The Sunlight Foundation is co-hosting a conference this spring to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing parliamentary monitoring organizations (PMOs). The save the date notice is below.

PMO Leaders Conference on Parliamentary Transparency and Networking

April 30 to May 2, 2012

Washington, D.C.

A recently published survey of parliamentary monitoring organizations (PMOs) by the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and World Bank Institute (WBI) identifies more than 190 PMOs that are monitoring the performance and functioning of over 82 national parliaments. PMOs show great promise in strengthening democratic governance.  However, PMOs share a number of common challenges, including a lack of parliamentary transparency. Increasing opportunities for PMOs to share experiences and good practices can enhance monitoring activities and strengthen the ability of PMOs to work collaboratively to meet common goals.

To help provide a platform for cooperation among PMOs, the Sunlight Foundation, the Latin American Network for Legislative Transparency, NDI, WBI, the Embassy of Mexico in the United States, and the National Endowment for Democracy are co-hosting a two-and-a-half-day conference in Washington, D.C., for global PMO leaders. The conference seeks to foster discussion on international strategies for improving access to parliamentary information on the national level, including a transparency “pledge” for parliaments, which would be available for comment on the AGORA web portal in advance of the conference.  The conference also would provide an opportunity for PMOs to share good practices for monitoring parliamentary transparency, discuss collaborative ideas for addressing common challenges, and explore engagement in international fora to raise awareness of PMOs and their work. 

For more information, please contact:

Andrew Mandelbaum of NDI at amandelbaum@ndi.org

John Wonderlich of the Sunlight Foundation at johnwonderlich@gmail.com

Melissa Ortiz Massó of the LALT Network at melissa@fundar.org.mx

Pablo Secchi of the LALT Network at psecchi@directoriolegislativo.org

Limited scholarships to support travel costs may be available. The conference language is English.