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Accountability of Parliament Success Stories |
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| Partners | News | Success Stories | Links | Updated: 8/28/2006 |
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Taking Parliament to the People
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Introduction
Twenty-three people are squeezed into an area designed for twelve. All seats are taken and those without a place to sit are standing wherever they can find room. The air is hot and humid from too many bodies and too much sunlight in too little space. Despite the heat, people listen intently as Foster Mijiga, an information technology specialist for the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI), demonstrates how members of the public can communicate directly with, and provide feedback to, their elected representatives in the Namibian Parliament through the Parliament’s web-based Information Management System (IMS). The audience, the staff of the Namibian Red Cross in Windhoek, has not had to travel to a computer classroom in the Parliament building for this demonstration. Instead, the computer classroom has come to them in the form of the Mobile Training Unit (MTU), a specially equipped bus with 13 computer stations and a generator.
This is not the first time the bus has attracted standing room only crowds. As it has traveled around the country, at some stops, huge crowds have gathered outside the bus, with people trying to peer through the windows to catch a glimpse of the technology and witness the training. In the Oshana region, students from four schools were scheduled for training on how to use the Internet and parliamentary website, but eight school groups showed up instead. The arrival of over 900 students and teachers threw all the logistical planning and organization into a mess. The organizers of the training ended up dividing the students into groups of 30, with each group spending 30 minutes inside the bus. At the end of the day, one big session was held in the Catholic Church, the largest building in the area. NDI’s Foster Mijiga says that "special thanks should go to the Catholic Priest who allowed me and my team to use the pulpit to preach the gospel of democracy."
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Partnership for Democracy
An outgrowth of USAID`s assistance program to the Namibian Parliament, the IMS and the MTU bus were developed in a collaboration between NDI, the Parliament and the Ministry of Regional and Local Government and Housing, as part of the Parliament`s initiative to take parliament to the people. The goals of this initiative are to strengthen parliamentary outreach as well as to increase public participation in parliamentary proceedings. USAID, working through NDI, has adopted these goals as primary objectives of its parliamentary constituency outreach program. This program is designed to enhance the capacity of members and staff of both houses of the Namibian Parliament - the National Assembly and the National Council — to engage in outreach activities and to strengthen the capacity and ability of civil society organizations, as well as ordinary citizens, to participate in the legislative process.
Development of the web-based Information Management System occurred partly in response to a national survey conducted by the National Council and NDI in 2000. This survey revealed that 75% of those surveyed indicated that they did not have direct access to parliamentary information and that there were no formal systems in place in the far flung rural areas of the country for receiving and disseminating parliamentary information (Namibia is almost twice the land size of the state of California). As one means of addressing this information and distance gap, NDI helped the parliament develop an interactive website that was launched in May of 2001. The website contains several unique features, chief among them being the ability to e-mail comments about a proposed bill directly to the parliamentary committee that is reviewing that particular piece of legislation. In addition to standard information such as copies of draft bills, bill histories, and bill summaries, the website also contains an interactive community chat room which allows anybody to take part in discussion groups on specific topics relating to parliament, government policies, bills, and other subjects lending themselves to public debate.
This innovative website was recognized at an international e-government conference sponsored by the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance held in July of 2001 in Stockholm, Sweden, where it won first prize for the outstanding information technology initiative from a developing country. It makes sense in Namibia because of the country`s sophisticated telecommunications infrastructure. While it is true that most Namibians do not yet own computers, a significant portion of the population has access to computers through internet cafes and computer banks at education institutions and other public and NGO-sponsored sites.
Funding for the MTU bus came from the Education for Development and Democracy Initiative (EDDI). The private sector is involved as well, with in-kind contributions from the Namibian vendors of Compaq and Microsoft and two Namibian companies, the Information Technology Department, which lent the use of the bus, and Radiator Services.
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Taking Democracy to the People
In Namibia, a country that is predominately rural and largely computer illiterate, the mobile training unit is a rolling classroom that allows for on-site computer training for regional and local elected representatives, government officials and staff, and representatives of local civic organizations and NGOs. These groups are being targeted for training because they are the primary link and interlocutors between parliament and the people. In the first six months of operation, over 1000 people received intensive computer training on the MTU bus and countless other students and members of the public received on-bus demonstrations. To utilize this training, the thirteen regional councils in Namibia, with their own funding, purchased and installed computer equipment in each of their council offices. With NDI’s assistance, they linked those computers to the IMS network. Nine of those offices have opened their doors to allow members of local civil society organizations to use their computer technology to access the parliamentary website, thus providing direct additional access to the Parliament in various regions of the country.
NDI provided extensive training to parliamentary members and staff to encourage use of the interactive website to interact with each other and with members of the public. When Ephraim Jane began working for the National Council in 1996, he could not even type. Now, with the help of NDI`s staff training program, Jane is the head of the Parliament`s Information Management System Committee and is responsible for the overall management of the parliamentary website. The Information Management System Committee has assumed primary responsibility for computer and information technology training within the parliament and will soon assume that role for training of groups outside the parliament, thus ensuring that the number of people accessing the IMS and parliamentary website and interacting with members of parliament continues to expand in the future.
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IT Serves Parliamentary Outreach Activities
The parliamentary website and mobile training unit are just one component of a larger strategy designed to strengthen parliamentary outreach and to increase public input in the parliamentary process. Information technology and interactive websites are tools for creating greater interaction between parliament and the public but they do not replace more traditional methods of face-to-face contact. Instead, these technology based tools can complement the more traditional methods by increasing the available means of communication between parliament and the public. USAID`s program has also focused on more conventional methods of communication through activities designed to strengthen the parliamentary committee system to enable committees to become one of the primary means of involving public participation in the legislative process. As a result, under the Namibian Parliament`s initiative to bring parliament to the people, the committees of the National Assembly and National Council have increased the number of public hearings on draft bills and public issues held in different regions of the country. In addition, an increasingly number of public petitions have been submitted to the Parliament by civil society organizations seeking new legislation or policy change and reform.
How great an impact technology-based tools such as the parliamentary website and the MTU bus will have on improving the overall quality of public participation in the Namibian Parliament remains to be seen. However, early indications suggest that more Namibians then ever before are in touch with their elected representatives, an increasing number of whom are doing so through the touch of a computer.
To access the Parliament of Namibia`s website, go to http://www.parliament.gov.na
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Namibian Youth Stand Together Against Crime
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Introduction
Crime is an increasing problem throughout Namibia and often there are inadequate resources to combat the problem effectively. While the situation is no different in Swakopmund, a small city on the desert coast of Namibia, the fact that the town is a popular tourist destination adds incentive to curbing crime.
In 1998, Paulus Shoopala attended a community meeting to discuss Swakopmund`s crime problem. Also attending were the mayor, the regional governor and members of the police. Many community members expressed their concern that the black youth of the town were the problem. Paulus, a black Namibian, and the youngest community member in attendance, disagreed and said he believed that youth of all races could actually assist the police in reducing crime.
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Mobilizing Swakopmund`s Youth
Through Paulus` initiative, Swakopmund Youth Against Crime (SYAC) was born. He began to mobilize young people and during the 1998 Christmas holiday season, which sees the population of Swakopmund swell with an influx of visitors, fifteen students began patrolling the beach area, which had been affected by criminal activity. This experiment was successful, and in early 1999, Paulus recruited forty-four unemployed and out-of-school youth, aged 18 to 35, as volunteers. The patrol area was extended to include the central business district. With the success of these pilot programs, SYAC was officially launched in September 1999 by the mayor of Swakopmund.
SYAC also seeks to create jobs and activities to keep youth off the streets and away from the attraction of gangs and crime. Many of the businesses in Swakopmund specifically request security assistance from the organization. In the beginning, SYAC received payment in kind from these businesses, including food, clothing or perhaps a bicycle which could be used by the organization. That practice has since changed and businesses are now paying cash for services. These funds cover operating costs and a small salary to the youth performing the work.
The program has been extremely successful and the organization is now working directly with the police. In 2001, the city`s Public Relations Officer stated that the central business district was virtually a crime free zone thanks to SYAC. In addition, many tourists have indicated their awareness of the role the SYAC plays in their protection.
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New Horizons
The success of SYAC has made the organization a model for other municipalities and regions of the country. In 2002, SYAC received a grant from the Namibian Institute for Democracy (NID), a USAID-funded organization which implements the Civil Society Development Program (CSDP). CSDP provides training and financial assistance to various Namibian organizations to actively interact with the government to advocate public interests. Each recipient organization is monitored and evaluated on their institutional improvement and advocacy. Thirty-three different organizations nationwide have been awarded grants under the CSDP, which also forms a network for broadening organizational links and diversifying advocacy issues.
A portion of CDSP`s US$5,000 grant to SYAC funded a training workshop for 13 representatives from the Erongo region in financial administration, management and advocacy, and to enable similar youth against crime groups to begin in their own communities. These organizations are becoming strong forces within other municipalities, and through the USAID grant, receive SYAC technical assistance.
SYAC`s success led to a second grant for US$10,000 in early 2003. The funding was used for a strategic vision and capacity building workshop for the organization and its affiliates, to conduct a monitoring program and establish the Erongo Regional Youth Against Crime Executive Committee. This committee consists of representatives from all eleven regional branches which allows the organizations to work together on larger issues.
SYAC`s success has been proven in addressing local crime problems in many municipalities. Paulus Shoopala, now the SYAC chairperson, believes the organization has made a difference in the lives of the many young people who are volunteers, but also in the lives of everyone who benefits from a decrease in crime.
The organization has plans to expand its horizons in 2004 by addressing civic and voter education through another USAID funded initiative. Shoopala notes that, "there is a need for ongoing voter education given that everyday young people are turning 18 (the legal voting age). As well, voter education should not be an issue only before an upcoming election."Through the support of USAID, SYAC and its branches have successfully curbed crime in their communities, and are confident they can take a next step by extending knowledge of civic responsibility to people throughout Namibia.
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