5. Social Accountability – Citizens, Civil Society and the Media Working With Parliament:  This unit examines how, by reaching out to their constituents to garner a better understanding of the needs and wants of the community, facilitating the development of a strong civil society that can support parliament’s understanding of community issues, and building an informed society through the development of a robust, diverse and independent media, parliament can keep decision-makers socially accountable.

6. Regional Parliamentary Peacebuilding and Engagement with International Organizations:  This unit examines parliamentarians’ growing interest in participating in regional and international professional associations and forums in order to encourage dialogue, build confidence and facilitate peer to peer learning.  An alternative strategy, whereby parliamentarians participate in initiatives sponsored by the multilateral development agencies, such as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the Global Aids Initiative, and the World Bank PRS process, in order to give their constituents a voice and represent their interest in peace and prosperity is also considered.

The content of the units in this module have been arranged so that each unit may stand alone.  By referring to the summaries above, it should be possible to select those units that may satisfy individual interests.

Each unit contains suggested topics for discussion or questions to which answers should be attempted in order to reinforce your knowledge.  Study of some of the materials in the resource lists at the end of each unit will be required for this purpose.

A select bibliography that is relevant to the study of the unit above is provided at the end of each unit.