Training and technical assistance to parliaments, parliamentary officials and parliamentarians in our region form the cornerstone of CDI’s parliamentary strengthening program. In cooperation with Australian federal, state and territory parliaments, CDI offers a range of activities designed to strengthen the capacity of legislatures to perform their key duties and hold governments accountable. These include:
Training: CDI delivers a range of training courses for parliaments each year. These include training for members of parliamentary committees on ways to run a committee inquiry, for speakers and clerks, and for mid-level parliamentary officials on fundamental principles and doctrines underlying the practice of responsible parliamentary government. Many of these programs are conducted in partnership with other organisations, including the World Bank Institute, the United Nations Development Program, and parliamentary research centres at various Australian and international universities.
In-country induction programs for newly-elected parliamentarians in our focus countries are another important part of our parliamentary assistance work. Over the past four years CDI has assisted with parliamentary inductions in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Fiji. Such induction programs introduce newly-elected MPs to their roles and responsibilities as parliamentarians, and are always conducted in close partnership with the parliament of the country concerned.
A new area of assistance for CDI is our increasing engagement directly with potential cabinet ministers and other political leaders in our focus countries, via our flagship skills development course entitled: Preparing for the Challenges of being a Minister. The course is designed primarily for up-and-coming political leaders and looks at the duties and responsibilities of successful ministers, with a focus on both the roles and functions of such positions as well as the broader responsibilities of political leadership.
Many of activities properly combine our two major and related sectoral concerns of Parliamentary Strengthening and Political Party Development. Accordingly, listed below are all our activities which both focus primarily on, or include significant elements of, Parliamentary Strengthening work:
