Handbook on Strengthening
ICT Parliamentary Committees in
SADC Parliaments
Support to ICT Strategic Planning in the
SADC Parliaments
Prof. Alison Gillwald
Windhoek, 28 July 2010
Support to ICT Strategic Planning in the SADC Parliaments
Table of contents
• Part 1
– Rationale for Parliamentary Committees on Communication
– Rationale for Handbook
• Part 2
– ICTs for economic growth, development and social cohesion
• Part 3
– Establish of Standing ICT Parliamentary Committee
– Performance and evaluation
• Part 4
– Sector developments
• Part 5
– Global & regional governance
Support to ICT Strategic Planning in the SADC Parliaments
Rationale for Parliamentary
Committees
• Rationale for Parliamentary Committee
– Changing nature of governance in globalised
world
– Separation of power and delegations of powers to
specialised fora and agencies to deal with
complex and dynamic economic and social
sectors.
– Role of parliament in the institutional
arrangements of sector.
Support to ICT Strategic Planning in the SADC Parliaments
Rationale of the handbook (1/2)
Guide the Parliament’s participation in the
regional and national e-strategy processes for
the development of an equitable information
society and knowledge economy
•Contribute to the shaping of the future information
society in view of the WSIS implementation, follow-up
and future 2015 review.
Challenges of convergence and NGN
• Sector reform process and the role of Parliaments
Support to ICT Strategic Planning in the SADC Parliaments
Rationale of the handbook (2/2)
Establishment of Parliamentary Committees
•Legislative and oversight roles in the national and regional
ICT policy and regulatory reform
•Model committee (but separate form e-parliament
task team) to demonstrate use of ICT in parliament
Strengthening ICT Parliamentary Committees
•Capacity building, sector understanding
Support to ICT Strategic Planning in the SADC Parliaments
PART I – ICTs in national, regional &
continental development
Support to ICT Strategic Planning in the SADC Parliaments
• Linkages between ICT penetration and
economic growth
• Enabling role of ICT in enhancing delivery of
other commercial services
• 2008 financial and economic crisis: challenges
for governments
• Scarcity of credit in the ICT sector
• ICT backbone development for growth
stimulation/economic recovery
Support to ICT Strategic Planning in the SADC Parliaments
ICT for development and social
cohesion
ICT as a contribution to development and social
cohesion (macro)
•ICT penetration and contribution to
development
•Human capital development at multiple levels –
education, training, professional
•Enabling role of ICTs in health, government,
education
Support to ICT Strategic Planning in the SADC Parliaments
Rationale for handbook
• It has been found that democracy by itself elections and representative institutions –
does not necessarily produce justice and
prosperity.
• define the essential elements of good
governance and generate measures of
performance for the committee
Support to ICT Strategic Planning in the SADC Parliaments
PART II: Parliamentary ICT
Committee
Support to ICT Strategic Planning in the SADC Parliaments
Establishment of ICT Parliamentary
Committees
Lead the political engagement in the national and
regional e-strategy (Mandate and role)
• From the institutional commitment (vision) on ICT in parliament towards:
–an ICT policy and regulatory framework for convergence and NGN
(Legislative process)
– (i.e. representation, participation, transparency, accountability)
Oversight and management (Role and responsibilities)
• From an e-strategy towards:
–ICT policy and regulation: exercising scrutiny over the executive on international,
regional and national ICT plans
Support to ICT Strategic Planning in the SADC Parliaments
The role of Parliament
Oversight, legislative and management functions
• Legislate, institutional oversight, monitoring and evaluation
Parliament in the institutional arrangements of the
sector
• Representation and accountability; participation, transparency
• Institutional governance
• (Parliament – Government – Regulator)
Constitution and administrative justice
• Public participation
Support to ICT Strategic Planning in the SADC Parliaments
Approving and accounting for ICT
budgets
Public finance for innovation and economic growth
• How to identify strategic and political ICT priorities?
–Legislation to foster the deployment of a stable and robust
telecommunication infrastructure; and encourage the adoption of alternative
models that can significantly lower the cost of broadband to satisfy this
emerging need of ICT.
