The 2022-2026 IPU strategy was unanimously approved by Member Parliaments at the 143rd IPU Assembly in November 2021, in Madrid, Spain. The new Strategy lays out the IPU’s roadmap for the next five years with a renewed mandate to continue strengthening parliaments for peace, democracy and development. It also opens up new avenues for the IPU to support parliaments in other strategic areas such as mitigating the impact of climate change.
The new Strategy is the result of one of the broadest and most inclusive consultations in the IPU’s more than thirteen decades of existence. Over 12 months in 2021, led by IPU President Duarte Pacheco and the Executive Committee, the IPU consulted stakeholders, including hundreds of parliamentarians, parliamentary staff, partners and civil society.
The feedback confirmed that the IPU should continue strengthening and connecting parliaments as well as supporting parliamentarians worldwide. However, the IPU’s Member Parliaments went further to underline that parliaments need to work together, as well as with other stakeholders, to make change. Consequently, the IPU’s ultimate objective is now to develop “parliamentary ecosystems for democracy for everyone”, as underscored in its logo.
The ecosystem approach is a shift away from looking at parliaments in isolation towards including a broader set of actors and dynamics that influence them, such as government, political parties, academia, United Nations partners and the media.
The new Strategy concentrates on five interconnected objectives – down from eight in the previous iteration: building effective and empowered parliaments, promoting inclusive and representative parliaments, supporting resilient and innovative parliaments, catalysing collective parliamentary action and strengthening the IPU’s accountability.
Resilience and accountability are direct responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, which demonstrated how parliaments need to adapt and innovate to continue operating and best serve their constituents.
The five objectives represent the pathways through which the IPU helps parliaments make change so they in turn can address some of the global challenges that the world faces.
The Strategy lists those global challenges as: climate change; democracy, human rights, gender equality and youth participation; peace and security; and sustainable development.
Climate change was identified by the Members as one of the key areas where the IPU should concentrate its immediate efforts. The new Strategy provides a framework for the IPU to support parliaments in making progress on the Paris Agreement and other climate treaties, in accelerating decarbonization and reducing parliaments’ own carbon footprint.
