This month we’re putting a spotlight on how interactivity has been enhanced on the Portal e-Cidadania (e-Citizenship Portal) at the Senado Federal (Brazil) with the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
The e-Citizenship Program is co-ordinated by IPEN Executive Team member, Alisson Bruno Dias de Queiroz at the Senado Federal. Created in 2012, the portal provides a platform for citizens to propose new ideas for legislation and participate in public hearings. This information is then processed for Senators to consider.
During a recent parliamentary recess, the Portal improved the visualization of citizen participation in interactive events — usually public hearings — held by the Senate over the last eleven years. Now, even questions from citizens answered indirectly during past events are identified and marked in the video of the event.
Servers, outsourced workers and commissioners were involved in the endeavor to use AI to analyze more than 1,800 events held between 2013 and 2024. The scanning of more than 23,000 participations generated a result of more than 2,700 questions identified as answered indirectly.
Alisson Bruno said:
“Questions that are read during the event and answered directly are already marked in the video, at the time they are read or answered. When there are no questions read, so that the event does not go blank, we started this process of marking indirect answers using AI last year.
“With the campaign, we also cover older events, but since it is still a manual process, and sometimes there are 100 to 200 questions at the event, not all of them go through this search.”
The team generates a series of commands, called prompts, so that the AI can compare the questions asked with the transcript of the event. In addition, all results are reviewed by humans before being published on the website.
The objective of the campaign was to provide citizens with clearer feedback on their contributions, encouraging active participation in the legislative process and, thus, promoting the advancement of society through this interaction with the Legislature.
Emma has also put together the first of our quick guides which shares insights and tips on setting up and running youth parliaments.
Explore the resources
The following case studies and quick guides can be accessed by IPEN members in the files section of Channel 1.1: Toolkits, Case Studies and Quick Guides in MS Teams:
Case Study – Indonesia Youth Parliament
Case Study – Welsh Youth Parliament
Quick Guide to Youth Parliaments
Create your own case study / quick guide
If you would like to share your work as a case study or are interested in working with us to create more quick guides, then we would love to hear from you. These can be on any theme connected to public engagement with parliament.
We’ll be holding our second Critical Conversation event in a couple of months time on the theme of youth parliaments. This event will be open to all IPEN members – please look out in MS Teams and future newsletters for information, date and times.
For these events, we are keen to discuss real life issues and challenges that practitioners face on specific themes related to public engagement with parliament.
If there’s a particular aspect relating to youth parliaments (or anything connected to involving young people in decision making) that you’d like to propose for this event, then please email us at ipen@leeds.ac.uk. It could be some advice you’re looking for, a particular problem you are trying to solve, or practice you’d like to share.
Join IPEN
If your work or research is connected to youth parliaments, you are very welcome to apply to join the International Parliament Engagement Network (IPEN).
The network brings together academics, parliamentary officials and third sector representatives from across the world, to promote collaboration and encourage knowledge sharing around parliaments and public engagement.
The second edition of Exploring Parliament – a textbook providing an engaging and accessible introduction to the UK Parliament – has been published by Oxford University Press.
Exploring Parliament is edited by IPEN members Professor Cristina Leston Bandeira (University of Leeds), Dr Alexandra Meakin (University of Leeds) and Dr Louise Thompson (University of Manchester). The book includes contributions from 73 authors – a mix of academics and practitioners, including many members of IPEN.
Exploring Parliament brings in theory, combined with practice, through a series of short chapters accompanied by case studies which make the subject come to life, plus features such as a glossary of parliamentary terms.
Four of the chapters are specifically relevant to IPEN’s focus, on spaces and places, the media, public engagement and trust.
Exploring Parliament – book launch event
Exploring Parliament will be launched at a hybrid event on Thursday 15 May, starting at 17:30 GMT+1 / UK time.
At this event, the editors will make opening remarks, reflecting on the book’s unique approach. A panel of the book’s authors will discuss their chapters and insights, followed by a Q&A session.
