A Book about Parliamentary Research Services Was Presented at an Online Conference
26 June 2020, 14:17
Addressing the participants in the event, Secretary General of the Parliament of Ukraine Vyacheslav Shtuchnyi thanked the partners for cooperation and for the opportunity to study best international experience, in particular regarding the activities of research services.
“The translated manual summarizes all the practices which we have been discussing and which we will later implement in the work of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Secretariat. One of the recommendations of the experts who conducted the functional audit is that it is necessary to create a research service at the Ukrainian Parliament. The new unit should become sort of a think tank not only for the parliamentarians but also for the staff of the Secretariat. I hope that our joint efforts will result in higher efficiency of the parliament,” Shtuchnyi noted.
In the words of the Secretary General of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, at present a decision is pending as to whether the Research Service will be established as part of the Institute of Legislation or as a separate structural unit.
RADA Program Director Ihor Kohut emphasized the importance of the work towards creating an independent research service within the Parliament.
“The accessibility of verified information and qualified analysis is crucial for the activities of the MPs at all levels: those of law adoption, oversight of the executive branch, and representation of citizens,” RADA Program Director said.
Iain Watt, Chair of the Library and Research Services for Parliaments Section of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), the organization that developed the manual, noted that at the very beginning of operation the parliamentary research service will have to clearly specify the extent of its functions, in line with the needs and available resources.
According to Taras Pastushenko, Head of the Information Department of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Secretariat, the parliamentary library has considerable information resources that will be conducive to creating the research service.
“The library has accumulated a great deal of serious materials which in my opinion would simply be invaluable in the construction of such analytical research service,” Pastushenko said.
Christopher Levick, Regional Director of the Westminster Foundation for Democracy, spoke about the results of the functional analysis in the context of work towards creating the research service. He noted that some types of analysis are performed within the Secretariat of the Ukrainian Parliament in an uncoordinated manner. The creation of the research service will make it possible to combine the services and to provide them more efficiently.
“About 70 employees of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Secretariat have already been performing analysis and research. If they are brought together in one structure, if their functions and mandates are combined, a strong foundation can be laid for a world-level analytical and research service,” Christopher Levick said.
The manual Guidelines for Parliamentary Research Services was created by professionals of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA). It was translated with support from the USAID RADA Program.
The manual is available at https://cutt.ly/mu8IHNj.