My name is Augustine Ruzindana. I come from Uganda. I am chair of the African Parliamentarians Network Against Corruption.
The network was formed largely through Canadian assistance. We first came here to Canada through the Parliamentary Centre with the Laurentian seminar program.
I attended the first one with Steve and a number of other colleagues--some are in parliament and some are out of parliament now. I attended the next one as a resource person, and then the first African-held event out of the Parliamentary Centre was held in Kampala in February 1999. The theme of that event was the part played by parliament in controlling corruption. At the end of the workshop, members who attended--and they were from ten African parliaments--decided to form a network that would keep them linked to each other, exchanging information, exchanging experiences, and that's how the African Parliamentarians Network Against Corruption was founded. Without the input of Canadian aid, it would not have been possible.
Since then, a number of other interlinked networks have been formed. There is a gender network, which is based in Dakar. There is a poverty reduction network, which is based in Accra, and there is a newly formed one on AIDS. So there are four networks that are interlinked and they are mainly assisted by Canadian assistance. Because they have been in existence for some time, we have assistance from other countries, from DANIDA, from the World Bank, and so on. But the seed was planted by Canada.
Basically, what we are doing is sensitizing members of parliament and the institution of parliament itself on how to utilize the oversight function to control corruption. Traditionally, parliaments have not been involved in the fight against corruption, or the role that they played was not interpreted as a role against corruption. So when we started this network, we tried to show members of parliament that through the various roles--like the one we just witnessed now, a question time, for example--through committees of parliament, through examining budgets of government, examining the report of the auditor general, members of parliament, and the institution of parliament, we can utilize it to fight corruption.
We have, over the years, had a number of projects. The most recent one we have had is a pilot project on the African Union convention against corruption, which requires certain things to be done by parliaments within Africa, like the domestication of offences that are outlined within the convention. We have had pilot projects in three countries--in Ghana, in Zimbabwe, and in Uganda--and they have studied the institutional mechanisms, the legal mechanisms that are in place in those countries that either facilitate the occurrence of corruption or prevent corruption.
The other networks do the same—the poverty reduction network, the gender network, and now the new one on AIDS.
The Parliamentary Centre has a project in Kenya. It's for the parliamentary strengthening project for the Parliament of Kenya. There is another project in the Sudan, there was a project in the Parliament of Ethiopia, and so on. All of these are for the strengthening of democratic institutions and democracy.
I have other colleagues. I shouldn't take a lot of time, but I'd like to end with the comment that Canada is playing a useful role, at least with regard to the African continent, in strengthening democracy. Of course, it can do a lot more, but the coming of NEPAD and so on, and the funds that were made available—the first input that was made available was $500 million—is what our networks are benefiting from. I'm sure Parliament had to approve those funds, and we are therefore grateful for the input Canada is making into the democratization process in Africa.
Thank you.