By Mary Poni
The national Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs with support from United Nations Development Program (UNDP) organized a three day training workshop to empower twenty assembly clerks from the 10 states legislative assemblies which started in Juba yesterday.
According to James Francis Kutiyote, the undersecretary in the national Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, the training has been long overdue.
“We had had a lot of plans trying to see if we can support and fulfill some of the key mandates of the Ministry of the Parliamentary Affairs which is mainly to empower the legislators to ensure that there is an effective bridge between the legislators and the executives but then we have had some challenges since the country is undergoing challenges as the implementation of the peace agreement is still ongoing,” he said.
Kutiyote said the training will help poster coordination between the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and the States’ parliaments.
He said the training is to support the members of clerks who are at the State levels and to refresh their minds.
The undersecretary said it is going to be very easy after the training to coordinate to have all the triangles of both parties to be able to engage well and share information among the council of states, the TNLA and the States.
“This one will make us stronger to be able to deliver what we are supposed to deliver to the citizens of this country,” he stated.
He reiterated that strengthening the legislative assemblies in the states, will reflect the strength of the institutions in the government of both National and State levels.
Deputy Chairperson for members of affairs in the national parliament Alier Samuel Ateny, said the training held will help not only the legislators but also the whole nation through applying the knowledge to help the people of South Sudan.
“You are a leader at your capacity where you came from.” He told the clerks, adding we are reaching out to build our capacity and to drive our country to the Promised Land.”
The UNDP deputy resident representative Titus Osundina, reflected back to December 2016, saying UNDP designed and implemented parliamentary need assessment which led to capacity development package and in support, training for members of parliament, other chairs and their deputies for parliamentary committees of the transitional national legislative assembly.
He said the capacity packages included are initiatives for members of parliament to understand their legislative oversight representatives and other roles.
He stated that the 2016-2017 work cemented the relationships between the parliaments and UNDP and one of the results is the training of clerks starting today.
In 2021, UNDP said it received another request from the parliament to support the national parliament and that led to the deployment of UNDP parliamentarian adviser in Feb 2022.
“This workshop is to enable support strategic plans for parliament which called us for 2022 to 2025,” he cited.