Oke Epia, founder of OrderPaper, appointed to global parliamentary group

Oke Epia, founder of OrderPaper Nigeria, has been appointed to the advisory group of the International Parliament Engagement Network (IPEN).

Juliet Ollard, senior research, engagement officer and project lead at IPEN, announced Epia’s appointment in a statement.

IPEN brings together academics, parliamentary officials and third-sector representatives from across the world, to promote collaboration and encourage knowledge sharing around parliaments and public engagement.

The advisory group is billed to prop an ongoing project that will support parliaments to design, deliver and evaluate public engagement activities.

Supported by INTER PARES, a parliamentary capacity-building programme jointly delivered by the European Union and the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, the project involves working with parliaments and public engagement experts to co-create a series of eight guides on citizen engagement.

The guides will focus on a range of public engagement topics to help build parliaments’ capacity to engage the public in their work.

Topics for the resource include principles of parliamentary public engagement, youth engagement, petitions and citizens’ legislative initiatives, education programmes, committee consultations, deliberative approaches, parliament as a place and space, and engaging under-represented groups.

“Since the project is aiming to support parliaments across the world through these guides, it is important that the project includes collaboration with colleagues working in different parts of the world and a range of engagement traditions,” Ollard said.

She added that the advisory group will “provide feedback, input and challenge as we develop the guides”.

Epia commended IPEN for his appointment, saying parliamentary engagements globally require new thinking.

“I am delighted to be part of the advisory group for this very important project. At a time of doubtful, if not decreasing, confidence in democracy, developing resources to foster public engagement with parliament becomes critical,” he said.

“As the bedrock of representative democracy, there is no better time than now to rethink, relearn, and possibly unlearn traditional ways of citizen engagement with parliament.

“I am happy to share thoughts from the African perspective to enrich the group’s contributions to the project.”

Epia is a public policy expert, “consummate” communicator, global media personality and civil society leader with over two decades of experience spanning the private, public and non-governmental sectors.

He founded OrderPaper, an organisation dedicated to reporting parliamentary affairs, in 2015.