Goal:
to strengthen the capability of civil society organizations (CSOs) for advocating democratization reforms on the regional and local levels.
Objectives:
1. to engage the wider range of CSOs for the democratization processes in Ukraine by focusing on small regional organizations;
2. to fortify the competence of CSOs for communication and collaboration with people and territorial communities;
3. to enhance an internal control and management, to develop professional management of a non-profit organization;
4. to reinforce regional and thematic dialogues on the reforms policy between civil society and relevant stakeholders.
Expected outputs:
a) a wide range of civil society organizations from all Ukrainian regions is involved in democratization process of Ukraine (37 grant projects were issued, 25 CSOs of various types were involved: charitable foundations, NGOs, think tanks, public initiatives);
b) the capability of CSOsfor communication and collaboration with citizens and territorial communities is enhanced (4 communication trainings were conducted, 80 participants were involved in, 20 events on reform policy discussion were organised by the grantees, 400 participants were involved);
c) internal control and managementare strengthened, professional management of the non-profit organization is developed (15 internal policies were implemented, 4 trainings on internal control and management were conducted, 80 participants were involved);
d) regional and thematic dialogues on reform policies between civil society and relevant stakeholders are reinforced (2,000 readership reached, 100 regional publications issued, 20 meetings with stakeholders were held).
Mid-term Outputs: first-year quantitative results of the project’s activities.
Grants provided: 9 CSOs-grantees of the project.
Project Implementation Area: Chernihiv, Dnipro, Luhansk, Ternopil, Vinnytsya, Zhytomyr, Odesa, Khmelnytsky, Donetsk, Lviv, Rivne, Kherson regions and the city of Kyiv.
Number of events organized by the grantees: 12 (press-conferences, presentation of reports, discussions).
Number of participants of the grantee's events: 853 (considering participants and viewers on You Tube on Facebook).
Meetings with stakeholders organized within the grants’ framework: 10.
Number of grantees publications within the initiative Civil Society for Democratisation”: 78 (grantees websites and social media pages).
Events organised within the framework of the Project: 15 (5 trainings, 2 conferences and 8 online discussions). For detailed information please visit the section “Events” and “News of the Institute”.
Number of the event’s participants within the Project: 444 (via ZOOM platform), 1944 (views on YouTube).
The first-year qualitative results of the project’s activities.
“Local democracy tools during the COVID-19 pandemic” research was produced. The results of the research were presented at the “Democracy on “Quarantine”? How local democracy tools worked out” discussion.
Link on the research: http://www.ier.com.ua/ua/publications/reports?pid=6672
Link on the discussion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMnvDViH4eY
Research results:
The project grantees have made analysis of communication between the government and community during the pandemic COVID-19 in Chernihiv, Dnipro, Luhansk, Ternopil, Vinnytsya, Zhytomyr, Odesa, Khmelnytsky, Donetsk, Lviv, Rivne, Kherson regionsand the city of Kyiv.
Recommendations for the local authorities from all Ukrainian regions were elaborated and sent.
A platform for the exchange of ideas and experience among civil activists, government officials and experts were created
Information on local democracy tools (participatory budgets, youth councils, electronic petitions, etc.) for those who are interested in the democratic process development on the local level and for the project grantees was provided
"Internal policies and procedures in CSOs: the need for implementation, application peculiarities and practical advice" training was conducted.Civil activists acquired practice recommendations and knowledge of main policies and procedures in CSOs. This, in turn, contributed to the implementation of one or more policies by the participant organizations.
Subgranting contests:
Results of the first wave of the Grants Contest “Communicationofthegovernmentwiththecommunityduringthe COVID-19 pandemic”.
Results of the second wave of the Grants Contest “Dialogue Development with the Authorities”.
Results of the third wave of the Grants Contest “Enlightenment and dialogue towards the democracy development”.
Events:
27-28.01.2022 training “Effective communications for civil society activities: how to connect with your audience on social media”.
01.10.2021 conference “Civil society participation in local democracy development” (see the report) http://www.ier.com.ua/en/institute/news?pid=6761
15.07.2021 discussion “Democracy on “Quarantine”? How local democracy tools worked out” http://www.ier.com.ua/en/institute/news?pid=6671
13.07.2021 training “Internal policies and procedures in CSOs”
15.06.2021 training “Electronic petitions and other civil society activists’ appeals”
08.06.2021 training “Youth councils as an instrument of local democracy”
26.05.2021 training “Participatory budgets: from search for ideas to the implementation control”
08.04.2021 conference “Impact of COVID-19 on Local Democracy Instruments”
29.01.2021 online discussion “After elections: how to ensure efficient local democracy”
18.12.2020 online discussion “Digital services during the period of COVID-19: do regions see “the state on smartphone”?”
Project Timeline:
1.10.2020 – 30.09.2023
Donor Organisation for the Project Implementation:
The project is financed by the European Union and the International Renaissance Foundation.