Mr Speaker & Madam Deputy Speaker

The workshop was held as part of the capacity building component of the Parliamentary Reforms Programme Phase Three (PRPIII), which was supported by the Department for International Development (DFID), the Irish Aid, The European Commission (EC) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The activity would contribute to the output of increasing Member-Constituent relations by enhancing the ability of Members of Parliament to effectively manage and organize their constituency offices.

The Speaker of the National Assembly of Zambia, Hon. Amusaa K Mwanamwambwa, MP officially opened the workshop. In his opening speech, Mr Speaker said that reform was necessary for Parliament to remain relevant and to meet the aspirations of a public whose awareness of governance issues was in the ascendancy. One of the goals of the Parliamentary Reforms was to improve Member-Constituency relations by improving the accessibility of MPs to their constituents via the establishment of Constituency Offices, he said.

Mr Speaker also encouraged Members to visit their constituency offices regularly and to take advantage of these offices to reach out to their constituents in order to improve their ability to better represent their constituents.

Three presentations were given during the workshop, which was also attended by Mr Speaker up to the end and was chaired by Hon Mutale Nalumango, MP and Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly. The first one was on the Status of Parliamentary Reforms by Hon David Matongo, MP, the Chairperson of the Reforms and Modernisation Committee. This was followed by a presentation from Hon Dr Katele Kalumba, MP, on the PRPIII Management Structures. The Clerk of the National Assembly, Mrs Doris K K Mwinga gave the final presentation on the Functions and Operations of Constituency Offices.

The presentations attracted a lot of fruitful discussions from Members of Parliament who showed keen interest in the operations of the constituency offices and the parliamentary reforms in general.

The workshop was closed by Madam Deputy Speaker who echoed Mr Speaker’s words that the Constituency Office was potentially an effective tool in improving Member-Constituency relations, in her closing remarks. She also said that an effective and regular link between Parliament and the constituency after an election is critical in increasing the level of participation in governance by the majority of the people, particularly, as a focal location for both the MP and the constituents to meet or communicate.

“Whereas, an electoral candidate easily finds time to visit prospective voters in the constituency, this contact appears to cease once the person has been elected to Parliament,” she said.