33087 Capacity Enhancement b r i e f s S H A R I N G B E S T P R A C T I C E S A N D L E S S O N S L E A R N E D PARLIAMENTARY STRENGTHENING The Case of Ghana Frederick C. Stapenhurst, Senior Public Sector Management Specialist, WBIPR This paper examines the World Bank Institute's (WBI's) first multiyear capacity enhancement pro- gram in the field of parliamentary strengthening. Seven lessons have emerged: (a) strong domestic polit- ical support is necessary, (b) parliamentary strengthening activities should complement broader gover- nance reform efforts, (c) training activities should be integrated into broader parliamentary capacity-building initiatives, (d) training activities need to reflect the evolving parliamentary agenda, (e) a nonpartisan approach is essential, (f) activities must connect with the administrative structure of parliament, and (g) parliamentary committees benefit enormously from direct interface with interna- tional organizations, among others, the World Bank and Parliamentary Centre. 1 In late 1996 the Parliament of Ghana requested sup- Collaborating initially with Ghana's Institute of port for members of its Public Accounts Committee Economic Affairs, WBI and the Parliamentary Centre 3 (PAC) and Finance Committee. It was thought that the of Canada planned a series of workshops, whose forthcoming elections in December 1996 would result objective was to provide practical advice to MPs on in an effective opposition and that the new Members 2 the budget process and relate it to the wider economic of Parliament (MPs) would benefit from understand- reform program to modernize and streamline Ghana's ing the what, why, and how of financial management public sector. The first workshop examined the attrib- reforms, especially as the new Parliament was utes of successful parliamentary committees and expected to play an important role in exercising par- reviewed the difficult economic and financial situation liamentary oversight of public expenditures. facing the country; subsequent activities focused on WBI's global parliamentary training program had the budgetary process and committee work planning. begun four years earlier, but had focused primarily on In 1998 the Canadian International Development raising the awareness of MPs on specific policy Agency (CIDA) awarded the Parliamentary Centre a issues. This was the first time it was to focus on grant to implement a multiyear parliamentary strengthening the institution of Parliament and work strengthening project; this anchored the ongoing in Ghana itself. Several challenges had emerged fol- training program in a broader effort to strengthen lowing the 1996 elections: few MPs had experience in parliamentary governance in Ghana. Parliament or in dealing with the policy issues they Change of Government would soon have to address; the election had been bitterly fought, and partisan tensions were high; and The December 2000 elections resulted in a change fundamental weaknesses existed in Ghana's public of government,4 but as the new government settled in, financial system, including chronic arrears in the pub- familiar patterns emerged: it fired hundreds of local lic accounts, malfeasance throughout the civil service, government members (appointed by the previous and incompetence of many low-level officials. president) and furloughed many senior public ser- Moreover, the PAC and the Finance Committee them- vants and army/security officials. The new govern- selves had no support staff or even a place to meet. ment spoke out strongly against the previous "culture JNUMBER0 48 U N E 2 0 of silence," while the former government, now in MPs in Zimbabwe as a resource person on "The Role opposition, developed an aggressive parliamentary of Parliament in the Budget." style. A drive for political reform thus emerged, which Organizational Level gave energy and impetus to improvements for parlia- mentary involvement in policymaking process and The program targeted three principal areas of orga- oversight. nizational development: building cross-partisan trust within the committees, developing a strategic Capacity Enhancement approach to committee work planning, and providing Although WBI's program objectives focused primar- deeper research and analytical support to the commit- ily on enhancing capacity at the organizational level, tees. namely on building the capacity of the PAC and the The program has evidently had considerable impact Finance Committee, this necessarily involved working at the organizational level. As early as 1997, the then at the level of the individual MPs (by increasing their chairman of the Finance Committee wrote "...the ability to understand governance and budget issues) workshop in no small way cleared the perspective of and at the institutional level (by enhancing the inter- members and will certainly be of enormous assistance action of Parliament with both the Executive and civil to them in the discharge of their duties as members of society). the Finance Committee." Within the committees, par- Individual MPs tisan considerations began to play a lesser role and informal links with the Ministry of Finance were In 2003 the Bank's Social Development Department developed. The manager of the Parliamentary Centre's and WBI studied the impact and sustainability of Africa Program said "The committees had come to learning from WBI's activities for parliamentarians have dynamics of their own, with a sense of internal around the world ; more than half of the respondents 5 purpose and an ability to confront questions of their were from Ghana. ongoing role with thoughtful realism...The basic In terms of the application and adaptation of learn- insights on the budget process, the audit role of ing, the Ghanaian