Speaker of the House of Keys Juan Watterson has returned from Armenia after attending a regional forum on public financial management.

The two-day forum was an initiative from the Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD) in association with sustainable development specialist GIZ, the German Society for International Cooperation.

Mr Watterson’s travel and accommodation costs were funded by WFD through a grant provided from GIZ’s public financial management in the Southern Caucuses programme.

Armenia is a landlocked former Soviet Union country bordered by Turkey, Georgia and Azerbaijan.

The forum aimed to help bolster the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia and the Parliament of Georgia’s financial oversight and budget processes.

Mr Watterson contributed both as facilitator and as a speaker on best international practice in engaging the media and civil society organisations in public financial management.

He was supported remotely by third clerk of Tynwald Joann Corkish and head of chamber and information service Ruth Donnelly who joined two online sessions from the Legislative Buildings using iPads.

Mrs Corkish said: ’We shared examples of engagement activities from Tynwald, including looking at our live and listen again facility with a Twitter feed for updates during sittings.’

Mr Watterson said: ’The forum not only served to share best practice in bringing public visibility to parliamentary business, in particular to financial management, but also provided a valuable opportunity to promote how Tynwald is working "smarter" and embracing technology, social media and parliamentary outreach activities to engage with a wider audience.’