Parliamentary work and human prosperity

Congressman Yonhy Lescano Ancieta-Peru

Peoples’ feeling after the Summit of the Americas is usually that of frustration, since little progress is made in furthering the wellbeing of the vast majorities of our continent in spite of the usual speeches, the high-sounding sessions and the passionate joint statements.The V Summit, to be held next April in the city of Port-of-Spain -located in the beautiful Caribbean island of Trinidad and Tobago-, embodies, once again, the hope of reaching agreements that all Latin American governments should assist in executing, particularly those that should take the lead due to their continental leadership, greater development or wealth.

The three key themes of the Summit are true collective challenges: human prosperity, energy security and environmental sustainability. In fact, the last two are prerequisites for the first one, since countries’ growth will be difficult to achieve in the long term without sufficient energy sources and healthy ecosystems.

Latin American parliaments can play a leading role in adopting public policies and measures that promote the creation and redistribution of wealth for social inclusion, but the execution of said policies and measures rests with our governments. In our countries, we notice that governments only minimally satisfy the needs of our peoples: drinking water supply, electric power, telephony, roads, health care and education services still fall short of their requirements. Given this context, it is crucial that Parliaments be entrusted with a bigger role than simply legislating and overseeing. The pressure exerted by fair popular demands has largely turned congresspersons into agents for the execution and provision of public works and services. To put it differently, usually the only way to promote and complete investment projects, whether large or small, in any region of the country is to make parliamentarians in each region become directly engaged and keep a tight rein on bureaucrats sometimes prone to inertia, indolence or apathy.

People really value these efforts since they contribute to their well being, but such efforts must be institutionalized. This is why we have brought a bill before the Peruvian Congress proposing that parliamentarians hold regular sessions in their jurisdictions together with the relevant regional authorities, mayors and social guilds, rather than confine their discussions to the seat of the National Congress in the capital city of the country. This will bring parliamentarians closer to their constituents and will improve coordination to jointly face the issues and needs facing the region.

A second measure to strengthen the ties between Congress and the people has been the setup of offices at the seat of the Congress to attend to citizens’ claims. For several years now, there have been offices for the protection of consumers, women, children, adolescents and disabled people, as well as an office to fight discrimination.