Professor Cristina Leston-Bandeira is a Professor of Politics at the University of Leeds. She has worked on parliaments for nearly 30 years. She is Chair of the International Parliament Engagement Network and a previous Chair of the UK Study of Parliament Group (2019-22). Professor Leston-Bandeira’s research focuses on public engagement with parliament, having published widely on the topic and having secured funding from the AHRC, the British Academy, ESRC and the Leverhulme Trust. She regularly gives evidence to parliaments on public engagement, having held a fellowship with the Petitions Committee of the UK House of Commons in 2016-17. She is the recipient of numerous awards recognizing the quality and innovation of her teaching, including a Higher Education Academy National Teaching Fellowship (2012) and the Political Studies Association Bernard Crick Main Prize for Outstanding Teaching (2010).
Dr Alexandra Meakin is Lecturer in British Politics at the University of Leeds. Her research focuses on parliamentary governance and the plans to repair the buildings of the UK Parliament (known as the Restoration and Renewal of the Palace of Westminster). Dr Meakin’s PhD ‘Understanding the Restoration and Renewal of the Palace of Westminster: A case study of institutional change in the UK Parliament’ was awarded by the University of Sheffield in 2019 and received the 2020 Walter Bagehot Prize for best dissertation in the field of government and public administration by the Political Studies Association. She is a member of the Study of Parliament Group and the International Parliament Engagement Network, and a former convenor of the Political Studies Association Specialist Group on Parliaments and Legislatures. Prior to entering academia, Dr Meakin worked for over a decade in Westminster, for select committees in the House of Commons and for MPs.
Dr Louise Thompson is Senior Lecturer in Politics at the University of Manchester. Her research focuses on legislative scrutiny, committees and political parties in the House of Commons. She is the co-editor of Parliamentary Affairs and a POST parliamentary fellow (2024-2025) undertaking research with the UK Commonwealth Parliamentary Association. She was previously the Co-Convenor of the Political Studies Association’s specialist group on Parliaments and Legislatures (2014-2018). In 2022, Dr Thompson was awarded the Political Studies Association’s Richard Rose Prize for a distinctive contribution to the study of British Politics.
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Exploring Parliament book, Oxford University Press.
The map is now coming together and will soon be launched online. Huge thanks to those of you who have contributed by completing a survey to help us understand how different parliaments engage with their citizens.
Coordinating the survey is Dr Laura Sudulich, a Parliamentary Academic Fellow based at the University of Essex. Laura has now created a beta version of the map and is in the final stages of collecting and collating the data.
We are interested in including public engagement activity in all parliaments across the world, whether that be national, subnational or supranational.
IPEN members can try out the beta version of the map – to give feedback and check that information you have submitted so far is correct – by accessing it in IPEN’s MS Teams space.
Book chapter by Sarah Moulds on the Australian House of Representatives
A new book published by LSE Press includes a chapter on the House of Representatives in the Australian Parliament by Dr Sarah Moulds (Associate Professor in Law, University of South Australia and IPEN Deputy Chair).
Edited by Patrick Dunleavy, Mark Evans and John Phillimore, Australia’s Evolving Democracy: A New Democratic Audit uses an audit approach to critically explore Australia’s government institutions, as well as state- and territory-level politics, and to examine how each has contributed to or held back Australian political life as it has changed and diversified.
Sarah’s chapter is one of 28 in the book which covers a range of different aspects of Australia’s democracy, including the protection of human rights, the 2023 Voice to Parliament Referendum, elections and voting, the role of interest groups and mainstream media, and the impact of federalism on lawmaking and policy.
Each chapter outlines recent developments along with an analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, to fully evaluate the state of Australian democracy in the 21st century. In doing so, the authors draw key lessons for other democracies, showing in detail how robust major and micro-institutions can guard against democratic ‘backsliding’ and policy failures.
This comprehensive audit also highlights scope for potential democratic improvements. Australia continues to confront the challenges of partisan political barriers to addressing climate change and improving the situation of First Nations peoples, redressing modern social inequalities, and responding to popular mistrust of government and politicians.
This cross-party committee of MPs was set up to consider reforms to House of Commons procedures, standards and working practices.
The committee gathered views from the wider parliamentary community and external stakeholders, resulting in hundreds of individuals submitting their views to the committee. Ideas were invited under its three strategic aims of driving up standards, improving culture and working practices, and reforming procedures to make the House of Commons more effective.
We invited our members to contribute views to shape IPEN’s submission of written evidence to the Committee, through a call in our November 2024 newsletter.
