House Democracy Partnership

Since 2011, CEPPS has supported the House Democracy Partnership (HDP), a bipartisan commission of the U.S. House of Representatives, which partners with 21 legislatures around the world to strengthen democratic institutions and support the development of effective, independent and responsive legislatures.

CEPPS Overarching Goals:

CEPPS uses peer-to-peer exchanges and technical assistance to enhance capacity and build technical expertise in partner legislatures to strengthen accountability, transparency, inclusivity and oversight.

CEPPS Approach:

To support this overarching goal, CEPPS/IRI and CEPPS/NDI coordinate implementation activities, both in Washington, D.C. and abroad, that promote best practices and procedures in many critical areas, including legislative oversight, budget analysis, ethics, committee operations, staffing, constituent relations and library research services, among others. These activities target members of parliament and parliamentary staff to support the development of more accountable, inclusive and responsive legislatures, further strengthen legislative capacity and deepen relations among the U.S. House of Representatives and HDP partner countries.

CEPPS Key Achievements with the HDP:

Organize peer-to-peer engagements to develop legislative solutions to specific challenges.

In 2018, CEPPS/IRI implemented a regional seminar on anticorruption, transparency and ethics in Chile, the success of which was built upon in a regional seminar in 2019 in Argentina, culminating in the development of a public resolution against corruption in Latin America and the Caribbean region.
In November 2017, in Argentina, CEPPS/NDI facilitated a regional exchange on legislative openness and transparency. The exchange showcased the Colombian Senate’s Mi Senado mobile app, which was developed and launched after a CEPPS/NDI-organized 2016 technical consultancy. Following the exchange, the coding for the Mi Senado app was released as open source to share with the French legislature, who also participated in the exchange.
Beginning in 2016, CEPPS/IRI developed an ongoing partnership with the E-Governance Academy in Estonia, successfully organizing regional seminars for Eurasian and Asian partner parliaments to study e-governance as an approach to address regional issues.

Work to build technical capacity, strengthen legislative independence, and improve parliamentary ethics through a collaborative approach on HDP programming.

In December 2019, CEPPS/NDI facilitated a technical assistance consultancy in Kenya to support the Speaker’s development of a parliamentary code and framework on ethics, which led to the adoption of bolstered ethics provisions for members and staff.
In 2019, after years of training with CEPPS/IRI both in Mongolia and Washington D.C., the Standing Committee on Environment, Food and Agriculture implemented the first public hearing ever held in Mongolia after trainings on the importance and proper procedure of public hearings.
Since 2016, CEPPS/NDI has worked with the Parliament of Georgia to establish a Parliamentary Council on Ethics, which culminated most recently in January 2020, when CEPPS/NDI organized a technical consultancy to support the newly seated Council.