The Speaker of the National Assembly has said the quality of service offered by our national parliaments should be able to show resourcefulness, dynamism and functionality.
Hon. Abdoulie Bojang was speaking Tuesday at the Sunswing Hotel at the close of a three-day workshop on the environment organized by the Network of Alliance of Environmental Parliamentarians and local elected representatives of West Africa Coastal Countries (RAPEL) comprising Cape Verde, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Mauritania, Senegal, Sierra Leone and The Gambia.
According to him, an independent, effective and efficient legislature needs adequate capacity and infrastructural development.
“Therefore, injecting energy into these two components will be conducive to an efficient delivery of services to our electorates,” he said.
Speaker Bojang stated that the ideals of a functional legislature as defined in our constitution are an embodiment of the representative functions of parliament, which seeks to protect, guide and provide our base for democracy and the greater need to protect our environment.
“To better address the increasing need to outreach and showcase the strives we engage in combating climate change, focus on strategic planning, implementation of work plans and effective monitoring and evaluation of applied techniques are necessary ingredients,” he added.
To this end, he stated, the involvement of the National Chapters of the Network to ensure grass root participation is vital, adding that this will engage our human resource base to take ownership of the environment and more so protect its wellbeing.
Also speaking at the closing ceremony was Racine Kane, head of mission IUCN in Senegal, who said the first phase of the support project to the regional and National Network ended in 2012.
He stated that a comprehensive report on the achievements and challenges of the first phase has been prepared, which guided the concept and finalization of the second phase of the support project.