Parliaments in Africa : opportunities and prospects for sustainable development, afripal, 2025

Abstract

The Africa Regional Conference on Parliament and Legislation, an initiative of the Africa Regional Convening on Parliament and Legislation, aims to provide a biennial strategic forum for legislators, civil society actors, academics and policy actors to engage in high-level dialogue on parliamentary affairs and legislative practice in Africa. The inaugural conference, themed Parliaments in Africa: Opportunities and Prospects for Sustainable Development, amplified the African Parliamentary Union Rabat conference1 call for parliaments to promote the Sustainable Development Goals by ensuring that they pass development policies and plans that are inclusive. The conference also called for the governments to pursue institutional reform, promote democracy, human rights and fight corruption, commit to empowering women, priotize domestic financing and enhance bilateral and multilateral parliament activities, themes that were reflected in the afripal, 2025 conference deliberations. The afripal, 25 conference was sub-themed into four categories: emergencies and parliamentary functions, parliaments, 4ir and Artificial Intelligence, Post-legislative scrutiny and impact assessments and parliamentary partnership, learning and adaptation, aimed at exploring the contribution of Parliaments in Africa to sustainable development in different facets of society.