Plenary

General Introduction

The APKN Charter of 2008 stipulates that the APKN operates under the authority of the Speakers and Presidents of APKN member assemblies who meet in plenary every two years to approve the reports of activities and the strategic plan of action of the APKN as presented by the Executive Committee, as well as set new priorities and goals for the next two years.

The First APKN Plenary will meet in Midrand South Africa on 20 October 2010. The plenary will be preceded by meetings of the Executive Committee and the APKN Coordinators on the 19th of October.  

The event is organized by the APKN Executive committee,  and jointly hosted by the Parliament of South Africa and the Pan African Parliament with support from the Africa i-Parliament Action Plan of the UN/DESA.

The APKN Council of Coordinators and Plenary is a unique opportunity to map out the path that APKN should take in ensuring high quality and sustainable information services and capacity building initiatives for all African Parliaments, not matter their size or resources. This will contribute significantly to increased parliamentary corporation and enhanced dialogue between PAP and National Parliaments and will also provide development partners a new and very effective mean to channel, their assistance and create synergies that were not possible before APKN was set up.

Aide Memoire

Overview

The APKN Secretariat is convening the 1st APKN Council of Coordinators and APKN Plenary. The Plenary, jointly hosted by the Pan Africa Parliament  and the Parliament of the Republic of South Africa with the support of UN/DESA Africa i-Parliament Action Plan, will take place at the PAP Chambers in Midrand, South Africa on the  19-20th of October 2010.

Established in June 2008 at the International Conference hosted by the People Assembly of Egypt and attended by representatives from 37 national and regional assemblies in Africa, the APKN, has been modelled on successful parliamentary networks like the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) in the United States and the European Centre for Parliamentary Research and Documentation (ECPRD) in Europe. APKN has in the last two years, become instrumental in promoting common information services and high quality continent wide capacity building programs for Parliaments .  Seen as an important enabler in the development of sustainable high quality information and capacity services, the APKN could become a strategic framework to support the African Parliaments to provide better services to Members and citizens alike.  At a PAP Speakers Conference held in October 2009 in Midrand it was acknowledged that APKN does provide  unique opportunities to enhance the sharing of ideas, experiences and good practices as well as increasing the engagement of PAP with member parliaments.

Goals

The APKN Plenary is set to attract the participation of representatives of all African parliaments and is meant toprovide an unique opportunity:

• to shape the future direction of the APKN by providing policy and programmatic direction for the period 2011-2012. The Plenary  aims to establish a viable plan of action to effectively support the implementation of policy decisions, support the development of parliamentary services and common information services for Africa Parliaments;
• to show case APKN to development partners as an  effective and sustainable vehicle to deliver parliamentary assistance to all African parliaments and build effective communities of practices and knowledge sharing opportunities.

APKN Thematic Groups

To implement its work the APKN has identified four thematic groups as its current focus areas. The APKN Council of Coordinators  will discuss the work plan for 2011-2012 and recommend its adoption to the APKN Plenary. The APKN working areas as identified in the Charter are as follows:

1. Focus Area - ICT aims to ensure that member parliaments acquire knowledge and skills required by parliamentarians to formulate policies and laws that foster the development of the information society; builds skills required to manage ICT services and deploy, manage and effective use ICT in Parliament as well as delivering parliamentary applications, open standards for parliamentary documents and information and capacity building services.
2. Focus Area - Legislation aims to ensure that member parliaments develop skills required to translate policy into legislation and assess legislation effectively; acquire  skills required to effectively manage legislative and  support services and effectively support legislative drafting and the legislative process as well as delivering capacity building services and software application to support bill drafting.
3. Focus Area – Information and Research aims to ensure that member states build skills required to make use of information and data for policy formulation, analysis and evaluation and to manage information and research services; acquire  skills required to gather, interpret and present information and data as well as deliver high quality information services and software applications for libraries and digital collections;
4. Focus Area - Public information and Communication aims to ensure increased capacity of parliaments to be responsive in the light of increased demand for true representation as well as to develop skills to increase public engagement and participation and  to ensure that the use of ICTs is recognized as very important tools in this process.

Target Audience

The APKN Council of Coordinators and APKN Plenary will be attended by presiding officers and members of parliaments, secretaries-general, parliamentary staff and officials.
It is also expected that development partners working in the parliamentary domain will attend the meeting as observers.

Structure

The APKN Council of Coordinators and APKN Plenary provide a fora  for the Africa Parliamentary knowledge Network to meet, discuss and plan APKN activities and services. This is the first meeting of both APKN Council of Coordinators and APKN Plenary after the APKN  was formally  set up in Cairo in June 2008.

Day one will be dedicated to “APKN Council of Coordinators” and will see  Secretary Generals /Clerks and Parliamentary staff work to define the APKN two year work plan for the  APKN Focus Areas as well as discuss proposal for possible amendments to the APKN Charter. Day two, Speakers/ Presidents of African Parliament will attend the “PAP Speakers Conference – on the Review of the Pan African Parliament Protocol and Ratification of the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance”. APKN Plenary has been scheduled as the last session of the Speakers Conference. The APKN Plenary, as prescribed by the the  APKN Charter, will approve the reports of activities and the strategic plan of action of the APKN as presented by the Executive Committee, as well as set new priorities and goals for the next two years.

