EU extends support to Parliament

Published: 22 August 2017

The European Union (EU) is prepared to continue providing financial and technical support to the Parliament of Zimbabwe, an envoy said on Monday.

EU ambassador to Zimbabwe, Philippe Van Damme said this after paying a courtesy call on Speaker of the National Assembly Advocate Jacob Mudenda.

"The EU is giving substantial support to the Parliament of Zimbabwe through the UNDP, SAPST and various civil society organisations. We have just gone through a mid-term review of that support program and we wanted to have a discussion with the Speaker of Parliament to see how we can continue that support," he said.

In November 2014, the EU in partnership with the UNDP, launched a $4, 8 million three Year Rolling Multi Donor Support Programme for the Parliament and Office of the Auditor General of Zimbabwe.

The program focuses on strengthening Parliamentary oversight on the Executive, legislative and representation roles that promote public participation, accountability and gender equity.

"I think we have reached a very broad level of consensus on the way forward and we will over the next month roll out the second phase of our Parliamentary support program."

Van Damme said the EU was satisfied with the way the first phase of the program was implemented."I think the mid-term review has been quite positive. Of course there are weaknesses as in all programmes.

"We have to work on these weaknesses and strengthen on the positive aspects that is why we decided at EU level that we would continue our support to the Parliament and we will do that in co-ordination, as in the past, with other donors involved and civil society," he said.

Commenting on progress on re-engagement efforts between Zimbabwe and the EU, Van Damme said; "The support to the Parliament is a way of re-engaging and we are indeed engaging in different fields I am coming also from a meeting with the Reserve Bank governor to see what we can do in continuing to support reforms which are in the pipeline and we continue engaging at all levels possible."

- New Ziana

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