World e-Parliament Report 2010 Predicts More e-Petitions and e-Consultations on Bills

The United Nations and the Inter-Parliamentary Union have released the World e-Parliament Report 2010:

"The Report presents the latest data on the use and availability of systems, applications, hardware, and other tools in parliaments around the world, based on the global survey conducted by the Global Centre for ICT in Parliament in 2009. A questionnaire was sent to 264 chambers of unicameral and bicameral parliaments in 188 countries and to two regional parliaments. 134 responses were received (...)"

"The Report highlights two critical issues - communication with citizens and the demand for transparency (...) Findings regarding how parliaments are doing in communicating with the public suggest there has been some improvement since 2007 and that a greater number of parliaments and members are trying to use these technologies more effectively to engage with citizens. 85% of parliaments reported an increase in communication from citizens using ICT-supported methods. It is likely that audio- and video-based unidirectional methods will be predominant for the next few years. Webcasting, for example, is one of those most frequently used, and it is projected to increase over the next several years. However, the top fve methods that are predicted to have the highest growth rates are all interactive (online discussions, online polls, e-petitions, e-consultations on issues and e-consultations on bills). "

"E-parliament builds on the pillars of active engagement, a clear vision, strategic planning, broad-based management, and adequate resources. However, many parliaments lack some of these important elements. Only 43% have a written vision statement, over 40% do not have a strategic plan that is regularly updated, and almost one quarter report that their political leaders at the level of the President/Speaker were engaged very little or not at all. Parliaments must make a strong political commitment to transform their aspirations for increased transparency and accountability into a manageable policy framework for ICT across the whole institution."

This is the second World e-Parliament Report. The first was published in 2008.