Openness where he discussed the importance of legislative openness efforts to establish high ethical standards in public institutions and thereby strengthen citizen’s trust. He highlighted that “to promote integrity and combat corruption, we need to motivate that behavior through public policy, a policy that considers choice architecture and a sense of responsibility of the individual as well as social oversight, meaning that as a society, we reject corruption. Thanks to the co-creation of open parliament commitments by parliamentarians, parliamentary staff and civil society, important and innovative initiatives have been developed in the Congress of Chile which have been key to strengthening our oversight mechanisms, such as the establishment of the National Congressional Budget Office which provides essential technical support for financial scrutiny.”
Additionally, Emilie Lemieux, Deputy Director for Open Parliament and Sustainable Development at ParlAmericas participated as a panellist in the session Legislative Openness in the Ongoing Pandemic Environment and discussed key reflections from parliaments in the hemisphere on their transition to virtual or hybrid sittings, the important role that digital transparency and public participation platforms played during the pandemic, and ongoing efforts to develop and implement open parliament commitments and action plans in this context. She concluded by bringing attention to the challenges posed by disinformation in this context and the need for global parliamentary collaboration to develop solutions.
For more information on the work carried out by ParlAmericas, go to www.parlamericas.org and follow @ParlAmericas on social media.
