Kabul, Afghanistan - December 8, 2005 New members of the Afghan National Assembly, the Loya Jirga, which will start functioning on December 19, 2005 after a three-decade break, will be hosted to a week-long orientation programme to be introduced to the functions they will be performing in the course of the next five years.
The 249 members of the lower house, Wolesi Jirga (the House of People), all elected, and the 102 members of the upper house, Meshrano Jirga (the House of Elders), some of them appointed, will be receiving their training in three groups beginning on Saturday December 10, 2005.
All the members of the Meshrano Jirga will comprise one group and the members of Wolesi Jirga will be divided into two groups for the orientation programme.
The training at Kabul's Intercontinental Hotel will be conducted by Afghan academicians, professors of political science and Constitutional Law as well as international consultants.
Designed and implemented jointly by UNDP's SEAL (Support to Establishment of Afghan Legislature) project and USAID, the curriculum of the orientation program includes introductions to the Constitution, Rules and Procedures of Legislation, Budget Process and also introduction to Kabul for those MPs coming from provinces.
According to the schedule, days 2,3 and 4 of the orientation program will be reserved completely to the process of legislation while day 5 will be focusing on the composition of the two houses of the legislature and their function of oversight. On day 6, the new MPs will be briefed about the role of parliamentary commissions and committees while day 7 will be reserved for the introduction of the functions of the parliament secretariat.
Members of Wolesi Jirga and Meshrano Jirga will also be introduced to"Code of Conduct" and to the process of composition and adoption of the State budget.
Throughout the training, multiple language (Pashto-Dari and English) simultaneous translation will be provided to ensure that all the participants can absorb as much information as possible from the instructions of national and international consultants.
If you would like to learn more about the Orientation Programme, please contact
Thusitha Pilapitiya, Project Manager
at 079 05 8451
thusitha.pilapitiya@undp.org