Parliament Watch and Reforms (PWR)

The Parliament Watch and Reforms (PWR) project of the Trust for Democratic Education and Accountability (TDEA) aims at generating objective and statistically sound information about parliamentary performance to foster informed engagement between the constituents and their elected representatives. Through trained parliamentary observers, TDEA-FAFEN directly and indirectly observes parliamentary proceedings using standardized observation checklists based on the rules of procedures. Designed to collect information on the processes and results of parliamentary deliberations, the project issues daily factsheets, followed by session-wise annual and thematic reports. The PWR team also gauges the transparency of information shared by a legislature, legislators’ participation in the proceedings, promptness of discussion on issues of national importance, quality as well as quantity of parliamentary output, and how Members conduct themselves in the House. The performance of individual members and assemblies are evaluated at the end of each parliamentary year. Additionally, the project places a strong emphasis on women and minority parliamentarians by annually publishing thematic reports on their performance. The project is significantly contributing towards creating informed citizenry and an increasingly responsible Parliament. All exercises under the PWR project focus on strengthening the viscosity of the Parliament and the products are shared with various stakeholders including media and lawmakers. Moreover, the websites of FAFEN (www.fafen.org) and OpenParliament (www.openparliament.pk) are updated on regular intervals regarding the performance of parliament and parliamentarians.

Duration: 2008 – To date

Funding Agency: TDEA