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Marrakech – The African Open Parliaments Network was officially established Wednesday at the headquarters of Morocco’s House of Representatives in Rabat, bringing together legislatures from across the continent under a shared framework for transparency and democratic reform.
Under the terms of the founding agreement, Rabat will serve as the permanent secretariat of the network. Morocco’s House of Representatives will hold the presidency.
The announcement came during a parliamentary session organized as part of the African Open Government Partnership (OGP) Conference, the House of Representatives said in a statement.
The founding session brought together parliaments from OGP member states and countries seeking to join the initiative. Participants included Morocco’s House of Representatives, Ivory Coast’s National Assembly, Ghana’s Parliament, Benin’s National Assembly, and Senegal’s National Assembly. OGP Director General Aidan Eyakuze and several international partners also attended.
House Vice President Mohamed Ghayate read out the network’s founding declaration, describing the initiative as the outcome of “our awareness of the need for open legislative institutions and their importance in consolidating democratic practice and strengthening citizen participation in public affairs.”
The declaration also reflects the conviction of participating African parliaments in the core values of the OGP, including openness, inclusion, transparency, accountability, and access to information.
Representatives of the participating parliaments recalled the Marrakech Declaration, adopted on November 2, 2022, during a parliamentary session held alongside the OGP’s Africa-Middle East regional meeting. They also referenced the Abidjan Declaration of June 26, 2025, which laid the groundwork for the network’s creation.
Participants stressed the need to account for Africa’s historical, civilizational, and cultural context in shaping democratic institutional development across the continent.
According to its founding charter, the network aims to serve as a platform for joint action, expertise-sharing, and the exchange of national practices in parliamentary openness, civil society engagement, digitalization, and public access to information.
The charter noted that the network launches at a time when African countries are strengthening their parliamentary systems through free elections and multiparty governance. It also acknowledged that elected institutions worldwide face growing public skepticism toward institutional action.
That reality, the founders argued, demands stronger efforts to embed parliaments within their societies, open legislative bodies to communities and social actors, and involve youth and women in democratic practice.
The founding members identified digitalization as a key tool for collecting, sharing, and disseminating information while bringing citizens closer to institutional processes. They argued its responsible application should deepen institutional democracy, rebuild public trust in parliaments, and foster an informed and engaged public opinion.
On specific objectives, the network will work to share parliamentary expertise in openness, data exchange, documentation, and the preservation of African parliamentary memory. It will also promote digitalization as a democratizing tool, enabling citizens – particularly youth – to understand how parliaments function, access legislative information, and monitor lawmakers’ performance in legislation, government oversight, and policy evaluation.
The network further committed to the responsible use of digitalization and artificial intelligence to ensure legal and regulatory texts are readable, transparent, and accessible to all in service of the rule of law.
It will also seek to integrate OGP values into parliamentary practices during the preparation, implementation, and evaluation of national plans tied to the initiative. The network’s broader mission includes advocating for African continental interests while respecting each country’s institutional traditions and leveraging digital technologies.
MWN with MAP
