Nairobi — National Assembly Speakers and MPs from 18 African countries on Friday signed an agreement to strengthen Parliaments' information systems in Africa.

Under the Nairobi Declaration, the leaders agreed to use information communication technology (ICT) to strengthen good governance and inter-parliamentary co-operation.

Delegates to the International Conference on Parliaments' Information Management in Africa at Nairobi's Safari Park Hotel on Friday evening said this would narrow the digital divide and advance the information society.

The legislators further used the conference to launch co-operation among African Parliaments in relation to the Millennium Development Goals, New Partnership for African Development (Nepad) and the World Summit on the Information Society.

The countries were Algeria, Angola, Cameroon, Ghana, Madagascar, Tanzania, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Rwanda, Uganda, Sao Tome and Principe, Somalia, Sudan, Tunisia, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Representatives from Pan-African Parliament, East Africa Legislative Assembly, Ecowas Parliament, SADC Parliamentary Forum and the Italian Chamber of Deputies also signed the agreement.

Parliamentary officials from the European Parliament, some European Union countries and representatives from international organisations, development partners, the private sector and civil society organisations also attended.

Under the theme "Parliaments' Information Management in Africa: Challenges and Opportunities of ICTs to Strengthen Democracy and Parliamentary Governance", the conference was sponsored by the Italian Government to the tune of 3.7 million euros.

It recommended that Speakers of African Parliaments lead the process of ICT diffusion and modernisation of Parliaments to improve access to information, strengthen parliamentary democracy and foster inter-parliamentary co-operation.

The United Nations Department of Economic Affairs and the Pan African Parliament were mandated to establish a co-ordinating mechanism to adopt, promote and "maintain the Pan-African Interoperability proposal."

The participants acknowledged ICT had a key role in Parliament's administrative structure, budget and human resources. African Parliaments' IT professionals would be meeting regularly to exchange views on the issue.

Italian Ambassador to Kenya Enrico Gerardo De Maio said ICTs have the potential to transform Parliaments by making them more accessible, effective, transparent and accountable.

He called for the designing of sustainable Parliamentary Information Systems for better informed and effective decision making and provision of easy and full access to all Parliamentary documentation.

A data base of all the parliamentarian and legislative past and present documentation will be digitalised.

"While Members of Parliament require the services of ICT tools to monitor the activities of the executive, the citizens need ICT to monitor the performance of their elected leaders because they represent to the public the visible face of the government," Mr Kenyatta said in a speech read on his behalf by Deputy Opposition Leader Bonaya Godana.