While more and more of us have come to expect all sorts of information to be available around the clock and at our fingertips, the reality is that most people in the world do not enjoy such a luxury. That applies not only to citizens, but also to institutions such as parliament.
A new Global Centre for Information and Communication Technologies in Parliament opened on 17 November in Rome. The Global Centre is the fruit of a partnership between the United Nations Department for Economic and Social Affairs (UN-DESA) and the IPU. It stems from the commitments made at last year’s World Summit for the Information Society (WSIS) held in Tunis.
The idea behind the Global Centre is to help parliaments and their members, especially in developing countries, acquire and effectively use the most advanced information and communication technologies (including, but not limited to, the Internet) both as a way of improving their methods of work internally and of affording citizens more direct access to their elected representatives.
While not a panacea, ICTs can help nurture a culture of openness, transparency, and accountability in parliament. Tools such as a well-designed and information-rich parliamentary website, for example, can help constituents follow the activities of their elected representatives, send in queries, become more familiar with legislation, and identify meetings they might wish to attend.
ICTs can also enable members of parliament to communicate with each other across borders. Indeed, nothing opens more windows to the world outside one’s national perspective than the Internet and other similar technologies.
The Global Centre will be an asset for all those parliaments that need hands-on assistance in developing their ICT capacities. It will also be a forum for legislators to discuss the complexities of policies in support of ICTs in the context of the ever expanding "information society".
A Board composed of Speakers and Presidents of Parliament, as well as the IPU President and the United Nations Under-Secretary General for Economic and Social Affairs, will be at the helm of this new facility.
For further information on the Global Centre, visit its website.