IPEN’s evidence focused on public engagement and drew on our members’ extensive knowledge and experience of what makes public engagement work. The key points were that:
the Committee should make public engagement one of its priorities to drive improvement in the strategic coordination and delivery of relevant activities across the House; and
better public engagement can help to build people’s trust in their representatives, and can contribute to better scrutiny. This can in turn improve legislative standards and avoid costly unintended consequences that can flow from enacting legislation that has not been carefully considered from a range of different perspectives.
Professor Cristina Leston-Bandeira said:
“The submission of evidence by the International Parliament Engagement Network to the UK House of Commons Modernisation Committee demonstrates the important role that IPEN now performs.
“IPEN is a critical network with a significant voice in highlighting the importance of public engagement for parliaments today. At a time of low trust in politics, parliaments need to take public engagement seriously.
“With over 500 members from over 80 countries, IPEN has played a transformational role in sharing knowledge and practice in this area and in underscoring the importance of public engagement for parliaments across the world.
“We look forward to see how the Modernisation Committee takes on board the topic of public engagement in their proposals for reforms to House of Commons procedures, standards and working practices”.
One of the many benefits of membership of the International Parliament Engagement Network (IPEN) is the sharing of practice, experience and research between members within our MS Teams space. This happens in all manner of ways, such as through seminars, showcase events, conversational posts, the sharing of initiatives, reports and more.
IPEN has created a range of resources over the past few years, some of which are available here on our website and others in MS Teams. We’re now looking to extend our portfolio of resources through a new series of case studies (examples of good practice for a specific activity) and ‘quick guides’ (short guides to specific engagement activities).
Co-created with members
These will be co-created with and for our members and hosted in our MS Teams space. The key purpose is to help IPEN members share their wisdom, and equip each other with short, practical guidance for improving public engagement practice.
We’ll be sharing the first of these with members in the coming weeks. The will include two case studies on the theme of youth parliaments, written by Emma Brewis ( Postgraduate Researcher at the University of Leeds) alongside IPEN members from the Senedd Cymru (Welsh Parliament) and the Parliament of Indonesia. Another showcases the Teacher Ambassador Programme at the UK House of Commons.
In addition to the case studies, the first of our ‘quick guides’ will share insights and tips on setting up and running youth parliaments.
Share your practice
We are keen to develop further case studies and quick guides on the various aspects of the amazing work that our members do to engage the public with their parliaments.
Emma Brewis and other members of the IPEN Executive team have created a template for quick guides and case studies. Now we need you to fill in the blanks! This is not about writing an academic paper: it’s all about creating something accessible, shareable and practical.
Quick guides
Quick guides could be on engagement activities (such as online petitions or supporting witnesses to engage with parliamentary committees), or they could cover education or outreach programs targeting specific groups, or address emerging issues (such as the use of AI and public engagement, or the parliament as a culture institution).
Case studies
Case studies might focus on specific experiences that you have been part of – such as an effective (or challenging) committee inquiry that saw elected members travel to rural or regional areas, or the use of online gaming to engage with young people, or the connection between post legislative scrutiny and engagement.
They could also focus on citizen-led engagement, or specific tools or strategies that you have used to measure or evaluate engagement activities. They could address or specific skills you have developed within your engagement teams, such as excellent teaching and school resources.
Find out more and get in touch
If you would like to share your work as a case study, or are interested in working with us to create more quick guides, then please get in touch with us at ipen@leeds.ac.uk or email Dr Sarah Moulds (University of South Australia and Deputy Chair of IPEN).
Photo: Welsh Youth Parliament Residential in the Chamber, 25 November 2023 / Senedd Ieuenctid Cymru, Gyfarfod Preswyl yn y Siambr, 25 Tachwedd 2023. Photo: Senedd Cymru / Welsh Parliament. Source: flickr. Attribution: CC BY 2.0.
A new community of practice for practitioners and academics working directly with public engagement with parliaments in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands has been established by International Parliament Engagement Network (IPEN) members.
Initiated in early 2024, the group has grown to over 30 members and includes parliamentary staff, academics and third sector practitioners as its members.
