Parliamentary Program in Azerbaijan: Quarterly Report (January 1 – March 31, 2009)

The program is being implemented by Development Alternatives, Inc. (DAI) from April 2007 to April 2009. The main partner of the program is the Milli Mejlis (MM), the Parliament of Azerbaijan. Program subcontractors include the National Conference of State Legislatures, Indiana University, and International Roll Call. The program's activities focus on three general technical components: developing and strengthening the capacity of permanent parliamentary staff, promoting greater legislative and procedural transparency, and enhancing the effectiveness of Parliament. The program's emphasis in the first year was to evaluate the status of the institution's capacity in these components and provide training for capacity building accordingly. In the second year, the program continued training of the staff of the Parliament and developed the MPs' ability to become a part of the policy-making process as full-fledged legislators. During this quarter, the program team continued its detailed training sessions for MPAs (MP Assistants) that had begun during year 1, moving into the area of policy development conceptualization training and furthering its training work on improving constituency relations. The program increased its level of training for MPAs and staff members regarding the use of IT technology, such as blogging and website building. The program also held its first major round table on transparency and anticorruption in coordination with the USAID/CoE project, AZPAC. The round table conference brought together experts, representatives from governmental authorities, the Milli Mejlis, civil society, and the media to discuss the legislative process in Azerbaijan and how it might be improved to facilitate the efficient passage of high-quality legislation and maximize its resistance to corruption. The program's team focusing on constituency activities carried out a 3-day training on the Strengthening of Constituency Relations for MPAs. The training was held throughout the entire month of February 2009 and was run by Mr. Eric Lepisto, Ph.D. in Social Anthropology, representatives from Transparency International Organization, and an expert from the Ministry of Ecology. The training aimed to support the establishment of effective constituent relations. The program's activities continued to maintain and consolidate the quality of the working relationship between the program team and the leadership of the Parliament, a number of MM departments, and with individual MPs and their assistants. However, the campaign about the referendum on constitutional amendments held during this quarter substantially affected the program, and many MPs and MM staff were less available, limiting the number of activities the program could deliver.