27 June 2023

Speakers: Emily Jenke and Emma Fletcher (Co CEOs, democracyCo, Australia); Sonia Randhawa (Sortition Foundation, Australia); Juliane Baruck (Project Lead Hallo Bundestag, Germany); Paul Naudascher (Team Member and Head of Science & Evaluation, Hallo Bundestag, Germany)

This Public Engagement Hub seminar will focus on deliberative democracy methods to engage citizens with the policy making process. Citizens’ Assemblies / Mini Publics have become incredibly popular in recent times with parliaments. In this seminar, we discuss two recent initiatives and reflect on the implications of their different approaches.

The People’s House in Australia is an initiative of DemocracyCo, which brings together local community members with their MP, enabling community members to actively participate in democracy between elections. DemocracyCo have two trials of this method underway – with two Federal MPs – one from each of the two major parties in Australia. The speakers will share details of the method used and reflect on whether these trials are improving and strengthening democracy.

This will be supplemented by insights from Hallo Bundestag, a project in Germany which explores ways in which diverse groups of people can have their voices heard in politics. Eighteen Constituency Days (Wahlkreistage) are to be held across six electoral districts in Germany in 2023/4. These will lead to proposals for the German parliament (the Bundestag) on how the political system can be strengthened through discussion formats with randomly drawn participants at the constituency level. The speakers will provide insights into the experiences from the ongoing project and present the preliminary findings about those elements that show high potential for institutionalization.

This seminar is jointly organised by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and the International Parliament Engagement Network (IPEN). The event is part of a series of webinars hosted by the Public Engagement Hub.

This seminar takes place on Zoom and is open to anyone with an interest in public engagement with parliaments.

Please register here.

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Credit: Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

16 May 2023

Speakers: Alisson Bruno, Coordinator of the e-Citizenship Program, Senate of Brazil; Rodolfo Vaz (Coordinator of Digital Solutions for Citizens, Brazil)

As parliaments develop more channels for citizens to submit their views, many are then faced with the challenge of having to process large volumes of comments and submissions within what often are tight political timings and unhelpful processes. This is clearly a challenge faced by many parliaments so we have put together two Public Engagement Hub seminars on the topic to discuss different types of approaches.

In this second seminar on processing mass data, we will consider tools used by the Brazilian Parliament to aid public participation and manage mass input from citizens. An outline will be given of the ePoll, which is the most used participation tool at the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies. The seminar will look at how the information obtained through using such tools is handled by Parliamentarians, what works well / could be better, and what plans are being made for the future.

The seminar will also provide an overview of similar tools used in the Brazilian Senate such as its e-Citizenship platform. Specifically, the seminar will address how citizens can propose new ideas for legislation, participate in public hearings, and how this information is then processed for Senators to consider. The presentation will also highlight some of the challenges faced and the strategies employed to overcome them.

This seminar is jointly organised by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and the International Parliament Engagement Network (IPEN). The event is part of a series of webinars hosted by the Public Engagement Hub.

This seminar takes place on Zoom and is open to anyone with an interest in public engagement with parliaments.

Please register here.

18 April 2023

Speakers: Katherine Farmer (Senior Business Analyst, Office of the Clerk of the House of Representatives, New Zealand Parliament); Alistair Stoddart (Senior Participation Specialist, Participation and Communities Team, The Scottish Parliament)

As parliaments develop more channels for citizens to submit their views, many are then faced with the challenge of having to process large volumes of comments and submissions within what often are tight political timings and unhelpful processes. This is clearly a challenge faced by many parliaments so we have put together two Public Engagement Hub seminars on the topic to discuss different types of approaches.

In this first seminar, we will hear about how staff in the parliament of New Zealand have addressed this challenge by making sure citizens’ evidence is considered by members in committees. The focus will be on how the increasing number of submissions has changed how members get information from them, and proposes how members can engage with the data more directly.

This will be supplemented by a case study at the Scottish Parliament, which will outline how the Parliament analyses and processes mass citizen submissions. The focus will be on engagement for the Fireworks and Pyrotechnic Articles (Scotland) Bill and the Hunting with Dogs (Scotland) Bill which received over 4,000 responses from the public.

This seminar is jointly organised by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and the International Parliament Engagement Network (IPEN). The event is part of a series of webinars hosted by the Public Engagement Hub.

This seminar takes place on Zoom and is open to anyone with an interest in public engagement with parliaments. Please register here.

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New Zealand Parliament building by Squirrel_photos from Pixabay; Scottish Parliament building by Stefan from Pixabay.

