Final Report of SEAL I - UNDP Afghanistan

Support to the Establishment of Afghan Legislature
Project ID 00043513
13
support. This informal forum has been designed to provide more clarity about the activities of
each organization. The coordination efforts undertaken in that forum entailed the creation of the
‘interlocutorship’ mechanism put in place to satisfy the request of the National Assembly in
provision of support to Assembly committees by major partners. SEAL has had a recognized lead
role in that.
After a SEAL review in 2007 which found the Working Group needed stronger focus, SEAL offered
to assist the chair the Working Group, allocating a dedicated SEAL staff member to assist with
agenda consultations, meeting preparation, document collection, minutes and reports.
SEAL’s financial and administrative work with parliament was steered by a group consisting of
representatives from Parliament’s HR, ICT and Finance Departments, who met regularly for
briefings, brainstorming and to plan training activities to help ensure parliamentary ownership of
new systems. Towards the end of the 2007, a new working group was formed to steer the
Electronic Attendance System.
SEAL has continued its commitment to coordinating with others through periodic working
meetings for public information activities and planning, evaluation and monitoring of the I-ANDS
(Interim Afghan National Development Strategy), and capacity building activities in budget and
other areas.
SEAL has assisted Assembly Secretariat staff in drafting and updating the Development Strategy of
the National Assembly, which assesses the Assembly’s achievement of benchmarks. The Lower
House Secretariat drafted a detailed strategic paper and a work plan, with a similar paper expected
from the Upper House.
Output 2:
Building the capacities of Secretariat staff and Assembly Members
With support from SEAL, the Directors of the Secretariat have been trained in the National
Assembly of France. During June 2005, 120 members of the secretariat staff were trained in
Kabul in basic parliamentary affairs by experts from the legislature of France. Intensive in
house job training for the concerned Directors and staff of the Secretariat was given, covering the
areas of legislative process, public finance policy, and budget and development programmes,
Information and Public Relations and Parliamentary Protocol including inter-Parliamentary
Relations. During August to October 2005, 152 staff of the Secretariat, in groups of 15-20 persons,
has visited the parliaments of India, France, Italy, Sri Lanka, Netherlands, Germany, Indonesia,
Morocco, Turkey and Australia to observe the practical aspects of the matters that they were
trained on by the experts from France. To share the lessons learnt in the various parliaments, and
to select what is most suitable for Afghanistan, the Directors and staff have also organized a
national seminar for all 250 staff, and participated in the organization of the Orientation Seminar.
The project supported the Orientation Seminar for the Members was organized from Dec 10 to
Dec 17, 2005 by USAID. On the first day, 334 of the 350 members participated. While this number
stabilized at an average of 315 in the days to follow, the Seminar was a great success. The
Members showed a high level of interest and enthusiasm. UNDP/SEAL also supported the
participation of 5 experienced Members of Parliament from South Africa, India and Bangladesh.
The Seminar covered subjects such as the oversight, legislative and representational role; Code of
Conduct; Committee System; and Rules of Procedure.
A training need assessment for the Secretariat support staff was made with reference to the
job charts (“Position Descriptions”) of various Secretariat Departments and the job
descriptions of individual functionaries. On the basis of this assessment, training modules
Final Project Progress Report |