ParlAmericas participates in a conference on Strengthening the Legislative Digital Transformation in Favour of Democracy
From Monday, September 13, to Wednesday, September 15, Bússola Tech, a Brazilian organization that promotes the exchange of experiences and initiatives through the use of technology, will be holding the LegisTech for Democracy conference. The conference features 30 hours of panels, presentations, and dialogues with parliaments from around the world, as they reflect on technological innovation in parliaments and the opportunities it presents in the current context. Mr. Bernardo Andrés Gutiérrez Hidalgo (Ecuador), Regional Coordinator for South America of the ParlAmericas Parliamentary Staff Network on Open Parliament, will represent the institution and share his thoughts on the digital transformation of parliaments. For her part, Ms. Alisha Todd, Director General of ParlAmericas, will give a presentation on the development and modernization of parliamentary diplomacy. Lastly, Natalí Casanova, Open Parliament Project Manager at ParlAmericas, will moderate a dialogue on the experiences of the legislative branches in Ecuador and Suriname.
The event is aimed at examining the efforts made by parliaments to rethink their internal processes and promote innovation to strengthen their technical capacities and their political role, with the understanding that collaboration and cooperation between the different stakeholders is an essential part of this process. It also focuses on the development of parliamentary diplomacy strategies and the exchange of good practices to promote legislative transparency and citizen participation in parliamentary processes.
Ms. Todd will focus on the fact that “we need global answers more than ever, because there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution. Parliamentary diplomacy is a method for learning among peers and promoting comprehensive agreements to find collective solutions to difficult problems, such as disinformation and how it profoundly affects the quality of our democracies or how to adapt to climate change and mitigate its effects.”
Mr. Gutiérrez Hidalgo’s contribution will include a reflection on the dialogues that took place at the 3rd Meeting of the Parliamentary Staff Network on Open Parliament in March 2021, which focused on technological innovation. He will emphasize the need to “invest in the digital transformation as a means to achieve stronger parliaments and to continue to strengthen their relationship with citizens. In this regard, different challenges such as disinformation, computer security and polarization, among others, can be addressed if this investment in digital transformation has a clear aim: to improve the standards of transparency and citizen participation.”
For more information on the work carried out by ParlAmericas, go to www.parlamericas.org and follow @ParlAmericas on social media.
