Embedding deliberation in political processes – lessons from Ireland

Meeting of the Citizens' Assembly on Biodiversity Loss, Dublin Castle.

19 February 2025

Speakers: Darren Lawlor (Principal Clerk [Head of Policy Advisory Coordination and Development], Committees’ Secretariat, Houses of the Oireachtas); Charlotte Cousins (Senior Parliamentary Researcher [Parliamentary Affairs], Oireachtas Library & Research Service, Houses of the Oireachtas); Cathal O’Regan (Principal Officer, Department of the Taoiseach).

Chair: Chris Shaw (Clerk of the Home Affairs Committee, UK House of Commons, and IPEN Executive Team)

This IPEN seminar will focus on processes for citizens’ assemblies in Ireland through the lenses of the Houses of the Oireachtas (Irish Parliament) and the Department of the Taoiseach (Prime Minister).

Darren Lawlor and Charlotte Cousins will give the perspective from the Houses of the Oireachtas, detailing the role of the Oireachtas in establishing the Citizens’ Assemblies. They will share how the recommendations were considered and reported on through Committees, and will provide insights on the engagement of parliamentarians and administration of these Committees.

Cathal O’Regan will provide a view from the Taoiseach’s department. He will cover the benefits the Government sees in citizens’ assemblies, including how views have evolved with experience and with different administrations. The choice of subject will be considered: how the decision is made and agreed with Parliament. Cathal will also cover the impact of different citizens’ assemblies on policy, and the wider impact that the use of these participatory methods have had on public engagement and Irish politics.

This will be followed by a Q&A and further discussion on the extent to which these processes are now permanently embedded in Irish politics.

Image: Meeting of the Citizens’ Assembly on Biodiversity Loss which took place in St. Patrick’s Hall in Dublin Castle in 2022.

What AI may mean for public engagement with parliaments

22 January 2025

The use of AI by parliaments has become a key focus of recent months. In this  Public Engagement Hub seminar we will undertake an open exploration of what AI may mean for public engagement with parliaments. 

The first part of the seminar will be structured around an ‘In Conversation’ format which will discuss and reflect on why it is important to consider AI from a public engagement perspective. The panel will consider the role that AI may potentially play in enhancing public engagement with parliaments. We will identify opportunities arising from this, as well as risks and how these can be mitigated.

The panel will seek to highlight examples of parliaments using AI for outreach and public engagement and discuss what we can learn from these. The panel will aim to discuss the role of AI as a summative tool (translating, transcribing, summarising volumes of data/evidence), but also as an inductive tool to stimulate ideas and enable deeper forms of engagement. 

The second part of the seminar will open up for Q&A and the sharing of experiences and queries on the topic.

Panelists include: Franklin De Vrieze (Head of Practice Accountability, Westminster Foundation for Democracy). Other panelists to be announced.

Chair: Professor Cristina Leston-Bandeira, University of Leeds and Chair of IPEN

This event will take place on Zoom and is open to anyone with an interest in public engagement with parliaments.

The seminar will be presented in English. Translation will be available from/to French.

Find out more and register here.

About the Public Engagement Hub seminar series

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.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Developments, Innovations and Challenges in Public Engagement in the Mexican Congress

The children's parliament in Mexico

20 November 2024

Jointly organised by IPEN and the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), this Public Engagement Hub seminar will explore how the Mexican Parliament engages with citizens.

Speaker: Dr Khemvirg Puente (Politics Professor, National Autonomous University of Mexico and Former Chairperson of the Advisory Council of the Mexican Congressional TV Network)

Chair: Dr Elise Uberoi (Head of Social Policy Section, House of Commons Library, UK Parliament and Deputy Chair of IPEN)

Dr Khemvirg Puente will outline a range of public engagement initiatives, including the Legislative Museum of the Chamber of Deputies (Museo Legislativo), the Parliamentary TV and Radio Channel (Canal del Congreso), the Citizen website (Portal Ciudadano), the Open Parliament Agenda, the Children’s Parliament, the Youth Parliament and the Women’s Parliament.

The speaker will also reflect on the effectiveness of these tools in engaging citizens and enhancing trust.

This event will take place on Zoom and is open to anyone with an interest in public engagement with parliaments.

