CDI Associate Attends International Conference on Capacity Building for Parliamentarians Bern | 19-20 October 2011
An important goal for CDI is to contribute to international thinking on the most effective ways to help parliamentarians develop their professional skills. CDI was therefore pleased to take the opportunity to support one of our Associates, former Speaker of the NSW Legislative Assembly, Hon Kevin Rozzoli, to present a paper at a conference on capacity building for parliamentarians held in Bern in Switzerland in October 2011. The conference was part of an Australian Research Council (ARC) funded project ‘Parliamentary Careers: Design, Delivery and Evaluation of Improved Professional Development’. The project is led by Associate Professor Ken Coghill, Director, Monash Governance Research Unit and Co-Director, Parliamentary Studies Unit at Monash University. The conference brought together around 140 participants, including scholars of parliaments, MPs, secretaries general and other parliamentary staff, to discuss a range of issues related to the theory and practice of parliamentary capacity building. There were special discussions on what skills parliamentarians actually need, how those needs are changing, how parliamentarians learn to do their job and how they can most effectively be assisted, both by outside organisations and by internal training and mentoring.
Mr Rozzoli presented a paper entitled “Experiences in the Field, Parliamentary training in Indonesia and the South Pacific” which drew upon his observations from working with CDI in the provision of support to parliamentary institutions in CDI partner countries. His conclusions emphasised the importance of developing a long-term engagement with partner institutions in order to gain an intimate knowledge of their procedures and personalities and to foster close working relationships over a sustained period. Mr Rozzoli also produced a report on the conference which highlights the key points of discussion during the sessions and some of the conclusions that could be drawn from the delegates’ exchange of views, click on the links below to access both these documents:
