Make legislative process more transparent and participatory (LR0043)

7.1 Increase transparency in the legislative process; and 7.2 Increase citizen participation in public policymaking The commitment aims to provide citizens with information to help them better understand which bills and laws will be voted upon. It will create spaces for public hearings, citizen engagement on draft legislation, and relevant advocacy campaigns. The following milestones will be reached to fulfill the commitment: 1. Track status of bills in the House of Representatives and Senate through a central database which lists all bills under consideration; 1.1 Provide information on the progress of bills, the sponsor of each bill and who has voted for each bill; 1.2 Publish ongoing results and analysis in quarterly reports and online; The commitment will increase participation by providing opportunity for citizens and civil society organizations to track, support and organize around the legislative processes. It will increase transparency by opening the parliamentary process to public scrutiny. Milestone Activity With a Verifiable Deliverable Deadline: Responsible agency 1. Track the status of bills in the House of Representatives and Senate through central database 1.1 Publish the full text of the (draft) bill as well as information on the progress, sponsors, and who has voted for each bill. Begins January 2021 and ongoing until December 2022 National Legislature 1.2 Publish results and analysis in quarterly reports and online through a searchable database. Begins January 2021 and ongoing until December 2022 National Legislature 2. Work with relevant groups inside and outside government to deliberate on draft bills 2.1 Organize at least 2 rounds of consultations on 2 existing bills with multiple stakeholders relevant to the particular issue- including relevant government agencies, youth, private sector, CSOs, Begins January 2021 and ongoing until December 2022 National Legislature academia, media.

Action Plan Review

Commitment 7: Engaging Citizens in the Legislative Process

● Verifiable: Yes

● Does it have an open government lens? Yes

● Potential for results: Modest

Results Report

Commitment 7. ENGAGING CITIZENS IN THE LEGISLATIVE PROCESS

● Verifiable: Yes

● Does it have an open government lens? Yes

● Potential for results: Modest

● Completion: Not started

● Did it open government? No early results to report yet

This commitment aimed to increase transparency in the legislative process and increase citizen participation in public policy-making.

A literature review indicates that there is not a central database to track status of bills in the House of Representatives and Senate; to access the full text of draft bills and information on the progress, sponsors, and voters for bills; or to view published quarterly reports and evidence of any consultative meetings. A website that listed Liberian Legislative Acts was last updated on 20 February 2017. [78] Websites linked to the legislature are not accessible: They give a message “The site cannot be reached” when accessed. [79]

However, the Institute for Research and Democratic Development (IREDD) has tracked bills in the House since 2010. This information includes a link to the full text of the bill, the type of bill, the body of origin, status, sponsor, and date it was introduced. The last entry was on 23 September 2019. [80] IREDD’s 2021 first biannual legislative monitoring performance scorecard reports that of the 88 and 49 bills in the House of Representatives and Senate respectively, 13 and 7 legislations were passed across the respective houses. This report noted that information from the legislature was not regularly updated or accessible. This undermined legislative transparency, promoting a closed governance system that leads to corruption. [81]^{, [82]}

CSOs have also taken on work to organize stakeholder consultations and media-CSO roundtable discussions around certain bills. An example is the Center for Media Studies and Peace Building, which, with support from the Small Media Foundation, facilitated several stakeholder consultations and hosted radio shows as advocacy for the enactment of the Data Protection Legislation in Liberia, a draft bill by the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications. [83]

The IRM researcher could not reach a representative from the Legislature for this commitment. No contact was listed in the action plan and the OGP Secretariat did not provide a point of contact for the commitment upon request.