19 May 2013

Botswana appreciates institutionalisation of benchmarks as they strengthen democracy in the SADC region., says the Speaker of Parliament, Dr Margaret Nasha.

Speaking at Parliament's consultative workshop on the domestication and institutionalisation of benchmarks in Gaborone on May 16, Dr Nasha said benchmarks were intended to provide a mirror of self-assessment measuring the performance of SADC parliaments, but not the ranking of individual parliaments so as not to create animosity among them. She said her aim was to sell the benchmarks to all MPs when it resumes in July.

“This year we are holding primary elections in Botswana and everyone is working hard including madam speaker because this is a democratic country and a leader has to be democratically elected into office,” she stated. She thanked the SADC Parliamentary Forum (SADC-PF) and the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Foundation for being real partners.

The SADC-PF secretary general, Dr Esau Chiviya said the strength of the SADC-PF was the active participation of its members. Dr Chiviya said SADC had tools to promote democracy and address crucial rights such as elections. He said the election observation mission was one of the norms and standards which aimed at ensuring good practices in elections management.

He however noted that SADC-PF had challenges, which included separation of power of the government from other arms of government, and the high expectations of citizens on parliamentarians. He said in response to the challenges, benchmarking and self-assessment toolkits were introduced in Southern Africa. “The toolkits are essential in that they provide direction and reference point for parliaments in SADC,” he noted.

He further stated that they helped consider new processes and ideas to improve institutions and enable them to escape the trap of doing things the same old way. Dr Chiviya said the process also benefitted parliaments to critically think of ways to democratise themselves and improve on capacity building.

The workshop was attended by parliamentarians from opposition parties, leaders of government business, the clerk of Parliament and party whips in Botswana. ENDS