Congressional staff members from Colombia, Guatemala and Peru had a valuable opportunity to exchange information during a recent video conference program on legislative strengthening put on by NDI and the World Bank Institute (WBI). The video conference series—the second in two years involving NDI and the WBI—brought the participants together to explore good practices in the areas of lawmaking, effective committees, and oversight and transparency.
With funding and support from WBI, the video conference series provided an opportunity for legislative staff to explore common challenges in modernizing their legislatures. Colombia, Guatemala and Peru are all trying to bring more stability to their legislative and committee staffs, which have struggled with high turnover. During the video conference, the staff members shared strategies for keeping staff longer so they could gain policy expertise in areas under the committee’s jurisdiction. Participants also discussed their challenges and successes in other areas, such as carrying out effective public hearings.
The video conferences also drew on emerging international standards for democratic legislatures, an effort on which NDI has worked closely with other organizations, including WBI, the United Nations Development Programme and the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association. In partnership with WBI, NDI is working with the three countries that participated in the video conference to compare their existing norms and practices against these international norms. In each of these countries, NDI is collecting information from members of Congress, congressional staff and members of civil society organizations about congressional practices. The survey instrument has been designed to identify gaps between formal powers and informal practices, as well as to analyze differences in perceptions about the legislature among legislators, staff and civil society.
