In 2011, after 12-years without a parliamentary election, the people of Côte d'Ivoire elected new representatives to the National Assembly. After that election, the new lawmakers required additional support because of the absence of a consistent, effective, and transparent government. The USAID Office of the Development Counselor launched a five-year Legislative Strengthening Project in December, 2012 to support the members of the National Assembly in their essential governing roles and functions. USAID in Côte d'Ivoire is providing expert guidance, training, resources and organization plans to help cement the National Assembly as an independent government branch able to carry out needed oversight, effective policy development, and responsive constituent representation.

U.S. Amb. Terence McCulley Promotes Constituent Engagement in Côte d'Ivoire with USAID's Legislative Strengthening Program. This town hall program took place in Biankouma, Côte d'Ivoire, near the Liberian border, in November 2014.

 

OBJECTIVES & ACTIVITIES

Objective 1: Help the National Assembly to fulfill its basic legislative, representational and oversight roles.

• Support the National Assembly’s day-to-day operations and service delivery;

• Assist in the development of issue-based committees;

• Train deputies on critical functions such as:

  • Institutionalizing core functions, and creating and reviewing budgets;

  • Overseeing the public procurement process; and

  • Increasing oversight, including investigations to uncover waste and corruption, formal audits or evaluations to assess government program effectiveness or efficiency, and hearings to air and debate issues of concern.   

Objective 2: Improve National Assembly deputy constituency representation and oversight

• Connect lawmakers and their constituencies through community participatory processes;

• Hold coalition roundtable discussions about constituent service issues on community radio stations.

• Facilitate involvement in the communal budget formation process and monitoring budget execution.  

• Train locally elected representatives on their rights and responsibilities of the prefect, sub prefect and other deconcentrated service providers.

ACHIEVEMENTS

• Creation of the first Ivorian Women’s Caucus in the National Assembly, which is an internal non-partisan organization focused on addressing gender-based policy issues and strengthening the role of women in the parliament.

• Identification of 24 voter districts to participate in an outreach program, connecting constituencies with their elected representatives.

• Close collaboration on policy development between sector specific research specialists and Committee and National Assembly members.