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In advance of its official launch at the World e-Parliament Conference on the International Day of Democracy, Scott Hubli, director of governance programs at NDI, and Andrew Mandelbaum, senior program officer on the governance program, introduced the Declaration on Parliamentary Openness in this piece for the Open Knowledge Foundation.
Hubli and Madelbaum noted that the Open Government Partnership (OGP), which supports more open and accountable public institutions, largely ignores parliaments and the importance of providing parliamentary information in open data formats that are easily shared and distributed. The Declaration on Parliamentary Openness, made up of more than 70 parliamentary monitoring organizations (PMOs) from more than 50 different countries, is advancing efforts on citizen engagement in governance by focusing on parliaments as “essential sources of public information.” They explain that the ability of PMOs to promote openness and engage citizens in the parliamentary process hinges on access to parliamentary information, and the Declaration provides concrete steps for parliaments to take to make the legislative process more open.
Hubli and Mandelbaum note that, though parliaments in many countries have made “concerted efforts to become more open,” many countries still are not taking advantage of the technology available to provide basic information and enhance citizen participation in the governing process.
“The increasing interconnectedness of the world’s citizens through social media, the Internet and mobile technology is rapidly changing citizens’ expectations for good governance and what parliaments must deliver,” said Hubli and Mandelbaum. “Parliaments that improve openness and participation can reinforce public confidence at a time when citizens around the world are becoming increasingly demanding of their representative institutions.”
