A Parliamentary Monitoring Organization (PMO) is an organization, usually non-profit1, that monitors or assesses the functioning and performance of parliaments or their individual members.

  • The parliamentary monitoring capability in a country may also include the activities of informal civil society actors. In the below cited survey, initiatives by individuals and informal groups were also included when they demonstrated a degree of sustainability.
  • Besides PMOs that monitor national parliaments, there are also groups that monitor sub-national parliaments and groups that monitor regional or international legislative bodies such as the European Union and the United Nations General Assembly.
  • Parliamentary monitoring may be limited to specific policies, or it may be conducted by parliamentary support projects. In the course of normal reporting on parliaments also the media conduct monitoring. Organizations involved in these forms of monitoring are not included in the below list which is based on the survey.

Source: Andrew Mandelbaum: Strengthening Parliamentary Accountability, Citizen Engagement and Access to Information: A Global Survey of Parliamentary Monitoring Organizations (National Democratic Institute, Sept. 2011) pages 8-9 (online copy).

Classification: COPNI 09.1.0 or COPNI 07.1.0



Parliaments are a key actor in democratic governance, because of their roles in lawmaking, conducting executive oversight, and representing citizens and their interests. As a consequence, citizen-based groups have begun to monitor or assess the functioning of parliaments or their individual members, often seeking to facilitate and promote public knowledge of, and participation in parliamentary processes.

Parliamentary monitoring organizations (PMOs) have shown promise in strengthening a number of components of democratic governance, including the accountability of parliaments to the electorate, citizen engagement in the legislative process and access to information about parliaments and their work. To a lesser extent, they have shown the capacity to encourage parliamentary reform.

The activities of PMOs generally fall into five broad functional categories (detailed descriptions are at pages 19-21 of the Global Survey):

  1. Information Aggregation and Dissemination, including for instance legislative tracking
  2. Assessment and Evaluation
  3. Research and Analysis
  4. Advocacy
  5. Citizen Engagement

Where?

Existing PMO's by Region

Below regional tables have been derived from the Global Survey. Details of the PMO per country are in the Actor Map of the country (tab General Public Services).
Give your update in comments here or in the Actor Map of the country.

Asia PMO present No (known) PMO
Bangladesh, Cambodia, Hong Kong, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, China Afghanistan, Bhutan, China, Brunei Darussalam, Japan, Korea, North, Korea, Rep., Lao PDR, Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar, Palau, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Vietnam

Central and Eastern Europe PMO present No (known) PMO
Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Kosovo, Lithuania, Macedonia, FYR, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovak Republic Estonia, Belarus, Latvia, Slovenia, Ukraine

Eurasia PMO present No (known) PMO
Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, Russian Federation, Turkey Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan

Latin America and the Caribbean PMO present No (known) PMO
Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Venezuela, R.B. Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Belize, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Panama, Puerto Rico, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay

Middle East and North Africa PMO present No (known) PMO
Egypt, Arab. Rep., Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Yemen, Rep. Algeria, Bahrain, Iran, Islamic Rep., Iraq, Libya, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syrian Arab Republic, West Bank and Gaza, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates

North America and the Pacific PMO present No (known) PMO
Australia, Canada, New Zealand, United States Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Fed. Sts., Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Vanuatu

Sub-Saharan Africa PMO present No (known) PMO
Burkina Faso, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic Chad, Comoros, Congo, Dem. Rep., Congo, Rep., Cote d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, the, Guinea Guinea-Bissau, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Niger, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Swaziland, Togo

Western Europe PMO present No (known) PMO
Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom Cyprus, Finland, Greece, Iceland, Luxembourg, Malta, Norway, Portugal, Spain

International or Regional PMO
Africa: African Legislatures Project (ALP); Idasa
Arabic countries: Arab Center for the Development of the Rule of Law and Integrity (ACRLI)
Latin America: Latin American Network for Legislative Transparency
South Asia: South Asians for Human Rights (SAHR) (Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka)
European Parliament: Prodemos (on Europe), Stemmentracker, KohoVolit.eu, Parlorama.eu, The Political Memory of La Quadrature du Net, European Institute for Participative Democracy - Qvorum, It's Your Parliament (by Buhl & Rasmussen)
UN General Assembly: UNDemocracy.com

The Fringes

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