The Common Principles for Support to Parliaments designed by the IPU set out the fundamental principles for planning and implementing programmes to strengthen parliaments, balancing the delivery of external technical assistance with the needs and expertise of local actors. On 29 March 2018, the IPU organized the Second Expert Roundtable on the Common Principles on “Proactive parliaments: Bolstering self-development”.
The roundtable brought together over 40 representatives from 18 parliaments, and included 11 Secretaries General of parliamentary organizations and representatives from 8 partner organizations engaged in support projects. Participants drafted an operational guide for parliaments that enables them to assert national ownership over their development.
At a time of increasing external support to parliaments – including facilitating their role in implementing the SDGs – the guide is particularly important. Both parliaments and partner organizations shared innovative practices and worked to create an operational guide that is both sensitive to national particularities, yet universally applicable to the diversity of parliaments around the world.
The guide will help put the Common Principles into action. It is a user-friendly manual for parliaments and partners on how parliaments can be firmly placed in the driver’s seat of self-development. This will result in stronger partnerships and more effective and sustainable development outcomes.
The Common Principles were adopted by the 131st IPU Assembly in October 2014. They have been endorsed by 96 parliaments and 24 partner organizations.