The seminar will be presented in English. Translation will be available from/to Spanish (tbc) and French.

Find out more and register here.

About the Public Engagement Hub seminar series

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.

Image: The Children’s Parliament, Mexico. Photo © Cámara de Diputados, Coordinación de Comunicación Social.

Critical conversation – petitions

Speech bubbles

13 November 2024

Taking place at two different times across different time zones, we are excited to announce the first in a new series of IPEN ‘critical conversations’ on the theme of petitions.

Public engagement with parliament is not always plain sailing and – amidst the great successes it brings with it – can often involve challenges that at times can seem frustrating or difficult to resolve.

This new series of ‘critical conversations’ aims to create a safe space for our IPEN members to come together to critically discuss the issues they face around their practice or research and the methods they use (or have considered using) to engage citizens with parliament.

For our first event, we will be taking petitions and other forms of citizens’ legislative initiatives as a broad theme. If your work or research is relevant to this topic, please join us to share and critically reflect on your experiences and challenges around this form of public engagement.

Following an overview from the facilitators, each conversation will be structured around a series of questions and provocations relevant to the theme, which may also involve small group discussion. In a change to our ‘usual’ seminars, there will be no presentations – IPEN members just need to turn up and join in the conversation.

More information

The sessions will be facilitated by Cristina Leston-Bandeira (Professor of Politics, University of Leeds and Chair of IPEN) and Sarah Moulds (Associate Professor in Law, University of South Australia and Deputy Chair of IPEN)

This online seminar will take place MS Teams space and is open to all members of the International Parliament Engagement Network.

Find out more about the network.

Image by S K from Pixabay.

Citizens Assemblies in Germany – findings from the Hallo Bundestag project

30 October 2024

Speakers: Juliane Baruck (Project Lead Hallo Bundestag, Germany); Paul Naudascher (Team Member and Head of Science & Evaluation, Hallo Bundestag, Germany)

Chair: Chris Shaw (Clerk of the Home Affairs Committee, UK House of Commons, and IPEN Executive Team)

This IPEN event is a follow up to the seminar we held back in 2023 on the Hallo Bundestag initiative.

Juliane Baruck and Paul Naudascher will report back on the findings from this deliberative democracy methods initiative that was used in Germany in 2023/4 to engage citizens with the policy making process, through a focus on Members of Parliament.

They will talk about their operative learnings from the project and will also dive into the findings from the evaluation report which has just been published.

This online seminar will take place in MS Teams and is open to all members of the International Parliament Engagement Network.

Find out more about the network.

Image: Among other useful gadgets, the Hallo Bundestag team handcrafted a cube for analogue lottery processes during each citizen assembly. Photo © Hallo Bundestag.

Citizen-initiated legislation: The Clean Air Act in Thailand

Silhouette of trees against a background of smoke from chimneys and sunset sky.

27 September 2024

This Public Engagement Hub seminar will focus on citizen-initiated legislation in Thailand.

Thailand has a provision for civil society organisations (CSOs) to submit legislative proposals to the House of Representatives if they gather a minimum of 10,000 signatures from eligible voters. This is this provision that was used to put forward a bill to address air pollution, known as the Clean Air Act, almost unanimously accepted by the House of Representatives in January 2024.

Following this, a 39-member ad hoc committee was set up to review the seven drafts submitted, including the civil society draft, and consolidate them into a single, cohesive bill that will then be presented to Senate early 2025.

Join us for a conversation that explores a very concrete example of public engagement through the citizen initiative mechanism designed to allow public participation in the legislative process.

This event will take place on Zoom and is open to anyone with an interest in public engagement with parliaments.

The seminar will be presented in English. Translation will be available to/from French.

Find out more and register here.

About the Public Engagement Hub seminar series

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.

Photo by Pixabay. Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license.

Embedding public engagement into parliamentary practice – the case of Kenya

Parliament of Kenya, The Senate Public Entrance.

17 July 2024

This Public Engagement Hub seminar will focus on Kenya’s bicameral parliament to lead a reflection on how to institutionalise public engagement practices.

