The International Parliament Engagement Network (IPEN) is part of an ongoing project to develop resources that will support parliaments to design, deliver and evaluate public engagement activities.
It involves working with parliaments and public engagement experts to co-create a series of eight guides on citizen engagement.
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, public consultations, deliberative engagement, 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 (a parliamentary capacity-building programme jointly delivered by the European Union and International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance).
Contribute to the guides
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.
Advisory group
The Advisory Group is made up of parliamentary staff, academic and third sector representatives. Members include:
Natalie Badcock, Community Education & Engagement Manager, Parliament of South Australia
Ruth Donnelly, Head of Corporate and Engagement Services, Office of the Clerk of Tynwald, Isle of Man
Oke Epia, Executive Director, OrderPaper, Nigeria
Kit Frost, Senior Director of Public Education Programs, Library of Parliament, Canada
Lumina Mentari, Open Parliament expert, Indonesia
Alex Seama, Chief Parliamentary Civic Education Officer, National Parliament of the Solomon Islands
Professor Diana Stirbu, Professor of Public Policy and Governance, London Metropolitan University
Alistair Stoddart, Senior Participation Specialist, Participation and Communities Team, Scottish Parliament
Felicitas Torrecilla, Research Coordinator, Directorio Legislativo, Argentina
Dr Andy Williamson, Centre for Innovation in Parliament, Inter-Parliamentary Union
Image
‘Crowd’ by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay