In this event, John Lis presented findings from a recent landscape analysis of contemporary legislative strengthening strategies. The study explores how the sector has changed over the last decade, explores why it has changed and identifies emerging approaches that have developed during this time. Most notably, the study documents the transition and evolution from large, multi-year programs exclusively dedicated to legislative strengthening in favor of broader DRG programs working with legislatures. The landscape analysis finds an increase in thematic approaches to legislative strengthening in specific areas, such as public financial management, anti-corruption, gender and inclusion, and climate change and the environment The study also found a need for legislative strengthening programs to think more politically. USAID recently held a conference on legislative strengthening, and this report provided the foundation for practitioners' discussion. This session was hosted and moderated by Kevin Gash, the Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance's Legislative Strengthening Advisor, and Angelina (Angie) Hermon an FSN Fellow from the Sri Lanka mission gave a brief overview of the conference.
John Lis is a legislative strengthening consultant who has a quarter-century of experience in the U.S. Congress and international parliamentary bodies. As an independent consultant since 2013, he has led evaluations and assessments of democracy and governance programs in 19 countries, and he has trained parliamentary staff and designed legislative strengthening activities. From 2003 to 2013, he was a Professional Staff Member for the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, including eight years as Staff Director of the House Democracy Partnership, the peer-to-peer legislative strengthening initiative of the U.S. House of Representatives. In that role, he supported the efforts of 17 newly democratic countries to develop independent, effective parliaments. He previously served as the committee’s Senior Policy Advisor for Transatlantic Relations. Mr. Lis worked in Brussels from 1999 through 2002 as Director of the Defense and Security Committee of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. He has worked as the international affairs analyst at the Congressional Budget Office and as a legislative fellow for Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Delaware). He holds a bachelor’s degree in history from Stanford University and a master’s degree in international affairs from Columbia University, where he earned the Certificate of the Institute on East Central Europe.