Speaker: Dr Brenda Ogembo, Principal Clerk Assistant and the Deputy Head of the Senate Liaison Office at the Parliament of Kenya

Chair: Professor Cristina Leston-Bandeira, University of Leeds and Chair of IPEN

Kenya’s constitution sets a number of provisions about public engagement expectations. The seminar – which will primarily focus on the Senate – will share some of its practices in implementing these constitutional provisions while identifying some of the associated challenges.

This event will take place on Zoom and is open to anyone with an interest in public engagement with parliaments.

The seminar will be presented in English. Translation will be available from/to French.

Find out more and register here.

About the Public Engagement Hub seminar series

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.

Image: Parliament of Kenya, The Senate Public Entrance. Courtesy of the Parliament of Kenya.

Demokratikum – Experience Parliament: an experience-oriented approach to strengthen public engagement

The Forum in the Austrian Parliament's Demokratikum.

26 June 2024

Speakers: Matthias Keppel, Head of the Demokratikum – Experience Parliament, Parliament of Austria; Barbara Blümel, Head of the Department Services for Citizens, Parliament of Austria

Chair: Cristina Leston-Bandeira (University of Leeds and Chair of IPEN)

This IPEN seminar will explore how, as part of the renovation of its building, the Parliament of Austria adopted a highly informative and experience-orientated approach to create an interactive and welcoming new space.

This new space, the Demokratikum – situated at the parliament’s entrance – both welcomes and integrates visitors in the parliament. The seminar will outline the process behind this development and present its core characteristics.

This online seminar will take place in MS Teams and is open to all members of the International Parliament Engagement Network.

Find out more about the network.

Image

The Forum in the Austrian Parliament’s Demokratikum. Copyright: Parlamentsdirektion/Johannes Zinner.

Contributing to evidence-informed decision-making: the Oficina C at the Spanish Congress

Congreso de los Diputados, Madrid, España

11 June 2024

Presented in Spanish, this seminar is open to IPEN members only.

Speaker: Ana Elorza (Coordinadora FECYT, Oficina C, Congreso de los Diputados, España)

Chair: Eva Campos-Domínguez (Universidad de Valladolid, España)

This IPEN seminar presents the experience of Science and Technology Office, Congress of Deputies (Spain), which provides the parliament with scientific evidence on topics of interest and facilitates dialogue between the scientific community and Members of Parliament.

Ana Elorza will explain the objectives and working method of Science and Technology Office, which is based on scientific evidence – extracted from articles published in scientific journals, interviews with researchers, scientists, and experts, etc. – contextualised, analysed, and summarised in the C Reports through a standardised process (the C Method). The C-Reports are available to all Members of Parliament and the public.  Science and Technology Office emerged from the citizens’ initiative ‘Science in Parliament’ (CeeP), with the close collaboration of FECYT and the COTEC Foundation and the support of the vast majority of Spanish scientific institutions.

IPEN members can also find the details in Spanish in our MS Teams space

Image: Congreso de los Diputados (Madrid, España). Photo by Luis Javier Modino Martínez. Image licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Connecting the superpowers of ‘digital natives’ with parliament

Image to illustrate a seminar

21 May 2024

This Public Engagement Hub webinar is jointly organised by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), IPEN and INTER PARES

Date and time: Tuesday 21 May (09:00-10:30 GMT+1 / UK time; 10:00-11:30 CEST)

Moderator: Lotte Geunis, INTER PARES

Speakers: Pradip Kahtiwada, Executive Director, Youth Innovation Lab, Nepal; Hanah Lahe, Member of the Riigikogu, Estonia; Andres Lomp, Community Engagement Manager, Parliament of Victoria, Australia; Nerima Wako, Executive Director, SIASA Place, Kenya 
 
Bringing together the perspectives of parliaments and young people, this roundtable considers opportunities and challenges for connecting parliament with ‘digital natives’ born or brought up during the age of digital technology. How can digital natives engage parliaments in efforts towards transparency, accountability and participation? How can parliaments draw upon the skills and know-how of young people to strengthen their practices? 

Join us for a conversation that explores what digital natives have to offer to parliaments and vice versa, how this complements parliaments’ search for efficiency and independence, and what this could look like in practice.

This event will take place on Zoom and is open to anyone with an interest in public engagement with parliaments.

This event will be presented in English. Translation will be available from/to French.

Find out more and register here.

About the Public Engagement Hub seminar series

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