Return on Training Investment in Parliaments: The Need for Change in the Pacific Region

Abstract

Despite substantial investment in training in Pacific parliaments, which has continued for more than a decade, parliamentary performance for many countries in the region has barely improved. Indeed, Pacific parliaments are still widely regarded as weak. The inability of training programmes to improve parliamentary performance in several areas of the Pacific led the researcher to query whether training providers are concentrating their resources on the right people. Using a multi-case design that used interviews in five Pacific parliaments—Marshall Islands, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste, Tonga and Vanuatu—the author argues that training providers should give priority to parliamentary staff rather than members of parliaments.