Parliamentary Field Visits

What is the Field Visit Program?

Development takes places on the ground and the work of organizations like the World Bank is done in the field.  If parliamentarians are to have an impact on development policies and projects, it is essential that they get a chance to make political assessments and check results on the ground. The field visits program, "Parliamentarians in the Field", is one of the key activities of the PNoWB, organized jointly with the World Bank and supported by a grant from the government of Finland. Successful field visits have so far taken place in Kenya, Albania, Uganda, Burundi, Serbia and Montenegro ,Ethiopia, Yemen, Nicaragua, Vietnam, Rwanda, Madagascar, and Lao PDR.

The aim of the visits are:

• To enhance, through the case study of the country visited, parliamentary understanding of the activities of the World Bank and encourage more informed parliamentary engagement in the development debate;
• To review the participatory process and the outcome of the country-owned Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper and make recommendations to the World Bank and governments on how to better involve parliamentarians in the process
• To encourage dialogue among the MPs on the delegation and between the delegation and World Bank staff, parliamentarians and civil society.

The visits typically span three or four days to allow time for discussions with local parliamentarians and officials from the government, the World Bank and other multilateral organizations, and civil society groups, as well as the people the projects are aiming to benefit. In a final report, the field visit delegation offers concrete recommendations to the government and the various interlocutors met in the country.