Fijian Parliament – The Regional Hub for the Pacific

It was a moment of great excitement for the Fijian Parliament delegation as they attended the 150th Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Assembly, currently underway in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Earlier today, the Fijian Parliament entered into a Cooperation Agreement with the IPU, which signified Fiji’s new role as the host of the Regional Hub for the Pacific.

The Pacific Regional Hub has been in existence since 2019 under the framework of the IPU Centre for Innovation in Parliament (IPU CIP). Between 2019 to date, it has been hosted by the Parliament of New Zealand, with the aim to provide a network for IT Managers in the Pacific Parliaments to exchange knowledge on innovations.

The Secretary-General to Parliament, Mrs Jeanette Emberson, signed the Cooperation Agreement with the Secretary-General for the IPU, Mr Martin Chungong.

During a brief discussion prior to the signing, Mrs Emberson highlighted that it was an honour for the Fijian Parliament to be entrusted with the hosting of the Pacific Regional Hub and that it would serve as a platform to furthering collaboration on digital transformation with the Parliaments in the Pacific.

“We just had a three-days’ workshop last week on Digital Transformation and we were able to gauge from the panel discussions that some Parliaments need more uplifting than others, so this will be a good space to bring everyone on board and leave no one behind. The Honourable Speaker is very delighted with this opportunity, and we look forward to working closely with the IPU so as to drive digital transformation forward.”

In response, Mr Chungong said: “We are trying to identify champions in various regions to help convey the message from the global body and when we find champions like this, we are very grateful, and we stand ready to offer our support whenever we can.”

“It is important to show that what we are doing is grounded and practised and not only in theory. We provide opportunities for mutual learning from interactions between Parliaments as they can identify with real life situations. You have practised already and its working, why not continue to share with the others.”

The IPU CIP promotes such inter-parliamentary knowledge exchanges and networking to promote faster and more focused innovation across Parliaments, with the end goal of strengthening Parliaments.

There are five regional hubs in the IPU CIP framework including Southern Africa, Eastern Africa Hispanophone, Caribbean, and the Pacific. Each hub is hosted by a national parliament or a regional parliamentary organisation.

The IPU CIP initiated talks with the Fijian Parliament, based on its favourable Digital Maturity Index (DMI) score and leadership in digital transformation. According to the IPU’s World e-Parliament Report of 2024, the Fijian Parliament is ranked in the 7th decile in the DMI.

The DMI is a framework or model used to assess an organization’s digital capabilities and progress in its digital transformation journey.

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