the poorest and marginalized persons or groups, such as women or disadvantaged tribes.
Innovative parliamentary involvement In such contexts, there is evidence that, as for other political issues, Parliaments can play a strategic role to guide and scrutinize the policies conducted by
The National Assembly of Nigeria (top) and the Parliament of Kenya (below) provide good examples for parliamentary mobilization on the MDGs.
governments, and then make the policy and budget formulation a more inclusive process in the interest of all citizens. Indeed, international agreements such as the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness in 2005 and the Accra Agenda for Action in 2008 have officially acknowledge that Parliaments, through their law- making, budgeting and oversight functions, have a central role to play in this process of monitoring actions undertaken by governments to achieve the MDGs.
Nevertheless, Parliamentarians themselves are not always aware of their crucial responsibility in this process,2
and may not have the
instance, citizens’ mobilization has not been encouraged and the budget-making process suffered
from a lack of transparency, making it difficult to ensure that funds are spent in the interest of
required resources and information to analyze the results and assess the relevance of a government’s programmes and activities in this field. Parliamentarians need to connect with civil society organizations in order to get the pertinent information and technical advice, and then pass Bills that address the remaining issues, amend inappropriate legislation or budget, and more broadly press their government through oversight activities. The African continent, one of the most strategic for development, already provides many examples of interesting initiatives taken by Parliaments in order to improve their performance in monitoring MDG progress. Several of these Parliaments have thus made important progress to engage more effectively with governments and dialogue with citizens on the MDGs, and this positive trend is especially strong
Millennium Development Goals
1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, 2. Achieve universal pri- mary education, 3. Promote gender equality and empower women, 4. Reduce child mortality, 5. Improve maternal health, 6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, 7. Ensure environmental sustainability and 8. Develop a global partner- ship for development (http://www.un.org/millen- niumgoals/)
among Commonwealth Parliaments. In West Africa, Nigeria is a leader and one of the most convincing examples for parliamentary mobilization on the MDGs. Indeed, the Nigerian House of Representatives has recently created a Committee on Donor Funds and an MDG Standing committee, enjoying the same political legitimacy, resources and powers as any other standing committee within the House, while the Nigerian Senate chose to establish an ad-hoc MDG Committee, which has less power and resources than a standing committee. These new committees have successfully engaged the government in a permanent dialogue, thanks to the existence of an executive structure specifically dedicated to the MDGs, as well as a separate budget allocated to the MDGs.3 In Eastern Africa, the most interesting case is probably the one of the Kenyan Parliament, which has created a strong MDG caucus that produces reports with statistics and useful information on a regular basis. In southern Africa, full standing committees have not been created yet within Parliaments; but an MDG caucus has been
established in Zimbabwe, while the The Parliamentarian | 2011: Issue Four | 319