Our Programs

Europe / Eurasia

The Parliamentary Centre launched its international programming in the early 1990s, driven by the transformation period in Eastern Europe that brought parliaments back to their major role in political life as one of the main branches of power.

Since then, we have assessed needs, formulated and implemented projects in support of the legislatures and other governance actors of a number of countries on the continent. This includes Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Georgia, Romania, Russian Federation, Turkey, and Ukraine.

 

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Programs

Through Parliamentary Accountability for the Security Sector (PASS Ukraine), the Parliamentary Centre and the Agency for Legislative Initiatives (ALI) promote peace and stability in Ukraine, by supporting Ukrainian Parliament in overseeing and reforming the governance of the security and defence sector.

PASS Ukraine offers targeted support to three committees of the Verkhovna Rada: the Committee on National Security, Defense, and Intelligence, the Committee on Law Enforcement and the Committee on Ukraine’s EU Integration. Through expert support, the project enhances parliamentarians’ ability to:

  1. Debate and pass security sector legislation;
  2. Strengthen parliament’s staff capacity in legislative impact assessment of bills; 
  3. Oversee the relevant work of government;
  4. Develop a structured approach to hearing inputs from Ukrainian civil society organizations, like women’s groups into the legislative and oversight process;
  5. Make gender an integral component of the security sector reform. 

 

 The project focuses on: 

  • Developing the knowledge and skills of committee members and staff to better structure and manage their work;
  • Facilitating a series of knowledge exchanges between the executive and legislative branches aimed at breaking barriers  between them;
  • Identifying ways for improved interaction between parliament and the executive on security sector reform.

Every step of the way, PASS Ukraine integrates the needs of citizens, especially women and marginalized groups. The project will help fill the existing gap between efforts to expand Parliament’s capacity to govern effectively and efforts to ensure the needs of both men and women are being addressed.

Ukraine
Project Duration: 2020-2022
Focus: Security Sector Reform, gender, Parliament of Ukraine
Funder: Peace and Stabilisation Operations Program of the Global Affairs Canada

The project supports the Secretary General of the new Armenian Parliament and his team to draw up a new organisational structure and a framework for a new working process of the administration of parliament that are realistic, affordable, gender-sensitive, and reflect in the best possible way the support needs of the new cohort of parliamentarians, including women legislators. This will include support to draft an outline of priorities and an approach to coordinating various international assistance inputs needed for the success of the parliamentary administration reform in the longer run.

The project was submitted to GAC’s new Pro Dem funding mechanism and was approved in the fall of 2019 giving birth to our first project in Armenia.

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Armenia
Active
Focus: Parliamentary Institution; Parliaments and Gender; Needs Assessment and Project Design
Funder: Global Affairs Canada

The Euromaidan events in 2013 led to a new era in Ukraine, where the people demanded democratic reforms and a more open, transparent and inclusive governance of the country. To support the ability of the Rada to address key areas of national interest, the Support to the Rada Project assisted in the strengthening of the Ukrainian Parliament and its interactions with civil society and other governance actors. The Parliamentary Centre implemented the project in partnership with the Ukrainian NGO Agency for Legislative Initiatives.

Ukraine
October 2015 – March 2016
Focus: Democratic Oversight of the Security Sector; Civil Society Organizations
Funder: Global Affairs Canada