Financed by the Italian Cooperation for Development and led by the International Development Law Organization (IDLO) in partnership with the Institute for the Relations between Italy and the countries of Africa, Latin America, the Middle and Far East (IPALMO) this program aims at strengthening the role of parliament in assessing and addressing the social cost associated with various economic reform initiatives in three Arab countries, Egypt, Iraq and Lebanon
The program consists of a comprehensive approach and involved the assessment of the conditions and practices of parliament in the participating countries. It involved members of parliament, representatives from civil society, economic and social actors from relevant institutions as well as experts from the participating countries, i.e. Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon and Italy. In addition to addressing constraints and opportunities, the program also explored ways for parliament to become more actively and effectively involved in the process of reforming the national economy in light of the needs of all groups of society. In this sense, it has also benefited from the experience of Italy in terms of economic reform practices and in terms of parliamentary tools for influencing major public policies aimed at a better coordination between parliament and government. The program took also into account the role of ICT tools to improve the capacity of parliament in performing its legislative, oversight and representative functions. The application of ICT in this program focused on identifying priority areas in which ICT could be applied in enhancing the involvement of members of parliament in economic reform policies.
The program started in October 2009 and it will end up in 2012. It includes three national workshops held at the parliaments of Egypt, Iraq and Lebanon; a regional workshop held at the Lebanese National Assembly; an international conference held at the Italian Chamber of Deputies during a study tour in Italy where the delegations of Arab MPs and parliamentary officials had the opportunity to have some days of full immersion on the information technology tools used by the Italian Senate and the Italian Chamber of Deputies, on the working methodology of the Italian parliamentary Committees and had the chance to exchange their views with some Italian and Arab colleagues on the economic and social policies. All the meetings produced some specific recommendations and an action plan for future cooperation among the countries and the parliaments involved in the program. It also includes some research papers: a regional survey on the performance of the legislatures of the Egyptian, Iraqi and Lebanese parliaments on economic reforms, three national assessment studies and a pamphlet on some parliamentary tools for influencing major public policies.
