African Parliamentary Monitoring Organizations Network Working Group Conference held in Accra

The Working Group of the African Parliamentary Monitoring Organizations Network (APMON), met in Accra Ghana, between 28th March and 1 April 2022.

According to a press statement by Mr. Benjamin Opoku-Aryeh, Senior Programs Officer, Parliamentary Network Africa (PNAfrica), the week-long Conference brought together leading parliamentary monitoring organizations (PMOs) from across Africa who represented the Eastern, Southern, and Western parts of the continent to deliberate on ways to effectively to mobilize PMOs and civil society organisations (CSOs) into a Community of Practice towards promoting parliamentary openness across the Continent.

PNAfrica is a parliamentary monitoring civil society organization working across Africa to promote Open Parliaments

In the meeting, the Working Group discussed a workplan for the year 2022; developed a regulatory framework to mobilize and sustain Networks of PMOs at the national and sub-regional levels, as well as deliberated on plans to launch an Open Parliament Index. The Index, which will  be piloted in West Africa, will be published biennially to assess the level at which parliaments operate transparently, the extent to which they are accountable to citizens and the measures they put in place to enhance public participation in the work of Parliament.

The APMON will provide a platform to promote peer-to-peer learning and experience-sharing among PMOs towards promoting parliamentary openness across national, sub-national and transnational legislative bodies.

The Working Group comprises representative organizations from Eastern, Southern and Western Africa. Members of the Working Group are as follows:

1. Parliamentary Network Africa (PNAfrica)

2. Mzalendo Trust, Kenya

3. Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana)

4. Parliamentary Monitoring Group (PMG), South Africa

5. Pan-African Parliament Civil Society Forum (PAP-CSO Forum, South Africa

6. African Parliamentary Press Network (APPN).