Gherardo Casini, Head of the Global Centre for ICT in Parliament, a joint initiative of the UN and the Inter-Parliamentary Union, which explores and promotes the use of new media in Parliaments worldwide

1. Take Action!
Online engagement
and the power to change the world
The use of new media by Parliaments
Global Centre for ICT in Parliament
Gherardo Casini

2. Global Centre for ICT in parliament
Joint initiative of the United Nations and the
Inter-Parliamentary Union launched in 2005
at WSIS (Tunis)
Driven by parliaments through a high-level
Board and partnerships with legislatures
A hub for research and analyses, networking
and coordination, and technical assistance
www.ictparliament.org

3. Key activities
World e-Parliament Conferences: Geneva,
2007; Brussels, 2008; Washington, 2009;
Johannesburg, 2010.
Global Survey on ICT in Parliament 2007
World e-Parliament Report 2008
Global Survey on ICT in Parliament 2009
World e-Parliament Report 2010
Guidelines and working groups

4. World e-Parliament Report 2010
Highlights and Major Findings

5. World e-Parliament Report 2010
• Assist parliamentary leaders, members, and
staff in responding to these challenges
• Report findings from survey conducted by
the Global Centre for ICT in Parliament in
2009.
– 264 chambers, 188 countries, 2 regional
parliaments
– 134 responses
• 109 countries
• 27,249 legislators (61% of world total)

6. Countries whose parliaments
responded to the survey

7. World e-Parliament Report 2010
• Highlights two critical issues
– Communication with citizens
– Demand for transparency and accountability
• Assesses the state of the foundation for e-
Parliament
– Systems for managing document
– ICT support for library and research
services
– Technical infrastructure
– Strategic planning for ICT

8. World e-Parliament Report 2010
• Proposes a methodology for assessing ICT
and state of e-parliament
• Analyzes inter-parliamentary cooperation and
how to leverage synergies among
legislatures by working collaboratively

9. Topics
• The challenges facing parliaments
• Background of the 2010 Report
• How parliaments are doing: Major findings
• The state of e-parliament in 2010
• Cooperation and collaboration at the
international level
• An e-parliament framework for 2010-2020
• The imperative of moving forward

10. So how are parliaments doing?

11. Growth in mobile subscriptions and Internet
users 1997-2009 (in 000,000s)
Mobile subscriptions
Internet
Users

12. Trust in national institutions:
regional averages

13. Challenges facing parliaments
• ICT is dramatically changing the political
environment
• Parliaments can not be mere witnesses to
these transformative effects
• Parliaments are exploring ways to use ICT
to promote accessible, transparent and
accountable institutions, and to
communicate with citizens

14. Communication with Citizens
• The topic is high on the agenda of
parliaments’ leadership and members
• There are different levels/relationships to
be considered:
between Members and the electorate
between Committees and citizens
between Parliament and the society

15. Some concerns
• Interaction – one way or two-way exchange?
• Responsiveness – ability to respond
effectively and timely?
• Representativeness – how representatives
the comments/exchanges are?
• Values – how informed and useful is the
input?

16. Communication with the public
• Some improvement since 2007, especially
in the use by members of e-mail and
websites
• 78% reported that some or most members
use e-mail to communicate with citizens
• But only 51% reported that some or most
members use personal websites

17. Communication with the public (2)
• Audio and video technologies will be
predominant in the next few years
– Webcasting of plenary sessions
(72%)
– Webcasting of committee sessions
(50%)

18. Communication with the public (3)
• Top five technologies that are predicted to
have highest growth rates are all interactive
– Online discussion groups – 280%
– Online polls –227%
– e-Petition –208%
– e-Consultation on issues –167%
– e-Consultation on bills – 163%

19. Communication with the public (4)
• Challenges:
– Members are not familiar with the
technology
– Citizens are not familiar with the
legislative process

20. Trend in citizen use of technology-based
methods of communication
85%

21. Transparency / accountability
• Websites have become the primary means
by which parliaments can achieve the
goals of transparency and accountability.
• Documentation must be complete, timely
and understandable
• Nearly every parliament now has a
website

22. Transparency / accountability (2)
• But many websites do not yet meet some
of the most important recommendations of
the IPU Guidelines for Parliamentary
Websites
– 1/3 do not provide text and status of
proposed legislation
– 55% have not implemented standards
for access by persons with disabilities

24. Transparency/accountability (3)
It is easy to put up a
website – it is difficult to
build a good one

25. Systems and standards for documents
• Essential for improving the efficiency of a
parliament’s operations and enabling to
achieve transparency and accessibility.
• Yet little progress since 2007
– Less than half have Document
Management Systems (DMS) for bills
– Only 25% use XML for any document

26. Parliaments with systems for managing the
text of bills by income group
46%
78%
5%

27. DMS for committee and plenary documents by
income groups
73%

28. Information support:
library and research services
• ICT has created even greater demands for
information
• Has raised the standard by which the
currency, completeness, and
customization of information are judged.
• Some parliamentary libraries have
become leaders in integrating technology
into their work in new and innovative ways.