MPs reported that WBI capacity Parliament, and the ways that committees can have enhancement enabled them to participate in impact in a parliamentary system, all have come to be Parliamentary deliberations more effectively (e.g., understood by the Ghana economic committees." "It has improved [the quality] of my debate on the Two other patterns of evolving relationships began floor of Parliament" and "I have become more critical to emerge. The first was the interplay among MPs at looking at the policy issues addressed in the bud- within the two committees. Each committee began to get") and to play leadership roles in key develop- see itself as a unit, with members acting as part of the ment issues (e.g., "I have used the learning to committee rather than as party representatives. By expose corruption in Government, for example, the November 1997 the PAC had adopted the role of prin- purchase of cars for the police without Parliamentary cipal watchdog over expenditures and operated as an approval" and "I was able to analyze and check the activist body able to take initiatives. The Chair of the extent to which [budget] allocations reflect the Finance Committee at the time reported that the requirements of the Poverty Reduction Strategy"). workshops had helped in determining the broad para- Regarding development of communities of practi- meters of the committee's future work and developing tioners, the MPs also reported that the continuing concrete steps to take. contact they had with fellow alumni from the The second pattern was cross-partisan cooperation workshops and seminars was useful; on average, on various issues, which the program proved success- they shared their learning with twenty to thirty other ful in promoting. Examples included how to improve MPs. Former participants said "I assist all...MPs with financial reporting transparency and increase detailed the facts and figures that I gather...on financial mat- monitoring of expenditures to prevent abuse and to ters," "I am consulted or asked to participate in pro- encourage cooperation between the PAC and the grams which involve the application of knowledge Commission on Human Rights and Administrative [gained in these seminars]," and "I have been Justice (CHRAJ) and between the PAC and the Serious selected to participate in radio and television discus- Fraud Office (SFO). The PAC began to use field-based sions in these subject areas." One MP said "[As a reviews of projects by subcommittees to provide result of my training] I have been sponsored by assessments of government spending, thereby initiat- UNDP to participate in the training of newly elected ing a process partially compensating for late release of the Auditor General's reports. The Finance 6 JNUMBER0 48 U N E 2 0 Committee also successfully developed a detailed This was demonstrated by the support of the checklist of points for consideration in approving for- Speakers and parliamentary leadership, including eign loans. the majority and minority leaders and committee The Parliamentary Centre reported that the program chairs. had "helped foster cross-partisan interaction in com- Complementary with broader governance mittee activities," while interactions with civil society reform, in this instance, with the Bank's Public organizations helped "ensure that individual MPs Financial Management Reform and Financial look at national development issues from a broader Management Technical Assistance projects, which perspective." 7 sought to promote, among others, greater govern- Two ongoing themes at the policy retreats have ment accountability. Such synergies are essential been poverty reduction and curbing corruption. if the program is to be scaled up and replicated in Notably, heightened awareness among senior MPs on other countries. these issues resulted in establishment of two parlia- mentary committees: Poverty Reduction (to oversee Integration of training activities into broader implementation of the Ghana Poverty Reduction parliamentary capacity-building initiatives, in Strategy) and Government Assurances (to keep a this case, the CIDA-funded project executed by compendium of assurances made by Ministers and the Parliamentary Centre. oversee their fulfillment). A new anticorruption cau- Flexible design of training activities to reflect cus of MPs interested in curbing corruption is also an evolving parliamentary agenda; training working under the aegis of the African parliamentarians on such issues as budget Parliamentarians Network Against Corruption processes, anticorruption, and poverty reduction (APNAC) and with several civil society organizations issues; improving research and information capa- in the field. bilities; and emphasis on "just-in-time" training, Institutional Level successfully used in the fall of 2003 to enable experts from inside and outside the Bank to brief MPs quickly began to appreciate the need to involve MPs on issues critical to their deliberations on the civil society in committee processes (e.g., through budget. public hearings and meetings in various parts of the country ) and also the usefulness of developing closer 8 Reduction in partisanship and thus potentially links with the Executive. The PAC, Finance, Gender more effectiveness in the PAC and the Finance and Children, Local Government and Rural Committee, supporting the assertion that "parti- Development, and Assurances Committees have car- sanship and committee effectiveness are inversely ried out joint investigations and public consultations related: the less partisan the committee, the more 12 on new and emerging priorities, including PRSP effective it is likely to be." implementation, whereas both the PAC and the 9 Recent efforts to develop a training program Finance