Program Overview

Since the mid-1990’s, the International Programs department of NCSL has conducted State Department- and USAID-sponsored parliamentary staff training programs in Francophone and Anglophone African countries including Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Madagascar, Mali, Niger, Rwanda, and Senegal in Francophone Africa and Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe in Anglophone Africa. This staff development experience has provided insight into the structure, resources, and challenges facing developing democratic institutions in Africa and their training needs.

Most recently, NCSL has worked since 2001 to establish and assist the Réseau Africain des Personnels des Parlements (African Network of Parliamentary Staff, or RAPP). This effort has greatly expanded NCSL’s experience and exposure in Francophone African countries. The creation of RAPP has given NCSL the opportunity to work with and provide training for Francophone parliaments with whom we had not had previous experience, such as Burundi, the Republic of Congo, Guinea, and Togo, among others. Additionally, it has allowed NCSL to further develop productive working relationships with the parliaments of predominantly Muslim African countries such as Chad, Djibouti, Niger, and Mali. It is largely based on this work that NCSL won a new grant to work with seven Francophone African countries starting in September 2005. The program is entitled Representing Diversity: A Legislative Exchange between Chad, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, and the United States. Through a series of study tours and regional activities, the program aims to increase understanding and knowledge of how legislatures interact with diverse socio-economic, linguistic, and religious groups in society and will focus on parliamentarians and their efforts to represent these diverse constituencies.

In 2004, NCSL expanded its scope of activity to include North Africa and the Middle East. With the support of the U.S. Department of State’s Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI), NCSL is undertaking a multi-faceted legislative exchange program for staff and members of the Moroccan, Tunisian, Algerian and Lebanese parliaments. Entitled Parliamentary Staff Training and Technical Assistance in North Africa and Lebanon, the program aims to develop and refine technical skills, promote democratic means and methods, and encourage institutional capacity building in these countries. NCSL is interested in developing the program to include an exchange between parliamentary members and expanding current activities to include additional Middle Eastern countries, such as the United Arab Emirates, where NCSL held a staff seminar in September 2005.

By providing these opportunities for professional development and information exchange between U.S. state legislative members and staff and African and Middle Eastern parliamentary members and staff, NCSL's programs will promote a continued relationship between North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and the United States. This will form an improved foundation for lasting political stability, growth, and good governance throughout the region.

Summary of Active Programs

Réseau Africain des Personnels des Parlements (African Network of Parliamentary Staff, or RAPP)

NCSL continues to serve as the transitional secretariat for the Réseau Africain des Personnels des Parlements (African Network of Parliamentary Staff, or RAPP), an organization created with support from the U.S. Department of State's Office of Citizen Exchanges. As transitional secretariat, NCSL supports the network in its efforts to provide training and a forum for professional exchange for parliamentary staff across Francophone Africa. Further information including the current meeting schedule can be found on RAPP's website (www.ncsl.org/public/internat/rapp.htm - in French) or by e-mailing the secretariat at rapp@ncsl.org.

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Parliamentary Staff Training and Technical Assistance in North Africa and Lebanon

With the support of the U.S. Department of State’s Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI), NCSL started in June 2004 implementing a legislative training and technical assistance program with parliaments of North Africa and the Middle East. The program aims to promote democratic development, institutional capacity building, and improve mutual understanding through the provision of technical training for both staff and members of parliaments. The program engages staff and members from the parliaments of Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, and Lebanon in exchanges with American legislative experts. The program will first create links between the staffs of U.S. state legislatures and of the parliaments in the participating countries and then expand upon those relationships to generate legislator-level linkages between all of the countries involved. In so doing, the program encourages the development of productive relationships and general goodwill between all of the countries involved and the United States.

The program also allows participants to profit from projects already undertaken by NCSL across Francophone Africa; the program promotes the inclusion of Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria in the Francophone African Network of Parliamentary Staff (Réseau Africain des Personnels des Parlements or RAPP), with Lebanon gaining valuable exposure to this organization.

Through a series of activities and trainings over eighteen (18) months, the program offers technical support and assistance to the participating parliaments while at the same time creating relationships of mutually reinforcing interests and experiences. Activities include an assessment mission to all participating countries, US study tours in December 2004 and September 2005, I n-Country Seminars, and Regional activities in April 2005 in Algiers and in November 2005 in Rabat.

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Representing Diversity: A Legislative Exchange Between Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, and the United States

With the support of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA), NCSL is undertaking a legislative exchange program with parliaments of Francophone Africa to increase understanding and knowledge of how legislatures interact with diverse groups in society, to promote professional relations among nations, and to strengthen parliamentary institutions in general. This program engages members and staff from the parliaments of Chad, Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, and Senegal in exchanges with American legislative experts. The exchange activities will aim to demonstrate to them how legislators in the U.S. are open and accessible to diverse groups in society and how these groups engage in the legislature. Over the course of the program, exchanges will further create links between members and staff in the participating countries and between all countries involved.

Through a series of activities and trainings over twelve (12) months, the program offers technical support and assistance to the participating parliaments while at the same time creating relationships of mutually reinforcing interests and experiences. Included among the planned activities are:

Study tours of the U.S. for Francophone African parliamentary members and staff;
A study tour to Africa for a delegation of U.S. representatives, culminating in a regional forum for members and staff of the participating nations; and
Development and production of a session during the 2006 General Assembly of the Réseau Africain des Personnels des Parlements (African Network of Parliamentary Staff, or RAPP)

Africa & Middle East Programs

Updated 25 October 2005