SA will be Africa's first host of the World e-Parliament Conference later this month.
The Global Centre for ICT in Parliament says the conference is an international forum of a community of parliaments.
The forum addresses, from both political and technical perspectives, how the use of ICT can help improve representation, transparency, accountability, openness, and effectiveness in the complex parliamentary environment.
“At the conference, leaders and members of parliaments, secretaries-general, parliamentary staff and officials, experts from international organisations and academics who work and deal with information and communication technologies in legislatures will have the opportunity to analyse good practices, exchange views on latest trends and institutional developments, learn from each other's experiences, network with peers, and build partnerships in an international setting.”
It adds that the event is organised by itself, the United Nations, the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the Parliament of SA, and the Pan-African Parliament.
Some of the topics to be discussed are the impact of the digital divide on parliaments and democracy, governing at a time of technological changes, parliaments and the media in the information age, how video and mobile technologies are changing parliamentary communication, and whether social media can improve political participation.
Continental dialogues
SA's Parliament says this conference, along with the first plenary of the Africa Parliamentary Knowledge Network (APKN), aims to promote sustainable high-quality information services by Parliaments.
“The APKN plenary aims to provide a continental platform for promoting inter-Parliamentary dialogues, high-quality continent-wide capacity building programmes and common information services. The World e-Parliament Conference provides an international platform for these activities.”
The APKN plenary runs from 19 to 20 October and is being co-hosted by the Parliament of SA and the Pan-African Parliament.
The World e-Parliament Conference will be held on 21 and 22 October.
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