Westminster Foundation for Democracy has launched the Community of Practice on PLS

Westminster Foundation for Democracy has launched the Community of Practice on PLS

Westminster Foundation for Democracy has launched the Community of Practice on PLS: professional network of people who are familiar with or interested in PLS. It is open to parliamentarians, parliamentary staff, researchers, civil society, and democracy assistance providers.

A Community of Practice (CoP) creates an opportunity to engage and interact with others who work in the same field and can provide added value to a professional community. As professional networks, CoPs are often a viable aspect of professional development for the people involved.  

Benefits to joining the PLS Community of Practice include: 

Networking

  • At its core the CoP-PLS is an opportunity for those working in the field of law making and evaluation to engage and build a network of associates from which collaboration, information exchanging, and learning can occur. Being part of the CoP-PLS network provides recognition for the work done on PLS and increases visibility for PLS professionals throughout the parliament or any other institution where they are working.

Knowledge Sharing

  • The CoP-PLS is an opportunity to share knowledge about how PLS works in one’s national context, its successes, and challenges, and to discuss how to overcome these challenges. The CoP-PLS can contribute to peer-to-peer learning among PLS practitioners and inform comparative studies and other knowledge products on PLS.

Standards Setting

  • Deriving from the knowledge sharing, the CoP-PLS may also be an opportunity to define and promote standard practices in the area of legislative evaluation. The 2017 ‘Principles on PLS’ and the 2022 ‘Indicators on PLS’ can be considered examples of standards setting, which can be developed further through the CoP-PLS.

Innovating

  • The CoP-PLS can be an opportunity to consider innovative work on legislative evaluation and PLS, to test and try, and to gather lessons learned to allow PLS work to evolve. Examples of innovative PLS approaches can be found in the work on gender-sensitive PLS or climate-proof PLS.

Communicating and advocating

  • The CoP-PLS is an opportunity to increase the communication and outreach towards audiences which might not be aware of or informed on the ongoing PLS work. Communication initiatives will be developed in cooperation with AGORA, portal for parliamentary development, and the WFD Communications Team. In addition, the CoP-PLS can be a venue for advocating for the role of PLS within the legislative cycle and within the legislative and oversight roles of parliament, and for PLS inquiries on specific legislation as relevant in a national or regional context.

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