- African Legislatures to Meet in Tanzania as Governance Forum Targets Economic Transformation
African parliamentary leaders, governance experts and development institutions will meet in Tanzania on October 7 for the inaugural Strategic Legislative Governance Forum, an initiative intended to give the continent’s legislatures a more decisive role in economic transformation and institutional reform.
The forum will be held at the headquarters of the East African Legislative Assembly in Arusha on the sidelines of the 153rd Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union.
It is being convened by the Africa Governance Centre in partnership with the East African Legislative Assembly and the Conference of Speakers and Presidents of African Legislatures.
Held under the theme, “Legislative Statecraft and Economic Transformation in Africa,” the meeting will examine how parliaments can shape the legal, regulatory and institutional foundations required for sustainable development.
The initiative reflects a growing recognition that Africa’s economic ambitions cannot be delivered by executive policy alone. Investment promotion, industrialisation, digital transformation and regional integration all depend on legislation that is predictable, implementable and sufficiently insulated from short-term political changes.
The quality of parliamentary decision-making can therefore determine whether a government’s economic programme survives beyond speeches, electoral cycles and changes in political leadership.
The Africa Governance Centre said the forum would bring together “parliamentary leaders, legislators, governance experts, scholars and development institutions” for high-level discussions on the strategic contribution legislatures can make to Africa’s economic and institutional transformation.
African parliaments traditionally exercise three principal functions: representation, law-making and oversight. The Arusha forum will challenge legislatures to extend these responsibilities into what organisers describe as legislative statecraft.
This involves using legislation and institutional design to anticipate long-term economic and social change rather than responding only after problems emerge.
The approach is particularly relevant as African countries confront demographic expansion, technological disruption, climate pressures, economic diversification and shifting global alliances.
“Legislatures [must] move beyond traditional roles of representation, law-making and oversight to become more strategic actors in policymaking, institutional design and the pursuit of inclusive, resilient and long-term economic transformation,” the organisers said.
The argument is not that parliaments should assume the responsibilities of the executive. It is that development strategies are more likely to endure when legislatures understand their economic consequences, conduct rigorous scrutiny and translate them into coherent legal frameworks.
Poorly designed laws can increase regulatory uncertainty, create overlapping mandates or impose compliance costs that discourage investment. Weak parliamentary scrutiny can also allow public borrowing, concession agreements and infrastructure commitments to proceed without adequate assessment of their long-term fiscal implications.
Effective legislative statecraft would require parliaments to examine not only whether a bill is politically acceptable but whether it can be financed, implemented and enforced.
The forum will focus on the legislative conditions needed to support investment, economic resilience, digitalisation, climate action, infrastructure development and natural-resource governance.
These policy areas are closely connected. A country may seek foreign investment, for example, but struggle to attract long-term capital if its laws change unpredictably or institutions apply regulations inconsistently.
Similarly, governments may promote digital innovation while operating under outdated laws governing data protection, competition, taxation and consumer rights.
Africa’s climate commitments also require legislative backing. Energy-transition policies, carbon markets and climate-finance arrangements depend on clear rules governing ownership, liability, reporting and benefit sharing.
The continent’s experience with natural resources provides perhaps the clearest illustration of why legislative capacity matters. Resource-rich countries can generate substantial export earnings while retaining limited domestic value when contracts, tax regimes and local-content rules are weakly designed or poorly supervised.
The Africa Governance Centre said the forum would highlight the role of legislatures in creating the “legal and institutional conditions necessary for investment, economic resilience, inclusive development, digital transformation, climate action, infrastructure development and effective resource governance”.
That list sets an ambitious agenda. The question is whether African parliaments have the research capacity, institutional independence and continuity required to perform such a role.
Legislators frequently examine complex agreements and technical bills under severe time constraints. Some parliamentary committees lack specialised researchers, reliable data or access to independent analysis. Political majorities may also prioritise party positions over detailed scrutiny.
Legislative statecraft will therefore require more than conferences. It will demand investments in parliamentary research services, committee expertise, public consultation and systems for tracking whether enacted laws achieve their intended outcomes.
Discussions in Arusha are expected to produce policy recommendations and strengthen collaboration among legislative institutions, governance organisations, researchers and development partners.
The event will also formally launch the Strategic Legislative Governance Forum as a longer-term mechanism for continental dialogue, research, institutional learning and policy innovation.
This continuing structure could be more consequential than the inaugural meeting itself. African countries often confront similar regulatory and institutional problems but address them separately, resulting in duplicated work and inconsistent frameworks.
A continental platform could allow legislatures to compare approaches, study the consequences of different laws and adapt successful models to local conditions.
Such co-operation will be especially important as implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area requires greater alignment in customs, competition, investment, digital trade and product standards.
However, peer learning must avoid reducing legislative reform to the copying of model laws. Effective legislation must reflect each country’s constitutional arrangements, administrative capacity and economic circumstances.
The real test of the forum will be whether its recommendations influence committee work, legislative drafting and oversight after participants leave Arusha.
The Africa Governance Centre said strengthening the strategic capacity of legislatures would be “an important part of building effective, resilient and development-oriented governance systems” as the continent adjusts to a changing economic, technological and political environment.
That proposition places significant responsibility on Africa’s parliaments. The continent’s development challenge is often discussed in terms of capital, infrastructure and executive leadership. Less attention is given to the laws and institutions that determine how those resources are governed.
The Arusha forum seeks to correct that imbalance by treating legislatures not as observers of economic transformation, but as institutions responsible for determining whether it rests on durable foundations.
