By Alex Yomah
Liberia has been selected to host the first batch of a visual and in person workshop on open national parliaments for ECOWAS countries.
Phase two of this workshop will be held in Freetown on September 21 where participants will be expected to join via zoom.
The workshop under the banner Parliament Network Africa (PEMOS) Learning and networking workshop among other things is intended to discuss open parliaments in West Africa including ECOWAS parliament.
Giving an overview of the workshop on Friday, September 17, 2021, the Executive Director, Sammy Obeng-PanAfrica, asserted that the purpose of the project is to bring together several CSOs in the 15 West African countries to be able to learn and share on how best to engage with their respective national parliaments.
He said the open parliament workshop is intended for CSOs to be able to hold their parliaments accountable for good governance and accountability.
The Ghanaian facilitator stressed the need for Liberian CSOs to make the media an integral part of the project.
“These engagements are held in several countries and particularly for this meeting, we are holding a project called an open parliament engagement networking in West Africa,” the Executive Director averred.
The w/shop which commenced on Friday, September 17, 2021, was hosted in Liberia by IREDD with support from scores of Civil Society Organizations(CSOs) in Liberia.
The visual training which is intended for Liberian’s CSOs and Sierra Leone’s CSOs brought together facilitators from Ghana.
The workshop culminated into a decision for the Institute for Research for Democratic Development (IREDD) to establish parliament Chat-room for all interested CSOs that will be linked to West African parliaments’ Chat-room for the aim of exchanging ideas as to how to monitor and engage their respective national parliaments.