The report of the 19th Conference of Speakers and Presiding Officers held in South Africa last month was tabled on Wednesday in the National Council.

The conference brought together 63 presiding officers and delegates from across the continent, with a purpose to transform parliaments into proactive development-orientated institutions capable of securing political stability and sustainable development.

According to the report, parliaments were challenged to move beyond traditional lawmaking and oversight and transform into proactive, innovative and development-orientated institutions.

This would require modernisation of rules, strengthening research capacity and ensuring rigorous scrutiny of national budgets.

National Council MP for Omulonga Constituency, Erickson Ndawanifa, stated, "We have to ensure that the debates of the issues around the public must be public-orientated in the interest of the public and for public goods. But we must avoid just debating for the sake of our own interests. We must avoid attacking presiding officers, chairpersons, speakers and deputy speakers for our own sake. Therefore, we have been called upon to say we must respect the Disorganised House Parliament, which is the house to discuss issues of the public interest."

It was also suggested in the report that Parliament leverage technology through the e-parliament system, AI, cybersecurity and digital inclusion, as well as strengthening regional cooperation through solidarity, mutual learning and strategic partnerships.

"One, adopt a parliamentary public participation framework to institutionalise citizen engagement petitions, public hearings and digital consultations. Two, establish an oversight recommendation tracking mechanism to monitor implementation of committees and inquiry recommendations. Three, strengthening parliamentary research and analytical capacity to support evidence-based legislation, budgeting and oversight."