The African Parliamentary Monitoring Organizations Network (APMON) Working Group met in Accra from March 28 to April 1, 2022.
The Conference brought together leading parliamentary monitoring organisations (PMOs) from across Africa who represented the Eastern, Southern, and Western parts of the continent to deliberate on ways to effectively mobilize PMOs and civil society organisations (CSOs) into a Community of Practice toward promoting parliamentary openness across the Continent.
In the meeting, the Working Group discussed a work plan 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 will be piloted in West Africa and 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, subnational, and transnational legislative bodies.
The Working Group comprises representative organizations from Eastern, Southern, and Western Africa.
Members of the Working Group were; Parliamentary Network Africa (PNAfrica), Mzalendo Trust, Kenya, Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), Parliamentary Monitoring Group (PMG), South Africa, Pan African Parliament Civil Society Forum (PAP-CSO Forum), South Africa, and African Parliamentary Press Network (APPN).