IPU Innovation Tracker

The e-learning platform of the IT Governance Hub is currently undergoing a review, with updates being made to the IT Maturity Assessment Tool (IMAT) template. IMAT’s primary purpose is to enable parliaments to self-assess their performance in four key areas: digital strategy, key processes, digital transformation, and efficiency. Based on their scores, parliaments can chart a path forwards by establishing improvement targets in each area. The revised version of IMAT will incorporate AI as a new assessment dimension. Once the platform update is complete, parliaments will be invited to renew their self-assessments.

In conjunction with this initiative, the IT Governance Hub is holding two webinars, as part of the Transforming Parliaments series, relating to AI governance in parliaments. Further information will be available in the events section of the IPU website in due course.

The launch of the Guidelines for AI in parliaments in December 2024 represented a significant milestone for the Parliamentary Data Science Hub. Participating parliaments have since convened twice to discuss the latest advances in the use of AI in parliaments: on 17 February 2025, they focused on the Guidelines themselves, and on 17 March 2025, they addressed good practices in the area of generative AI prompts. Discussions are also under way on plans for an in-person meeting later in 2025. In the coming months, the hub will follow up with a series of webinars that build on the themes covered by the Guidelines, including AI system development, AI strategy, AI and data literacy, and risk management.

The Parliament of Fiji has taken on the role of coordinator of the Pacific Regional Hub, in agreement with the outgoing coordinator, the House of Representatives of New Zealand. 

The Secretary General of the Parliament of Fiji, Ms. Jeanette Emberson, and the IPU Secretary General, Mr. Martin Chungoing, signed a Cooperation Agreement during the 150^th IPU Assembly that sets out the objectives of this new partnership.  The purpose of the Pacific regional hub is to facilitate the exchange of experience and expertise between Pacific parliaments on digital transformation and innovation. In doing so, the Pacific regional hub will help Pacific parliaments to be more efficient and effective in their work, and to be more open and transparent to citizens.

Related to this transition, from 25 to 27 March 2025, the IPU and the UNDP Fiji regional parliamentary development team co-organized a three-day workshop in Suva for clerks and IT managers from 12 Pacific parliaments. The workshop focused on digital transformation and innovation in Pacific parliaments, and explored opportunities for future knowledge-sharing on relevant topics.