29. Information support:
library and research services (2)
• Inadequate resources for training
• Limited availability of technology
• In some cases, lack of understanding of
the contribution they can make to the
effectiveness of the parliamentary
business

30. Parliamentary libraries connected to
an intranet, by income group
96% of Parliaments have LANs
but only 58% connect their
libraries

31. Technical Infrastructure
• Must be robust and flexible
• Some improvements
– Support for plenary
– Training for members and staff

32. Technical Infrastructure (2)
• Continuing challenges
– 96% have a LAN but only 72% state that
all members and committees are
connected
– So over ¼ are NOT connected
– Need more applications to support
legislative and oversight work

33. Parliaments and strategic planning:
Implementing a vision for ICT

34. Strategic Planning
• Factors for success
– Leadership
– Willingness to state a vision, values, and
goals of the parliament
– Involvement of all stakeholders
– Capacity and commitment to managing
change

35. Establishing and updating the
strategic plan
• 60% of parliaments report they have a
strategic plan with goals, objectives, and
timetables
• Less than 50% a plan and update it
regularly
• Less than 40% have criteria to measure
the success of the plan

36. And so what is the
overall status of ICT in
parliaments…what is the state of
e-Parliament worldwide?

37. State of e-Parliament in 2010
• Based on collective scores for:
– Oversight and management
– Infrastructure
– Systems / standards for documentation
– Library and research services
– Websites
– Communication

38. State of e-Parliament in 2010
Range of total scores:
13.5% to 82.7%

39. State of e-Parliament in 2010 (2)
• Highest level of adoption
– sound management organization
– solid yet flexible infrastructure
– systems for managing all parliamentary
documents
– strong library support through ICT

40. State of e-Parliament in 2010 (3)
• Highest level of adoption
– websites offer a great deal of timely and
complete information with multiple
channels to access it
– variety of methods for engaging with
citizens through traditional communication
means as well as new and more
interactive media

41. State of e-Parliament in 2010 (4)
• Lowest level of adoption
– Lack an appropriate management
structure
– Lack an adequate infrastructure (some
do not have reliable electrical power)
– Often have no systems for managing
documents

42. State of e-Parliament in 2010 (5)
• Lowest level of adoption
– Very weak libraries and research
services
– Websites with the least amount of
information (a few do not have websites
at all)
– Many have no capabilities for using ICT-
supported methods to communicate with
citizens.

43. State of e-Parliament in 2010 (6)
• Middle level of adoption
– Vary in their strengths and weaknesses
– Have bits and pieces but not a coherent
strategy
– Usually have not achieved a high level
of adoption in any categories
– Unevenness in implementation

44. State of e-Parliament in 2010 (7)
• Level of adoption directly affects MPs:
– 27,249 legislators represented in the
survey 2009
– 20% do not have a personal desktop or
laptop computer at their disposal
– 31% are not provided with access to the
parliament’s intranet

45. State of e-Parliament in 2010 (8)
• Level of adoption affects members
– 28% cannot access the text and current
status of proposed legislation
– 47% serve in parliaments that have not
implemented accessibility standards
– 44% do not have access to a library
website that can organize information
sources based on issues of concern to
members.

46. State of e-Parliament in 2010:
economic and regional analysis

47. State of e-Parliament in 2010:
economic and regional analysis (2)

48. Examples from Latin America
• National Assembly of Ecuador – New
media presence and explanatory notes
http://www.asambleanacional.gov.ec/
• Senate of Chile – Senador Virtual
http://www.senadorvirtual.cl/
• Chamber of Deputies of Brazil – e-
democracy programme
http://www2.camara.gov.br/participe/sua-propos

49. Conclusions from the 2010 findings
• There has been some but clearly not
enough progress since the 2008 report
• Most parliaments are still not making the
best use of technology
• There is some indication that the gap
between technically advanced parliaments
and those who are not is growing larger

50. The imperative of moving forward
• Many parliaments are failing significantly to
reach the full potential that ICT can offer to
strengthen the institution; they may, in fact,
be falling even further behind.
• Technology enables parliaments to realize
the values of transparency, accessibility,
accountability and effectiveness.

51. The imperative of moving forward (2)
In the age of the Information Society, the
ability of parliaments to fulfill their
responsibilities as representatives of the
people and to attain the highest levels of
openness requires the effective and creative
application of information and communication
technologies in their daily work.

52. The imperative of moving forward (3)
To achieve these goals, parliaments have
to be able to share experiences,
knowledge, and ideas with each other in
regional and international settings in a
collaborative global environment.