John Johnson is a comparative parliamentary specialist with 35 years’ experience working in and supporting parliaments. He served as Director of the New York State Senate Transportation Committee in the mid-1980s, and later as a US Diplomat in Mexico. Since 1990, John has managed parliamentary strengthening projects in Latin America, Africa, and Asia (including living in Kenya and Indonesia), trained hundreds of MPs and parliamentary staff from more than 50 parliaments in all world regions through McGill University and other institutions, and consulted with and drafted parliamentary development guidance for the US Agency for International Development (USAID), UNDP, the World Bank Institute (WBI), the SADC Parliamentary Forum, and the Ford Foundation. John served as regional director (Europe and Eurasia, Asia) with Chemonics International (2009-2018), led NDI’s governance activities as Director of Governance Programs for the National Democratic Institute (2007-2009), and designed and managed parliamentary projects a Senior Associate with the State University of New York (1990-2005).
His publications include the USAID Handbook on Legislative Strengthening (lead-author 2000), World Bank Institute Orientation Handbook for Members of Parliaments (lead-author 2006); MP’s Orientation Handbook, SADC Parliamentary Forum and UNDP (lead-author, 2004), A Concept Paper on Legislatures and Good Governance (co-author,1999) UNDP. EITI Guide for Legislators, How to Support and Strengthen Resource Transparency (editor and contributing author, 2009) NDI, Resource Watch, USAID. Constituent Relations, A Guide to Best Practices (editor and contributing author, 2008) NDI, USAID. His PhD dissertation is entitled, Parliamentary Independence in Uganda and Kenya 1962-2008 (2009).
His areas of expertise, consulting/training include, policy development and analysis, public participation, parliaments and anti-corruption, legislative oversight, parliamentary benchmarks, committee strengthening, legislative research, parliamentary representation, CSO advocacy, Ombudsman office design, and legislative-executive relations. He is fluent in Spanish.