The International Parliament Engagement Network (IPEN) has announced the appointment of Oke Epia, founder/executive director of OrderPaper Nigeria, into an international advisory group to support the development of essential resources to enhance public engagement within parliaments globally.
Epia joins an elite assembly of parliamentary officials, academics, and civil society leaders from countries such as Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Indonesia, and the UK, as well as the Solomon Islands, the Isle of Man, and state parliaments in Australia, to enhance the development of a comprehensive series of eight guides on citizen engagement, designed to assist parliaments worldwide in optimising their public engagement activities.
A statement by Juliet Ollard, Senior Research and Engagement Officer for IPEN and project lead, said the initiative is supported by INTER PARES, a collaborative capacity-building programme by the European Union and the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA). Its mandate is to “support an ongoing project to develop resources that will support parliaments to design, deliver and evaluate public engagement activities.”
The statement explains that the developed guides will address crucial elements essential for effective parliamentary engagement and will contain topics such as principles of parliamentary public engagement, youth engagement, petitions and citizens’ legislative initiatives. Furthermore, the guides will explore methods to enhance education programmes, increase committee consultations, and engage underrepresented groups.
“Since the project is aiming to support parliaments across the world through these guides, it is important that the project includes collaboration with colleagues working in different parts of the world and a range of engagement traditions,” the statement noted, adding that the advisory group of parliamentary officials and other experts from around the world will “provide feedback, input and challenge as we develop the guides.”
Epia expressed delight in being invited to join the global advisory group, saying the time has come to reflect new thinking into parliamentary engagements worldwide. He said: “I am delighted to be part of the Advisory Group for this very important project. At a time of doubtful, if not decreasing, confidence in democracy, developing resources to foster public engagement with parliament becomes critical. As the bedrock of representative democracy, there is no better time than now to rethink, relearn, and possibly unlearn traditional ways of citizen engagement with parliament. I am happy to share thoughts from the African perspective to enrich the group’s contributions to the project.”
Oke Epia is a public policy expert, consummate communicator, global media personality and civil society leader with over two decades of experience spanning the private, public and non-governmental sectors. He founded OrderPaper in 2015 and the organisation has grown to become Nigeria’s foremost independent parliamentary monitoring organisation and policy think tank that bridges the gap between people and parliament.