Committee began to adopt participatory for Parliamentary staff, helping to deepen the mechanisms when performing committee activities. program's impact within the institution of The latter are judged to have "helped foster cross-par- Parliament. tisan interaction in committee activities," whereas interactions with civil society organizations helped Direct interface of parliamentary committees "ensure that individual MPs look at national develop- with international organizations, such as the ment issues from a broader perspective." At the 10 World Bank and Parliamentary Centre, clearly same time, linkages with the Auditor General's office with enormous benefits. In turn, international were strengthened and the Auditor General estab- organizations have the advantage of working lished a parliamentary liaison office to foster greater with national policy institutes that each bring a 13 interaction between his staff and the PAC committee particular perspective to the program. members. Yet challenges remain. Little effort has been given to Lessons Learned change or even fully understand the incentive system for MPs. Despite low salaries--an important determi- This program demonstrated seven factors crucial for nant in parliamentary effectiveness --Ghanaian MPs 14 sustainable parliamentary strengthening : 11 remain committed and are making a difference. Why Strong domestic political support, which the is this? Additional research on incentives for MPs program had, even with a change of government. would be useful. Furthermore, staff and research sup- port for the PAC and the Finance Committee remains Saddiqi, Najma and Theodore Dreger. "Sustainability of inadequate, and capacity-building efforts should be Learning: Tracer Study of WBI's Parliamentary Strengthening Program." Unpublished paper. World Bank Institute. extended to departmental parliamentary committees World Bank. 2004. "Governance & Anticorruption." overseeing such government programs as decentral- www.worldbank.org/wbi/governance. Washington, D.C. ization, local government, and health. The recently 15 announced second phase of CIDA's project, coupled with the Bank's Credit for Accountability and Transparency (which explicitly provides support for 1 This brief summarizes outcomes of activities by the World Parliament) may be able to address these challenges. Bank Institute and the Parliamentary Centre, financed by CIDA Another ongoing need is to raise awareness of Bank and the United Kingdom's Department for International staff on the organization and operations of parlia- Development. ments and how best to engage parliaments in their 2 The opposition party boycotted the 1992 parliamentary elec- tions. work. 3 The Centre for Economic Policy Analysis, Centre for Democratic Development, Integrated Social Development Centre, Peer Reviewers : Yongmei Zhou, Economist, and Institute for Policy Alternatives also subsequently became AFTPR, and Hon Steve Akorli, MP and former involved. 4 This was the first democratic change of government in Chair, Finance Committee, Parliament of Ghana Africa. 5 Saddiqi and Dreger, forthcoming. References 6 Based on commentary from the senior leadership of Barkan, Joel, Ladipo Adamolekun, Yongmei Zhou, with Parliament. Mouftayou Laleye and Njuguna Ng'ethe. Forthcoming. 7 Ghana Parliamentary Committee Support Project, "End of Emerging Legislatures in Emerging African Democracies. Project Report," November 2003. Washington, D.C.: World Bank. 8 Aided, in particular, by activities designed to facilitate such Parliamentary Committee Support Project. 2003. interaction in northern Ghana under the CIDA-funded program "End of Project Report" (November). Accra, Ghana. and carried out by the Parliamentary Centre with the Institute of Manning, Nick and Rick Stapenhurst. 2002. "Strengthening Policy Alternatives. Oversight by Legislatures." PREMNote No. 74. Washington, 9 Such investigations, at least in part, help overcome timing D.C.: World Bank (October). problems caused by late release of the Auditor General's reports. McGee, David. 2002. The Overseers. Commonwealth 10 Ghana Parliamentary Committee Support Project 2003. Parliamentary Association. London: Pluto Press. 11 Manning and Stapenhurst 2002. Messick, Rick. 2002. "Strengthening Legislatures: Implications 12 Messick 2002. from Industrial Countries." PREMNote No. 63. Washington, 13 Steven Langdon, personal communication. D.C.: World Bank (March). 14 Barkan, Joel and others, forthcoming. Parliamentary Centre. 2004. "Parliamentary Centre: Partners in 15 Such support is now being provided by the U.S. Agency for Parliamentary Development." www.parlcent. ca. Ottowa, International Development. Ontario. About World Bank Institute (WBI): Unleashing the Power of Knowledge to Enable a World Free of Poverty WBI helps people, institutions, and countries to diagnose problems that keep communities poor, to make informed choices to solve those problems, and to share what they learn with others. Through traditional and distance learning methods, WBI and its partners in many countries deliver knowledge-based options to policymakers, technical experts, business and community leaders, and civil society stakeholders; fos- tering analytical and networking skills to help them make sound decisions, design effective socioeconomic policies and programs, and unleash the productive potential of their societies. WBI Contacts: David Potten, Lead Specialist, Country Programs Tel: 202-458-7873, Email: dpotten@worldbank.org Imtiazuddin Ahmad, Sr. Operations Officer Tel: 202-458-1878, E-mail: Iahmad2@worldbank.org Visit our website for more information and download the electronic copies of all Capacity Enhancement Briefs: http://www.worldbank.org/capacity JNUMBER0 48 U N E 2 0