–Extending affordable Internet access to under-served areas, overcoming
high prices of the bandwidth, in addition to the development of human
resources and capacity building.
–Fiscal policies/stimulus packages to finance NGN infrastructure roll-out
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Tax cuts/reduction;
Government transfer payment
PPP
Public investment in ICT?
Support to ICT Strategic Planning in the SADC Parliaments
Strengthen ICT capacity development
• Training
• Participation in international, regional
meetings
• Model committee for implementation of eParliament.
Support to ICT Strategic Planning in the SADC Parliaments
Global, regional governance
• ITU
• ICANN
• SADC Protocol on Transport, Meteorology,
Telecommunications
• SADC Model Law
• Regional model regulations
Support to ICT Strategic Planning in the SADC Parliaments
Sector developments/primers
Support to ICT Strategic Planning in the SADC Parliaments
Uneven reform
Background
• First-phase reform (incorporation, national regulatory
agencies, partial privatisation & liberalisation)
• Second-phase reform: (greater liberalisation & competition
regulation)
• Third-phase reform: (convergence, NGN, next generation
regulation.)
Support to ICT Strategic Planning in the SADC Parliaments
Regulation 3.0: new regulatory
frameworks for NGN/NGR
Central policy and regulatory issues in the NGN
• Review universal access
• Liberalisation of ICT markets: promoting competition
• Public interventions for NGN roll-out:
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Fiscal measures to incentivise high-speed IP-based networks
PPP: are we ready?
Competition & pricing
Licensing: technological neutrality & open access
Interconnection: termination rates
Spectrum: commons and auctions
Broadcasting reform
Social and economic costs of cybercrime
Freedom of expression and local content
Electronic security: Intellectual property rights, privacy
Support to ICT Strategic Planning in the SADC Parliaments
Performance Monitoring
Support to ICT Strategic Planning in the SADC Parliaments
Good governance Framework &
Measurement
• surrounding governance context: relations between the
state, the market and civil society; political space and
support for active citizenship, and the impact of the global
village.
• parliamentary culture, the set of motivating and
constraining beliefs and practices. What are the values and
expectations associated with being a Member of
Parliament? What is the relationship between leaders and
followers?
• the organizational capacity of parliament, including the
strengths and weaknesses of the political and
administrative sides of parliament.
• Parliaments that Work, Parliamentary Centre & World
Bank Institute
Support to ICT Strategic Planning in the SADC Parliaments
Performance criteria
• Financial – Does committet operate according to acceptable standards of
financial administration?.
• Compliance – Does Committee operate according to the laws of the land and
its own rules and procedures?
• Efficiency – Does Committee organize itself and carry out its activities in ways
that are reasonably efficient and dependable? Where this is not the case, the
wider society, not to mention the executive, will dismiss parliament as chaotic
and irrelevant.
• Effectiveness –Does the Committee have an impact on government and society
• Relevance – Does connect to the great issues of the day.
• Sustainability - Does it have the resources, political and otherwise, to play its
part in promoting good governance? These questions are meant to probe the
history of the institution as well as its prospects for the future.
Support to ICT Strategic Planning in the SADC Parliaments
Structure of performance
• Inputs – The raw materials of parliament, including MPs, staff
and financial and other resources.
• Activities – This describes how MPs and staff spend their time in
four main lines of activity. In the parliamentary chamber,
committees, party caucuses and constituencies.
• Outputs – This refers to the products of parliamentary activity,
notably debates, laws, resolutions, and reports and assistance
to constituents.
• Outcomes – This refers to the direct effects of parliamentary
activities on the outside world. Our framework focuses on
outcomes in relation to three governance functions—
accountability, transparency and participation.
• Impacts – This refers to the longer term and more indirect
influence of parliament on the set of good governance,
specifically democracy, rule of law, clean and effective
government and peaceful resolution of conflict.
Support to ICT Strategic Planning in the SADC Parliaments
• For more information see
Or contact agillwald@researchICTafrica.com
Support to ICT Strategic Planning in the SADC Parliaments