News24 | Civil society launches tool to improve access to parliamentary information

A new online tool, ParliMeter, aims to boost transparency and accountability in Parliament. (DeAgostini/Getty Images)

• Civil society organisations OUTA, PMG and OpenUP launched an online tool to make it easier for the public to access information about Parliament.
• Co-funded by the EU, ParliMeter tracks MPs' activities and legislation using data from PMG.
• The intention is to expand the data available on the tool.

Democracy doesn't become strong because of great politicians; it becomes strong if citizens hold politicians accountable, said Mbali Ntuli at the launch of a new online tool to increase access to parliamentary information.

Ntuli, a former DA politician and founder and CEO of NGO GroundWork Collective, chaired the launch of ParliMeter in Cape Town on Thursday.

ParliMeter is a project by the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA), the Parliamentary Monitoring Group (PMG) and civic technology and open data specialists OpenUp, aiming to "improve transparency and accountability in the national legislature".

ParliMeter is co-funded by the European Union under its Enhancing Accountability and Transparency programme, which is a multi-year initiative aimed at improving public access to governance processes and strengthening oversight mechanisms.

Ntuli is concerned about citizens' participation in democracy and attributes the crises facing the country to a lack of meaningful participation and the fact that much of the populace is not educated about the civic systems and ways to participate in democracy beyond voting.

"True democracy happens in between elections," she said.

She expects that more organisations, like the three organisations now with ParliMeter, will try to ensure access to information.

ParliMeter uses data sourced from Parliament via PMG, to provide insights into key parliamentary activities.

At the moment, this entails dashboards tracking MPs' presence in plenary and committee meetings, monitoring where legislation stands in the parliamentary process and displaying the number and duration of committee meetings.

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The intention is to expand the available data to include voting records and MP participation analysis, strengthen committee monitoring, making proceedings more accessible and trackable, and building a foundation for evidence-based policy-making by increasing data availability and linking research reports.

"It does not draw conclusions, it provides insights," said Rachel Fischer, OUTA's Parliamentary Engagement and Research Manager, and project manager for the ParliMeter project.

Ghalib Galant, a PMG board member, noted recent developments abroad where democracy is being eroded.

"It is a message for us about why it is important to protect democracy," he said.