28 March 2023

Speakers: Didier Caluwaerts (Associate Professor of Political Science, Vrije Universiteit Brussel) and Daan Vermassen (PhD researcher, Vrije Universiteit Brussel)

This IPU/IPEN Public Engagement Hub seminar will lead a reflection on how present parliamentary engagement can inform decisions that have implications for future generations.

Didier Caluwaerts and Daan Vermassen will present their research, which outlines existing methods and possible new ways through which we can engage future generations. This includes today’s young people but also those generations yet to be born. The seminar aims to encourage parliaments to reflect on their practices and how these can be adapted to consider the impact on future generations.

This seminar is jointly organised by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and International Parliament Engagement Network (IPEN). The event is part of a series of webinars hosted by the Public Engagement Hub.

This seminar takes place on Zoom and is open to anyone with an interest in public engagement with parliaments. Find out more and register here.

1 March 2023

Speakers: Anne Valkering and Tatjana Meijvogel-Volk (ProDemos)

This IPEN seminar will outline the history and process of developing the ‘Stemwijzer’, a voting aid application (VAA) for Dutch elections. The Stemwijzer has been around since 1989 and was used 7.8 million times at the most recent parliamentary elections (2021). The VAA is a type of quiz, in which voters are invited to agree or disagree with a range of statements and assign a weight to their responses. Based on this information, they are matched to political parties.

The seminar will cover challenges to developing the VAA, how the team works with academics, experiences with exporting the VAA to other countries, and future plans.

This online seminar is open to all members of the International Parliament Engagement Network. Find out how to join the network.

21 February 2023

Speaker: Caroline Wallis, Education Lead, Parliament of New Zealand

This joint Public Engagement Hub seminar will explore how the New Zealand Parliament’s Education Team provides a wide range of education services and activities for different types of groups such as school students, teachers and public servants.

The seminar will in particular share the initiatives that the team has focussed on over the past three years. The team will share their work in the digital space, in particular the increase in online learning resources on the New Zealand Parliament website and online visits to Parliament. Bespoke learning resources regarding the nature and impact of covid restrictions on democratic freedoms, and on social actions linked to citizenship will be shared, as well as initiatives tied closely to working alongside key stakeholders through targeted reference groups.

Their work supporting the professional learning of public servants and members of Parliament will also be explored. This seminar is jointly organised by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and International Parliament Engagement Network (IPEN). The event is part of a series of webinars hosted by the Public Engagement Hub.

This seminar takes place on Zoom and is open to anyone with an interest in public engagement with parliaments.

Find out more and register here.

10 January 2023

Speaker: Donnacha McKeon, Broadcast and Channel Manager for Oireachtas TV

This joint IPU/IPEN seminar hosted by the Public Engagement hub  focused on broadcasting parliamentary business. Drawing from the experience of the Irish Oireachtas TV, the seminar explored different possible models available for parliaments to broadcast and the consequences of these for public engagement.

Broadcast and Channel Manager Donnacha McKeon presented live from the broadcast studio of Oireachtas TV, the television channel of The Houses of the Oireachtas, the national parliament of Ireland.

Donnacha’s presentation covered how Oireachtas TV does far more than simply cover parliamentary business, for instance working with independent broadcasters to produce documentaries about events of particular significance, such as A Woman’s Place (on the 100th anniversary of universal suffrage).

The seminar reflected on the ownership of parliamentary broadcasting and the choice between traditional and internet based broadcasting, and the consequences of this for public engagement.

There was also insight into how the Irish Oireachtas has addressed sign language translation. Rather than hiring sign language translators in each instance, the parliament has recruited these to become parliamentary staff with a far wider remit than simply translating proceedings including supporting strategies to reach out to this group.

You can watch a recording of the seminar here on the Public Engagement Hub website.

24 January 2023

Research evidence has an important role to play in the work of parliaments as they scrutinise, debate and pass legislation. Some parliaments have well-known mechanisms for accessing and harnessing research from the academic community, but there are many others whose work is less well-known.

This IPEN seminar will showcase a global mapping tool (hosted on the IPEN website) which highlights how parliaments across the world access and harness research from academia and the breadth of activity being carried out. Each entry on the map shows how parliaments across the world access, synthesise or produce academic research to inform parliamentary activity. The map shows that many parliaments provide research to parliamentarians on request, some produce peer-reviewed evidence syntheses and reports, and some provide direct links to the academic community.

Speakers: Vicky Ward (University of St Andrews), Lydia Harriss (UK Parliament, Parliamentary Office of Science & Technology), Mark Monaghan (Loughborough University)

This online seminar is open to all members of the International Parliament Engagement Network. Find out more about the network.