The Bangladesh Institute of Parliamentary Studies (BIPS) is currently being established by the Parliament of Bangladesh. BIPS is an independent body. The Bill for the establishment of BIPS was tabled before the House on 15^th November 2000 and subsequently referred to the relevant Committee (Parliamentary Standing Committee on Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs). The Bill was passed by the Parliament on 8^th April and assented by the President on 19^th of the same month. The Bill is intended to institutionalise the Institute and ensure its sustainability in the long-term.

With the support of the UNDP/Bangladesh Parliament technical support project entitled "Strengthening Parliamentary Democracy", the Institute has already begun implementing orientation and training programmes for the Members of the Bangladesh Parliament and the Staff of the Bangladesh Parliament Secretariat, respectively. The training programme has been prepared drawing on the findings of a Training Needs Assessment. The Assessment revealed that almost all Hon. MPs approached explicitly showed their concern about the current level of efficiency and quality of service that they receive from the Parliamentary staff. Responses from the Parliament Secretariat Staff revealed that 98% of respondents feel the need for training and 30% stated that they had not received any training throughout their career in the public service.

CURRENT ACTIVITIES

A Foundation Training Course has been developed, targeted at the Officers of the Secretariat. The Course has been conceived for providing specialised training for enhancing the skills of public servants working in Parliament.

The Foundation Training Courses were initiated on 13^th August, 2000, and they take place in the newly renovated Seminar Room of the BIPS. Attendance is monitored and successful attendants are issued a Course Completion Certificate. The course consists of a total of nine modules, each covering specific issues of relevance to the practices and procedures of the Parliament of Bangladesh. Each module consists of one to four sessions and each session is conducted from 15:00 to 17:00 hours over a four-week period. The lecturers include Hon. Members of Parliament, Senior Officers of the Bangladesh Parliament Secretariat, international experts and representatives from academia.

The modules of the training course are as follows:

Module 1: Constitutional Framework of Bangladesh

Module 2: The Organs of the Government

Module 3: Introduction to the Rules of Procedure of the Bangladesh Parliament

Module 4: Powers and Functions of the Speaker

Module 5: Legislative Functions of the Parliament

Module 6: Financial Functions of the Parliament

Module 7: Oversight Functions of the Parliament

Module 8: Representative Functions and Self-Organisation of the Parliament

Module 9: Gender-balance and gender-issues in Parliament

With the support of the UNDP/Bangladesh Parliament "Strengthening Parliamentary Democracy" Project, the BIPS has established a computer training center, fully networked to the central server and the internet server located in the Legislative Information Centre (LIC). To support this activity, a Computer User’s Centre has also been established in the LIC to provide opportunities for using computer facilities and, in particular, internet facilities.

The orientation for Members of Parliament provides comprehensive but functional exposure to using the computer. A set number of modules have been designed focusing on MS Word, Excel, Internet and E-mail, and MS Project. The modules are offered several times during the orientation programme allowing Members the required amount of flexibility in terms of taking a particular module according to his/her own convenience. Furthermore, it creates an opportunity for the Members to refresh their knowledge, if required.

For the Parliament Secretariat, modules are divided into two levels: General Orientation and Advanced Orientation. General orientation includes an introduction to personal computers, MS Word – level one, two and advanced, Excel, Powerpoint, charting and organising data, and using the internet and e-mail. The advanced orientation includes communication and reporting, multimedia presentation, MS Outlook, MS Mail Schedule and MS Project. More recently, specialized courses have been added and include website design, hardware and software maintenance, word-processing in bangla, and training of trainers as a means of ensuring the long-run sustainability of the center.

Courses are based on an instructor-led, group-paced, classroom delivery learning model with hands-on structured activities as the focus of delivering the modules. In addition, a "systems utility" approach is followed through prescribing modules for the target audience after considering the utility of the module in the context of their specific work environments. This helps in structuring the modules as per the need of the participant. The participants are all given user-friendly training manuals, published in Bangla by the UNDP Project, to take away at the end of the course, to be used as a continual and useful reference source.

The BIPS is implementing an Orientation Course on Audio Visual Communications for the Members of the Bangladesh Parliament. The course has been developed in close conjunction with Ekushey Television, a private television operator in Bangladesh.

