The survey was aimed at examining past and existing programmes of assistance to African parliaments over the period from 1991 to 2000 with a view to assessing, to the extent possible, their impact on the functioning of the parliaments concerned and their capacity to respond adequately to the new challenges of democratisation and good governance. It sought to identify the lessons learnt and to develop guidelines for future action in this field. The survey was thus designed to promote a better understanding of the structure, contents and impact of programmes of support, their strengths and weaknesses and to identify best practices for the delivery of technical assistance to parliaments