My Takeaways from Afripal 2025

The inaugural Africa Regional Conference on Parliament and Legislation (AFRIPAL) hosted at Hotel Africana in Uganda from 18th–20th June 2025 set an awakening call as it advocated for a parliament that should put citizens at the forefront. Held under the theme “Parliaments in Africa: Opportunities and Prospects for Sustainable Development.”

It brought together legislators, civil society actors, academics, and policy experts on legislative practices across Africa and Europe to exchange knowledge, promote high-quality research, and shape the parliament and legislation of the future.

Amongst the prominent guests from Uganda was Dr Ruhakana Rugunda, former Premier of the Republic of Uganda, and current Chair of the Board of the African Association of Legislation, who presided over the opening ceremony.

Dr Rugunda addressed the need to produce legislation that meets the real needs of the people, inclusive legislation, written in plain language, focused, and solution-oriented to meet the challenges faced by communities.

From the Conference, the need to understand whether passed laws achieve their intended impacts through post-legislative scrutiny was stressed as laws don’t end where they are passed—they rather begin.

“Parliaments must become the conscience of the legislative process. Laws don’t end when passed, they begin. We need to follow up on their impact, engage citizens, and ensure laws work in practice, not just on paper,” said Maria Mousmouti, lecturer at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies at the University of London.

Franklin De Vrieze, a consultant with the Westminster Foundation for Democracy, described post-legislative scrutiny as an essential compass needed by governments passing through a crisis. This, he continued, called for the need to be prepared for the times of crisis and place it at the forefront during lawmaking process.

AFRIPAL conference also underscored the need to reshape the roles of parliament not just as law-making bodies but as champions of democratic accountability and inclusivity. This was further emphasized by Rugunda.

It should be noted that AFRIPAL will happen every after two years. The inaugural conference was hosted by the International Association on Legislation, the Center for Policy Analysis (CEPA), Population and Social Development Institute (PSDI). It underscored the need for Parliaments to evolve into a body that complements forms of government, discusses people’s views, protects rights, and ensures freedom of speech, assembly, and the right to a fair trial.

Parliament should be seen as an institution of the people, and thus parliamentary information must be broken down into forms they can understand.

From the conference, another key point raised was the need for stronger financial scrutiny since parliaments are tasked with budgeting. This enables to ensure that funds deliver the intended outcomes and calls for efforts to addressing corruption and creating an enabling environment for the private sector to flourish, generate economic growth, and create jobs for Africa’s youth.

“Indeed, we cannot ignore the elephant in the room: corruption. Every year, billions of dollars are lost due to mismanagement, inefficiencies, and outright theft,” Zulu said.

Dr. Zulu continued to stress that the funds lost due to corruption annually is enough to finance the critical sectors like education. According to him, about $140 billion is lost due to corruption on the Africa’s continent.

The post-enactment analysis of laws before passing them is very important, as Dr. Martin Kizito puts it. Kizito continued to explain that many parliaments pass laws without this analysis, which leads to poor implementation and unintended consequences. Thus, calling for the use of Post-Legislative Scrutiny to improve parliament’s oversight role.

From the conference, the country Director of Konrad Adenauer stressed the need for parliamentary democracy in response to a country’s dictatorship to foster pluralism, advocate for democracy, and provide civic education.

AFRIPAL also stressed the need to link academia with parliamentary activities and  going beyond conducting research that produces inaccessible information which ends up on shelves. Instead, information should be integrated into the legislative process to ensure post-legislative scrutiny and informed decision-making.

“Researchers and academics produce vital information that ends up on shelves or in inaccessible journals. This work should be integrated into legislative processes to support evidence-based decision-making and post-legislative scrutiny,” stressed Chemonges.

AFRIPAL wasn’t just a conference; it was a wake-up call to redirect parliamentary activities, setting the standard and moving with the development of the digital era, focusing on the sustainable development that addresses citizens’ challenges, and collaborating with academia to promote evidence-based decisions for policymakers. In the search for solutions to the pressing challenges facing communities in Africa, collaborations between researchers, academia and parliament was stressed to the solution.

Noah Owomugisha is a research fellow at the Population and Social Development Institute (PSDI), a Kampala-based think-tank