USAID Helps Vietnam Boost Legislative Capacity in 1st Joint Effort

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has opened courses and seminars on policy analysis and legislative research to train and boost capacity of legislators of Vietnam’s National Assembly (NA). Over the past 18 months, the agency provided 28 courses and seminars for more than 50 staff members of the NA’s Institute of Legislative Studies (ILS) and nearly 200 deputies of the NA Office on issues such as national budgeting, legislative oversight, decentralization and local governance. The courses would help improve the quality of national legislation as the ILS is the principal source of technical support for the NA’s Standing Committee and Vietnam’s National Commission for Constitutional Reform, the U.S. embassy said in a press release. The USAID’s Legislative Research Program has helped raise the percentage of requests answered by ILS staffers to 95% in 2013 from 81% in 2011 as well as the overall capacity of ILS staff. “We are pleased to have contributed to ILS’ ability to research issues that will certainly result in more informed decisions and better laws,” said USAID Mission Director Joakim Parker. (vietnam.usembassy.gov Mar 29)