The overarching aim for the group is to build a thriving, supportive community of Australian-New Zealand and Pacific colleagues who can identify examples of best practice in facilitating, designing or evaluating engagement, education or outreach activities. Key to this is working in close collaboration with IPEN.
The community of practice met for a second time on 26 July 2024, to dig deeper into engagement research and discuss how these important factors can work in practice.
Thirty-five people attended from a range of jurisdictions across Australia and New Zealand, with new members having joined since the first session earlier in the year.
Dr Sarah Moulds then shared a new toolkit she has developed, aimed at those involved in designing, implementing or evaluating youth engagement strategies within parliamentary settings.
Informed by the insights and experiences gained from Sarah’s Churchill Fellowship, IPEN’s Public Engagement Toolkit and the significant contribution to scholarship in this space made by Professor Cristina Leston-Bandeira, this new toolkit highlights ten key factors which can influence effective public engagement initiatives.
‘Is this research workable?’
A provocation put out to the group – ‘Is this research workable?’ – was addressed by Sasha Greig (Manager, Visitor Experience at the New Zealand Parliament) who has a great deal of experience in working with how to engage staff to then engage with the public in a parliamentary setting.
Key takeaways from Sasha were that:
It’s amazing to have a framework against which to assess ideas, especially in terms of business planning or any sort of future prioritisation.
Working with staff working at the coalface often highlights disconnects between the theory and the reality. One that resonated in the Visitor Experience context is the factor which talks of ‘listening not broadcasting’. This can be a difficult line to walk when encouraging meaningful discussions whilst also reminding people of rules and things that can’t happen because of the parliamentary space (for example, security requirements).
A number of other aspects of this work discussed concerned feasibility. For example, there can be influence on initiatives dependent on funding (such as translation services, audio and visual elements), and funding allocation made by senior executive leaders who may not have the expertise in what makes good engagement or information on what good engagement practice is.
Ending on a positive note, Sasha shared that parliamentary engagement is not a thing to be achieved, it is a consideration and a process that we need to bring into everything we do.
Iain Walker from newDemocracy Foundation shared resources and his thoughts on citizens assemblies, including innovations in the Brussels Parliament and deliberative committees.
The provocation and talks generated a great deal of further thought and discussion within the group. Some of the key things covered were around the use of a recess for front loading (for example, delving into research) for when back in parliamentary sessions and the need to include differing perspectives when looking at engagement initiatives. It was also acknowledged that members of the public and staff are all at different levels of the engagement journey at any one time.
Community of practice co-chair Caroline Wallis said:
“It has been rewarding to see the uptake across many parliamentary jurisdictions in Australasia. I hope we can continue to use this forum for rich discussions that result in meaningful work and outcomes. We also welcome any new members who wish to join us!”
The community of practice met again in early December when the Parliament of New South Wales spoke about their work throughout the year and the wider group discussed ideas for other sessions for this fledgling community of practice in 2025. Watch this space for more details!
More information
If you would like more information about the Australian/New Zealand/Pacific parliamentary engagement community of practice, please get in touch with Sarah Moulds, Sasha Greig or Caroline Wallis.
IPEN members can find out more in MS Teams.
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1: Map showing Australia, New Zealand and Pacific Islands. Source: Google Maps. 2: Introduction slide from July community of practice session. 3: Slide showing overview of research based 10 factors of effective public engagement, from July community of practice session. 4: Citizens Assembly graphic. Source: RNZ (Radio New Zealand). 5: Examples of youth engagement with parliamentary processes: protests and submitting to a committee. Source New Zealand Parliament.
The International Parliament Engagement Network (IPEN) has appointed an international Advisory Group to support an ongoing project to develop resources that will support parliaments to design, deliver and evaluate public engagement activities.
The guides will focus on a range of public engagement topics to help build parliaments’ capacity to engage members of the public in their work.
Initial topics for the resources include principles of parliamentary public engagement, youth engagement, and petitions and citizens’ legislative initiatives.
Other themes will cover education programmes, committee consultations, deliberative approaches, parliament as a place and space, and engaging underrepresented groups.
The project is being conducted by Juliet Ollard, Senior Research and Engagement Officer for IPEN, based at the University of Leeds, under the leadership of Professor Cristina Leston-Bandeira and in partnership with INTER PARES.
