Abstract
This chapter focuses on those who fund, develop and conduct education and training programs for Members of Parliament (MPs) and the value, or otherwise, of using external, fly-in-fly-out training providers from other cultural and political systems. The role of international organizations in funding, developing and evaluating parliamentariansʼ education and training programs and the resources spent on consultants is also examined. In addressing these issues, the role of parliamentary staff in assisting MPs to enhance their knowledge, skills and abilities is scrutinized, including structural and other challenges they would face if they were to play a more significant role. In making these arguments, the author draws primarily (but not exclusively) on data collected from MPs from five Pacific countries, which include the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, the Marshall Islands, Guinea, Timor-Leste, Tonga and Vanuatu. The chapter concludes by offering suggestions on how education and training programs for MPs could be improved.
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Notes
- 1.
For the purpose of this article, the Pacific region excludes developed countries such as Australia and New Zealand because of their comparative advanced levels of democracy and development. It includes Timor-Leste because it forms part of the Pacific Region for AusAID administrative purposes which is one of the major parliamentary strengthening stakeholders in the region.
- 2.
CDFs are funding arrangements that channel money from central government directly to electoral constituencies for local infrastructure projects with the decision on how these funds are allocated and spent resting primarily on MPs (Van Zyl 2010). Theoretically, CDFs are meant to improve effective project delivery through bypassing central governments’ bureaucracies. They are also meant to empower parliaments by enabling them to allocate and spend funds independent of the central government. However, CDFs have been criticized for the fact that they breach a key principle of separation of power as they give the legislature the function of budget execution which should primarily be done by central governments, something which may compromise their ability to perform their representative role.
- 3.
Only slightly less the case than in the Timor-Leste parliament.
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Kinyondo, A. (2016). Legislative Capacity Building: Pacific Case Studies. In: Lewis, C., Coghill, K. (eds) Parliamentarians’ Professional Development. Public Administration, Governance and Globalization, vol 16. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24181-4_7
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