PAC Networks - Approaches to Capacity Building

1. Networks of Public Accounts
Committees:
Approaches to Capacity Building
Mitchell O’Brien
Governance Specialist
Team Lead – Parliamentary Strengthening Program
World Bank

2. What is a Parliamentary Network?
o Parliamentary Network = Formal associations of parliamentary institutions
characterized by a set of relationships, personal interactions, and
connections among participants.
o There is an emphasis on information flow and helpful linkages.
o A Parliamentary Network is the term used in the parliamentary community to
describe what, in other fields, are called Communities of Practice (CoP) or
learning networks.
 Parliament is a practice, not a science
o Learning networks made up of a community of practitioners are able to
collect both tacit (informal) and explicit (formal) knowledge from individual
experts from diverse sources and from, potentially, remote locations, in order
to benefit the learning community.
 NAPAC is a Community of Practitioners
o The parliamentary community has embraced this approach as it facilitates
PACs from multiple jurisdictions learning from each other.

3. Outline
1. Common Design Features of Networks
2. Examples of Capacity Building Techniques
3. Discussion
4. Working Groups

4. Recurring Qualities/ Design
Features of Successful
Learning Networks

5. Common Design Features
There are recurring qualities/ design features that can be grouped
around the following attributes:
 Size (number of members)
 Purpose or objective (achievement of a mutual goal)
 Degree of formality (informal ↔ formal)
 Level of members’ commitment
 Leadership (the degree of sustained leadership by members,
for instance if the CoP is based on distributed leadership in
which multiple core members serve as leaders)
 Self-organizing vs. sponsored

6. Moving from Inception to
Implementation
 What does NAPAC do now?
 How does NAPAC do it?

7. Examples of Capacity
Building techniques used
by other PAC Networks

8. Capacity Building Techniques-A
 Institutional and organizational support to network secretariats to assist them
in stewarding learning networks and communities
Examples:
o Network working groups focused on specific topics, or network
organizational issues such as communication strategies/ operational
elements (ARAPAC)
o TA to network Secretariat to enhance know-how on using social
learning methods in Network activities
 South-South & South-North Exchange - Learning between networks
Examples:
o NAPAC and other PAC networks
o NAPAC and other national, regional, or global networks such as
AFROSAI
 Knowledge exchange activities within the network guided through a
membership mapping
Examples:
o Bringing together NAPAC champions and PACs that have identified a
similar capacity constraint

9. Capacity Building Techniques - B
 Peer exchange/assist
Examples:
o EAAPAC Pilot Peer Assist for South Sudan
o SADCOPAC Clerk Attachment process
 Structured learning around technical areas in order to enhance operational
effectiveness
Examples:
o Targeted training for Clerks at the end of larger network gatherings
 Integrating networking and community strengthening elements as part of
traditional knowledge exchange and structured learning activities
Examples:
o Surfacing common topics of interest/ concern during knowledge
exchange activities; and helping to design community learning
responses to build and share experience (Good practice development
process)

10. Capacity Building Techniques - C
 Action-orientated planning/ Value creation
Examples:
o Convening PAC Members, Committee Clerks
and other parliamentary institutions, to
collaboratively develop approaches to
performance challenges
 Participatory knowledge capture techniques
Examples:
o Using Wikispaces during knowledge exchange
and structured training activities, to create a
shared memory and understanding as to
technical content and experience shared.

11. Discussion?