Juliet Ollard said:
“Since the project is aiming to support parliaments across the world through these guides, it is important that the project includes collaboration with colleagues working in different parts of the world and a range of engagement traditions. We have created an Advisory Group of parliamentary officials and other experts from around the world to provide feedback, input and challenge as we develop the guides.”
The project is drawing on the experience and expertise of parliamentary officials and researchers in other ways, too, through interviews, workshops and pilot activities.
In October 2024 the team held two international workshops to develop a set of Principles for Parliamentary Public Engagement which will be the focus of one of the first guides to be produced.
The Advisory Group is made up of parliamentary staff, academic and third sector representatives from countries such as Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Nigeria, Indonesia and the UK. We are also drawing on the experience of small parliaments with representation from the Solomon Islands and the Isle of Man, as well as state parliaments in Australia. The group also includes a representative from our Public Engagement Hub partner the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU).
Ruth Donnelly from the Office of the Clerk at Tynwald, Isle of Man, said:
“I am delighted to have been asked to be part of the advisory group for this project.
“Working for a small parliament, I am looking forward to being able to share the insight of a small jurisdiction and make a positive contribution to parliaments across the world. Small or large, we all have our challenges engaging with the public more effectively and working together is a positive way to improve democratic participation.”
“I am delighted to be part of the Advisory Group for this very important project. At a time of doubtful, if not decreasing, confidence in democracy, developing resources to foster public engagement with parliament becomes critical. As the bedrock of representative democracy, there is no better time than now to rethink, relearn, and possibly unlearn traditional ways of citizen engagement with parliament. I am happy to share thoughts from the African perspective to enrich the group’s contributions to the project.”
There is no better time than now to rethink, relearn, and possibly unlearn traditional ways of citizen engagement with parliament.
Jonathan Murphy, Head of Programme, INTER PARES, said:
“The Guides on Citizen Engagement will offer parliaments practical tools to support stronger and more meaningful public participation in decision-making. By reflecting on public engagement principles and the impact of traditional and innovative approaches to citizen participation, they will contribute to discussions and understanding on the representative role of parliaments.
“The role of the Advisory Group will be indispensable through the development process in ensuring that the guides are informed by diverse experiences, are practical, and impactful. The expert review and recommendations will support the creation of resources that truly bridge the gap between citizens and parliaments.”
The work on the resources is ongoing and the finished guides are due to be published in the spring or summer of 2025.
Juliet Ollard said:
“We still welcome input from parliaments while we continue to work on the resources.
“If you work directly in the area of public engagement with parliament or have academic expertise in this area – and would like to take part in an interview to inform the project – please let us know by emailing us at ipen@leeds.ac.uk.”
The Civil Service Excellence and Innovation Awards were established in 2015 in Ireland to highlight innovations in policy and service delivery across the Civil Service where best practice and lessons can be shared.
At a ceremony in June, the Houses of the Oireachtas team and integral project partners from the Centre for Deaf Studies received the award for the World Class Civil Service category. This award ‘recognises teams and projects that are a source of inspiration to other public administrations at home and abroad’.
Caroline O’Leary said:
“I believed in the value and aims of the project right from the start. Collaborating with deaf interpreters and in person engagement with the wider deaf community for feedback was vital to the success and future use of new signs within the glossary.”
Ciara Grant added:
“In our roles, we aim to provide greater accessibility to parliamentary proceedings through ISL. This project has created a culture of collaboration with deaf interpreters which will continue to be fostered in our work.
“Along with collaboration with the broader deaf community and sign language academics, this has resulted in a sustainable glossary which is hoped will further enhance language access to political discourse.”
At an IPEN seminar in December 2023, Caroline and Ciara shared how the ISL Interpreting Team were working towards improving Irish Sign Language access into aspects of the Irish parliament. Attendees were treated to an exclusive preview of the new glossary (which launched the following day to coincide with National ISL Day) and a demonstration of some of the new signs created, including three ISL variations of the sign for ‘amendment’.
Cristina Leston-Bandeira, Chair of IPEN and Professor of Politics at the University of Leeds, said:
“The whole IPEN community sends their congratulations to the ISL team at the Oireachtas for their very well deserved prize, which recognises true trail blazing work in providing for more inclusive public engagement practices within parliament.”
