AGORA eLearning Portal for Parliamentary Development

• Identify the key texts that outline gender sensitive parliamentary norms
• Identify, in their own parliamentary contexts, key decision makers and influencers that will support gender sensitive change
• Critically assess the merits and applicability to their own parliamentary context of gender sensitive changes that have been adopted elsewhere
• Design and defend a contextually-appropriate gender sensitive parliamentary change.

At the end of this course, learners should have developed

• Understanding of the key societal changes that have affected representation in recent decades;
• Understanding of the key role played by modern parliaments in representation;
• Knowledge and understanding of the five core processes of representation;
• Ability to identify and critically evaluate examples of best practice in representation; and
• Ability to critically reflect on their own practices of representation.

This course was written by Professor Cristina Leston-Bandeira, University of Leeds.

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At the end of this course, you will better understand: 

1. Why parliaments engage on climate change
2. The (international) legal framework
3. Parliamentary action on climate change
4. Climate budgeting and climate finance
5. Parliamentary practice on climate change

Throughout, you will be able to explore a wide range of case studies from across Europe and beyond.  

The course consists of 5 modules. Please click on the "Launch the learning module" in order to start the course

This course was written by former MP (New Zealand) Dr. Kennedy Graham.

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This course analyses procedures and practices of law-making in contemporary democracies.

• The first part places law-making among other parliamentary functions, underlining the close interrelationship and intertwining between the main features of the law-making process and the form of government.
• The second part is devoted to parliamentary procedures for law-making and is divided into two sections: (a1) a historical approach, exploring the main models adopted in the UK, France and US (respectively, the tThree rReadings in the UK; the “‘Bureaux System”’ in France; and the Permanent Specialized Committees in the US), and (b2) a section focusing on a key driver of the transformation of law-making procedures: the growing complexity of legislation (‘complexification’), a key factor that is transforming contemporary law-making procedures.
• The third and final part explores specific law-making practices through a comparative study of different jurisdictions.

This course was written by Professor Nicola Lupo, Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi Sociali.

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Information and communication technologies (ICT) tools are not only transforming the way interpersonal communications are taking place, but also information sharing and functioning of the work place, and ways of political mobilization around the world. For parliaments, ICT are a core enabler of greater openness, accessibility and accountability, as well as a two-way channel for engaging with citizens.

This course looks at how parliaments in cooperation with Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) and civil society organisations (CSOs) can strengthen their capacities to deliver more inclusive, accountable and open budgets for the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The course explains the ways in which parliamentarians and citizens can participate in the budget process. It demonstrates how the executive can create opportunities for the parliament and citizens to become genuinely engaged in budget planning and implementation. The course outlines the tools parliamentarians and citizens can use to participate in the budget process and how the executive can invite their input at multiple points from allocation to implementation and evaluation.

Available in: English, Português

This course is a new version of the 'Parliaments in Practice: an Introduction' course with special focus on Myanmar