The United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, José Antonio Ocampo, launched the Global Centre for ICT in Parliament, an alliance of national and regional assemblies, bilateral and multilateral agencies, international organisations, media, corporations and civil society.
This innovative initiative seeks to contribute to the empowerment of legislatures by reinforcing parliament capacity to harness information and communication technology tools, and place them at the service of the institutional process, citizens access to parliamentary activities and of inter-parliamentary cooperation.
Among the institutions central to promoting and consolidating good governance, parliaments are especially well placed to take advantage of ICTs, to foster democracy and narrow the democratic deficit, to help shape the Information Society and to improve their own particular role within it, Mr. Ocampo stated.
Mr. Ocampo called for greater collaboration at the international level to make available experiences and resources to facilitate the integration of information and communication technology in parliamentary processes, and to ensure that parliaments around the world maximize their contribution to implement and monitor the internationally agreed goals that make up the global United Nations development agenda.
The global initiative is also expected to provide new opportunities to step up United Nations cooperation with the IPU, in the global struggle for fair, equitable and inclusive development.
The Global Centre for ICT in Parliament was launched during a high-level dialogue on Governance, Global Citizenship and Technology: the Role of Parliaments in the Information Society, held on the opening day of the World Summit on the Information Society.
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