On Thursday, September 12, a physical meeting was organized with the CSOs to discuss the activities carried out in Parliament and to establish a network for sharing information. The group agreed to hold coordination meetings quarterly. The meeting was productive, with each organization sharing its contributions to the House of Representatives. All members participated actively.
IPRT
IPRT has been working with both the House of Representatives and the House of Elders for 25 years, focusing on democracy, good governance, and transparency. In recent months, IPRT conducted two public debates in which members of the House of Representatives participated. These debates were held in all regions, involving the MPs elected from each area.
CDG
The Center for Democracy and Governance works to train sub-committees that guide each community in developing their own Terms of Reference (TOR), which outline the committee’s responsibilities. They also facilitate public debates involving the House of Representatives. One of the major debates focused on examining the budget of the HOR, which enabled the House of Representatives to review the regular staff and conduct a gathering session in which all staff members of the HOR participated.
SOYDAVO
SOYDAVO collaborated with the House of Representatives during the 2021 elections and provided training sessions for various sub-committees. Soydavo also preparing to conduct public debates participating HOR members.
SIRAAD Initiatives
SIRAAD Initiatives focuses on gender issues within the House of Representatives and has conducted debates specifically addressing these topics. They work closely with the House of Representatives on policies related to Female Genital Mutilation.
After the CSOs highlighted their activities, the ISIR Institute shared insights about the project on parliamentary oversight, detailing the debates conducted by all organizations and how to prevent overlapping efforts. ISIR also demonstrated the Gole Watch digital platform to the CSOs and provided links to pages and websites for following up on information related to the House of Representatives and CSO network meetings.