Expected Outcome

At the meeting participants will discuss the different activities proposals and will have the opportunity to  review good practices, exchange views on latest trends and institutional developments, learn from each other’s experiences as well as build partnerships that will support the implementation of the  APKN Plan of Action 2011-2013.

The main expected outcome of the meeting are:

• APKN Charter reviewed and if required amended
• APKN Plan of Action 2011-2013 that is designed to address the capacity and information services needs of parliaments
• wider commitment of development partners to take advantage of the APKN as a unique vehicle to deliver better and more sustainable services to African Parliament, as well as to possible fund parts of the APKN Plan of Action 2011-2012

Logistics

Languages

The working languages of the Plenary will be English, French, Portuguese and Arabic

Venue

Pan African Parliament, Gallagher Estate, Midrand, South Africa

Organisation

The 1st APKN Council of Coordinators and Plenary is jointly hosted by Parliament of South Africa and the Pan African Parliament with support from the Africa i-Parliament Action Plan (UN/DESA), under the aegis of the Africa Parliamentary Knowledge Network.

Insurance - Liability

The conference organizers cannot be held liable for loss, injury or damage to any person or property or for any additional expenditure incurred due to changes, whatever the causes. Participants are advised to make their own arrangements for health and travel insurance.

Contact Details:

Parliament of South Africa
Ms Lydia Radebe
Parliament of South Africa
Unit Manager: Public Relations
Tel: 27 (21) 403 8092
Fax:27 (21) 403 8194
Email: lradebe@parliament.gov.za

Pan African Parliament
Mr Kenneth Akibate
Pan African Parliament
Tel: +27 11 545 5000
Direct: +27 II 545 5076
Fax: +27 11 545 5156
Email: kenneth.akibate@panafricanparliament.org

Africa i-Parliaments Action Plan
Ms Cecilia Matanga
Africa i-Parliament Action Plan
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA)
Tel: 254 20 3749893
Fax: 254 20 3749894
Email: cecilia@parliaments.info

Programme

PDF version

APKN: Council of Coordinators

19 October 2010

Annotated Agenda

APKN: Plenary 2010

20 October 2010

Practical Information

Participation and Registration

The fact that the APKN Plenary is taking place at the Pan African Parliament makes it imperative for all delegates to observe relevant security procedures, including registration deadlines and rules concerning identification badges. Detailed instructions in this regard will be posted on the APKN Plenary website.

To be registered, delegates are requested to complete and return to the Africa i-Parliament Action Plan  the enclosed registration form, which can also be downloaded from the APKN Plenary website. Alternatively delegations can register online at the following address www.apkn.org/plenary2010 The deadline for registration is 21 September 2010. Registrations received after this date may not be taken into account.

Delegates requiring sponsorship should requested at the time of the online registration. Delegates that qualify for sponsorship ( see support for parliamentary delegations) will be required to submit over and above the registration form, a medical note stating that they are in good health and fit to travel at the time of registration. These documents should be emailed to info@parliaments.info

Security

Security arrangements will be very strict as no one may enter the Pan African Parliament premises without a badge on the occasion of the APKN Plenary.  For security reasons, all delegates will be requested to wear their identification badges at all times during their stay at the Plenary and related social functions. Distribution of badges for the Plenary will start on Monday, the 18th of October 2010 at 07:00 am. at the PAP  entrance, two hours before the start of the APKN Council of Coordinators.

Languages

The working languages of the Plenary will be Arabic, English, French and Portuguese.  Official documentation of the Plenary will be available in those languages.

Documents

The official documents of the Plenary will be its agenda, background documents and the list of participants. These documents will be distributed to participants at the Registration Desk. Should delegates wish to distribute their own documents or other material pertaining to the agenda of the conference, they may use a table provided for that purpose in the immediate vicinity of the meeting room.  

A provisional List of Participants will be issued on the basis of confirmations received by the organisers up to 21 September 2010. For technical reasons, it will not be possible to produce a revised list during the Conference, but one will be issued after the end of the event and will be placed on the Conference website.

Visas

Attention is drawn to the provisions in force regarding entry into South Africa, which may refuse entry to those not having the required visa.  Delegates requiring an entry visa must obtain it from the South African Consulate or Diplomatic Mission responsible for the necessary arrangements in their country.

Delegates should note that the application process can take some time.  Delegates are strongly advised to make the necessary arrangements at the earliest opportunity.  Please note that the organizers are not able to provide assistance in obtaining visas.

Hotel accommodation and local transport

A list of hotels with preferential rates is available below. Delegates are responsible to make their own bookings and payments to the chosen hotel.

Transport will be available from the chosen hotel to the venue.

Accomodation in Sandton

Insurance - Liability

The Plenary organizers can not be held liable for loss, injury or damage to any person or property or for any additional expenditure incurred due to changes, whatever the causes. Participants are advised to make their own arrangements for health and travel insurance.

Support to parliamentary delegations

To ensure representation of all Parliaments at the APKN Plenary the United Nations through the Africa i-Parliament Action Plan will support the travel and per diem expenses of one delegate per parliament, being the APKN Coordinator. The United Nations will support delegates only on request from Parliaments  UN rules and regulations will be applied to travel and per diem.  Parliaments are expected to directly support any additional delegates. Support shall be requested at the moment of the online registration.

Documentation

English invite

Registration Form English

Request for sponsorship and Participant Form

Participant Form