The Africa Leadership Institute (AFLI) under under the Parliamentary Performance Scorecard and Civic Engagement Project (PAPSCE) is set to launch the Annual Parliamentary Performance Scorecard Report 2018-2019, on 23rd July 2020.
The Scorecard Project is an exercise aimed at evaluating the performance of Ugandan Members of Parliament (MPs) in an endeavor to contribute to better governance. The report offers objective, evidence based, reliable, and transparent measures of how Members of Parliament perform in plenary sessions, in the different Parliamentary committees where they belong, as well as in their constituencies.
However, due to COVID-19 public health guidelines, AFLI has moved away from a hotel launch with mass gatherings to a Studio Launch. The venue for this year’s launch will be Vision Group Offices in Kampala.
The launch event which will last one hour, will be headlined with brief speeches by AFLI Board Chairperson, HE. DR. Thelma Awori, Ambassadors of DGF contributing Countries before the presentation of findings from the report by the AFLI Executive Director Hon. David Pulkol.
The objective of the launch is to publicise the release of the 2018-2019 Scorecard report and kick start the process of disseminating findings to stakeholders and citizens. The launch also marks the start of events that will culminate into placing the information in the hands of stakeholders and the public.
According to the Head of Civic Engagement and Research at AFLI, Dr. Gerald Wanzala Werikhe, the 2018-19 report AFLI has evaluated parliament in a more unique and detailed manner with emphasis on objectivity, transparency and accuracy. The ceremonies will be aired live on NBS TV and several other online platforms.
He says the report deeply looks at the Rules of Procedure of the institution of parliament, responses to matters of importance by line ministers, handling of petitions brought before parliament, the productivity of parliamentary committees, the appropriation role of parliament, disposal of committee reports, among others.
The report, he also says, introduces a new component of sub-regional scorecards which enables citizens in respective regions to know how they are represented at regional level.
The last report on performance of parliament was released in 8th Parliament and the project resumed in 2018 following a short absence for the period covering the 9th parliament. Resumption of the project Dr Werikhe says, was prompted by consultations across the 11 Sub-regions in which citizens presented the need to evaluate parliament.
Werikhe says, evaluation of parliament is important for growth of democracy because as watchdogs of the executive, the legislature too requires another watchdog to monitor its effectiveness for matters of transparency and accountability during execution of it’s constitutional mandate.
The launch ceremony will culminate into a series of events including a panel discussion on Saturday 25th July 2020, an online workshop with members of the press from 15 sub-regions of Uganda on Friday 24th July 2020, and another workshop for Members of the CSO fraternity under the Uganda Governance Monitoring Platform on Friday 25th July 2020.
On Wednesday, 29th July 2020, there will be an online workshop with CSO members under UPIMAC and later, AFLI will engage the public through 15 radio talkshows on 15 partnering radio stations in 15 sub-regions of Uganda.
The Africa Leadership Institute (AFLI) released its’ first groundbreaking and innovative Parliamentary Scorecard 2006-2007 in December 2007. The scorecard is based on the idea that it’s possible to work within the framework of representative government but still maintain a high degree of public participation in decision making.
AFLI maintains that by empowering constituents to monitor their elected representatives, provides intrinsic benefits by strengthening civic engagement with Parliament and in strengthening Parliament to fulfill its functions, as well as boosting democracy and good governance.