Parliaments and parties

Global Partners & Associates works with parliaments, political parties and politicians to strengthen democratic institutions and public engagement with the political process.

Our work in this area falls into three main categories: on-the-ground delivery of training, mentoring and other parliamentary strengthening projects; strategic analysis of parliamentary and political party work; and monitoring and evaluation of projects, including the development of analytical frameworks for donors and practitioners.

Support to committees in the Iraqi Council of Representatives, Baghdad

Global Partners is working with the Council of Representatives (CoR) in Baghdad to enhance the functioning of key committees. Working closely with MPs and staff a team put together by Global Partners, we are advising and guiding the committees in the development of their strategic plans. The two-year project aims to improve the committees' internal organisation and external impact, and is part of co-ordinated support to the Iraqi parliament with other donors such as USAID, National Democratic Institute, EU and UN Development Programme (UNDP).

Global Partners has also worked with legislative assemblies and parliaments in the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Africa developing mentoring and training programmes on issues such as engaging with the public, budget scrutiny, legislative oversight and codes of conduct.

Assessing parliamentary effectiveness and donor impact

Global Partners' work combines practical support to parliaments and politicians with more strategic analyses of parliamentary effectiveness and donor support to parliaments and parties. We have carried out a number of scoping exercises for donors wishing to refine or refocus their parliamentary work, but we have also carried out analyses of the effectiveness of international assistance in this area. Most recently Global Partners provided advice and analysis to the Danish Foreign Ministry as part of a strategic review of its democracy strengthening work.

Development of analytical and evaluative frameworks

Monitoring and evaluation is the most overlooked feature of assistance to parliaments and political parties. The international community recognises this weakness, and there are increasing efforts to establish international benchmarks and indicators for democratic parliaments. Global Partners is contributing to this process in two ways. First, in line with its distinctive approach to evaluation, it is developing a framework to analyse the politics of parliamentary reform, in conjunction with the Westminster Foundation for Democracy, designed to help donors and practitioners identify the key factors that determine the success of parliamentary reform strategies. Second, Global Partners staff are working with the Inter-Parliamentary Union to test and refine its 'Self-Assessment Toolkit for Parliaments', and carried out the first such self-assessment with the parliament of Rwanda.