The Audio Visual Communications Course was developed at the initiative of the Hon. Speaker of the Bangladesh Parliament, who requested the project to consider means of improving the capacities of the Members of Parliament in political debate and presentation, as one of the training activities of the BIPS. The Course focuses on using the medium of television to enhance skills in delivering political messages clearly and concisely as well as enhancing skills in participating in political debates. This is particularly important at the current moment in Bangladesh as the television network, currently limited to Bangladesh TV, is expanding with the granting of licenses to private companies. This considerably increases the opportunities MPs have to relate directly with the public and to debate their political positions in a public forum. The Orientation Course therefore additionally assists the MPs in preparing for such a change in the panorama of media in their country.

The objectives of this orientation course are achieved through a series of practical workshops in the BIPS and in the ETV studios, followed up by analysis of performance and discussion. For reasons of confidentiality, top-level political leaders receive one-to-one familiarisation structured in an intensive programme. Members of Parliament follow the course in small group programmes.

Responding to the identified needs of the Bangladesh Parliament Secretariat Staff, the BIPS has developed a Communicative English Course, which is implemented by the British Council, Bangladesh. While the official language of the Bangladesh Parliament is Bangla, both in the House and in conducting general business and communication in the Parliament Secretariat, the need for a basic understanding of English, as the most widely spoken second language of the world, is considered by many as a valuable tool for the work environment. Additionally, the increasing requests by MPs for research support and the progressive computerisation of the Secretariat demands a good understanding of the English language to be able to take full advantage of the broad array of possibilities provided by the computer, including access to the internet and the e-mail services, as well as documents, books, periodicals and other forms of literature (written in English and especially those related to Westminster-type parliamentary systems) available at the Legislative Information Centre and, in the future, at the BIPS Resource Centre.

The Course is open to all interested staff of the Parliament Secretariat and provides both a general refreshment as well as a more specific focus on technical terms used in parliamentary practice. The course is currently being run on a pilot basis, and will be thoroughly evaluated at the end of this first phase.

One of the activities of the BIPS is to conduct a regular series of international and national conferences. The Conferences aim to provide opportunities for high level dialogue and debate and for regular cross-country exchange of experiences among like-minded individuals. The first of the BIPS Seminars was held in May 1999, focusing on the Committee System in the Bangladesh Parliament, attended by over 100 MPs from across party lines (See Report of Conference). The second BIPS Conference took place in February 2001. The overall theme of the Conference was "The Bangladesh Parliament in the 21^st Century", allowing discussion to focus on the three primary functions of the Parliament, i.e. representation, legislation and accountability and the possibilities for strengthening these roles as the 21^st Century unfolds. The Conference, jointly supported by UNDP and the World Bank, involved a number of high-level international and national resource persons. The report of the Conference will shortly be made available on this website.

6) Round-Table Discussions and Lectures

The BIPS is organising small, focused round table discussions and evening lectures on a regular basis with the aim of providing opportunities for a diverse group of persons to dialogue and debate on selected issues directly related to functioning of the parliament. While the round-table discussions focus on specialised issues and involve a pre-selected group of persons, the lectures are open to all Members of Parliament as well as interested Senior Officials of the Bangladesh Parliament and the general public. These activities are held in the Seminar Room of the IPS and events are widely publicised prior to the event. To date, a round-table discussion on "Parliamentary Democracy: The Australian Way", was organised on the occasion of the visit to Bangladesh of an Australian Parliamentary Delegation (November 2000); a round table discussion on "Parliamentary Diplomacy" was organised with a keynote presentation by Mr. Rajmohan Gandhi and the sponsorship of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation (Germany), (November 2000); and a lecture on "The Use of Information Technology in Modern Government" was presented by Mr. Thorbjørn Christiansen, Technical Director of the National Information Technology Institute of the Norwegian Government (December 2000).

Included as a part of the activities of the IPS are various on-the-job training activities of the Parliament Secretariat Staff. This is currently being undertaken in three areas of the Parliament:

• In the Legislative Information Centre, the library staff has been involved in an intensive period of on-the-job training related to the newly installed electronic cataloguing system. The training was conducted over a four-month period (June to September 2000).

• The Parliament has recently acquired a set of printing equipment for the establishment of a parliamentary printing press. The press will give the Parliament full control over the printing of its materials, particularly the urgent and confidential documents. To support the establishment of the press, a six-month training programme is currently being conducted, involving twelve individuals of the Parliament. The training is being provided in the areas of offset printing, plate making, plate processing, cutting and binding. As the course is currently nearing completion, the actual printing activities of the press have now been initiated.

The Institute of Parliamentary Studies is in the process of developing an Orientation Course for new Members of Parliament. It is expected that this course will be launched in line with the opening of the Eighth Parliament in Bangladesh.