THURSDAY 02 MARCH 2023,
10:00AM – 12:00 PM HARARE, PRETORIA TIME.
Introduction
AFRODAD hosted a webinar to SHARE, DISCUSS AND VALIDATE the results from regional evaluations (East Africa, Southern Africa, and West Africa) undertaken on tracking parliamentary involvement in approvals and rejections of loans and the relevance, impact of the trainings for parliamentarians at the regional and national levels. While Parliaments play a critical role in oversight on public debt management, their involvement and impact has been minimized in most cases by executive decisions on debt without consulting the legislature. However, as the representative body of the people, parliamentarians and their oversight roles are vital to national fiscal accountability to ensure government spending decisions align with citizen priorities. Since 2018, AFRODAD and its national partners have been training parliamentarians at regional and national levels. These trainings have been conducted through various platforms including the SADC Parliamentary Forum (SADC PF), East African Legislative Assembly (EALA, AFRODAD Annual Summer Schools and at national and regional debt advocacy meetings.
The Evaluation specific objectives were
- To evaluate and document how parliamentarians have been using the skills and tools they obtained from trainings in loan approvals, rejections, responsible borrowing, and prudent debt management.
- To document, strengthen the evidence base and deepen parliamentarian’s understanding and skills when reviewing loan approvals, national budgets, budget framework papers, and debt reports submitted to parliament.
- To bring out the challenges members of parliament (MPs) face as they conduct oversight on debt management, and how they overcome them.
The findings from the Evaluation will provide guidance on the future development of capacity building for Parliamentarians towards effective oversight role on public debt and address challenges members of Parliament face in delivery of their oversight role of public debt management.
MODERATOR
Tirivangani Mutazu – AFRODAD
PRESENTERS
- Chengetai Kanyangu – SADC Consultant
- Dr Enock Enock Twinoburyo – EAC Consultant
- Oscar E. Ubhenin – ECOWAS Consultant
- Khanyisile Litchfield Tshabalala, PhD – Respondent
