This short case study describes the experience of the Rwandan parliament's self-assessment exercise which took place in two stages, in December 2008 and March 2009. This paper does not go into the detail of the assessment itself, but seeks to provide some insights which other parliaments may find useful. First, it identifies how the self-assessment process may provide advantages for parliaments either contemplating reforms or developing (or reviewing) a parliamentary Strategic Plan. The purpose of the self-assessment toolkit is designed by the IPU to allow the institution to engage in a level of detailed analysis and introspection which it would otherwise rarely undertake. In Rwanda this process meant that the assessment highlighted issues which would perhaps not otherwise have emerged. It encouraged Members of Parliament (MPs) to understand the deeper causes of the problems that they faced, the constraints on the development of the parliament and to look for practical and innovative solutions which they could take forward.

Second, the paper explores four sets of issues identified by the Rwandan parliament. These are:

1. Recruiting, training and retaining parliamentary staff. Many developing parliaments lack skilled staff, especially in highly technical areas such as legislative drafting. The self-assessment exercise showed how that limited capacity is having an adverse impact on both legislative and oversight work within the committees and plenary session. All the politicians believed that needed to be addressed, but the process emphasised the importance of finding ways to retain staff by addressing issues such as training and professional development.


2. Ensuring that parliamentary procedures are understood and used by politicians. In every parliament around the world there is a gap between an institution's formal powers and the ability or willingness of MPs to use them. This is usually caused either by a lack of capacity (such as staffing or infrastructure), a lack of understanding of parliamentary mechanisms or few political incentives for MPs to use them. The self-assessment process identified small, practical measures which the Rwandan parliament could take to improve matters in each of these areas.


3. Measures to strengthen parliament that do not require rule-change. There is often a desire in new parliaments to find rules-based solutions to improve effectiveness. Most often this manifests itself as an argument for an extension of formal powers. This may sometimes be effective, but parliaments should also seek to find ways of enhancing their effectiveness by changing practice rather than procedure. In Rwanda the Senate identified three areas where they could play a more significant role - namely, post-legislative scrutiny, post-hoc scrutiny of finance and analysis of international treaties - which did not require reform of parliamentary rules.


4. Monitoring and implementation of the Strategic Plan. The ultimate purpose of the self-assessment exercise was to refine the parliament's Strategic Plan. As well as revising the content of the plan, the process highlighted weaknesses in its structure. The MPs believed that the Strategic Plan needed to be subject to more regular review and more specific in locating responsibility for elements of the plan.

Although the self-assessment process highlighted a number of important issues for the Rwandan parliament, it is not an exhaustive exercise. In other cases it is likely to highlight possible reforms or measures to address the weaknesses it identifies, but these then need to be discussed, developed and implemented by the wider parliament. The self-assessment provides a baseline from which a parliament can examine its progress. But, ultimately, any self-assessment should be regarded as the start of a process rather than an event in itself.