Among the major most recent concerns of the European democracies, the alienation of citizens from the political process, the lack of public trust in democratic institutions and the decorrelation between citizens preferences and decisions taken by public authorities, are among the most pressing ones. Citizens must have equal rights and opportunities to have their say in solving local affairs and implementing important decisions that affect their lives and communities transparently and openly, ensuring that voices of all are heard, including seldom-heard, young people, vulnerable and marginalised groups.
Civic engagement and strong partnership and co-operation between public authorities and civil society organisations at all levels are the key to functioning democracy, sustainable development, implementing policies and decisions that corelate with citizens’ needs and preferences and improving the quality of life and public services.
Civil society organisations are the major drivers of reforms at the national, regional and local levels and help channel the views of citizens. Therefore, it is extremely important to create and strengthen an enabling environment for the development of civil society, so that it is able to work effectively for society and effective reforms, help promote human rights, democracy and the rule of law. Systemic engagement of civil society organisations, target groups and seldom-heard in the development, implementation and monitoring of policies and decisions at the national, regional and local levels and consideration of proposals and views of all stakeholders is an essential part of the democratic decision-making process and requires quality, innovative tools, mechanisms, and techniques: offline, online, remote, and digital.
CivicLab is an innovative methodology for participatory development, analysis and forecasting of decision options and the process of their implementation and monitoring at the local, regional, and national levels. Online CivicLab workshops bring together all stakeholders around the joint development of policy proposals in Ukraine.
28 May 2020, the online CivicLab, organised within the project “Promoting civil participation in democratic decision-making in Ukraine” in partnership with the Lviv Regional State Administration was dedicated to developing proposals for the Action plan of the National Strategy for Civil Society Development of Lviv Region for 2020 jointly with civil society. The project helped to ensure the involvement of all target groups in the development of proposals and representative consideration of the views of all stakeholders. An innovative methodology for assessing the needs and selecting participants for the participatory event by criteria, a digital component (including a set of matrices) of development, analysis and forecasting of solutions was applied online to help regional public authorities develop an optimal action plan for the implementation of the National Strategy for Civil Society Development in Ukraine for 2020 based on the needs of civil society.
The organized online event became a unique platform for dialogue thanks to innovative methodology CivicLab. The format provided an opportunity to bring together representatives of CSOs, local government, business and develop proposals for the Action Plan. 44 participants from 9 cities of Lviv region discussed and rethought local problems of civil society development, as well as formed clear proposals that solve them. For maximum productivity, 4 target groups were created: representatives of civil society institutions - 27 people, representatives and officials of local authorities - 11, representatives of international organizations - 4 and business - 2. According to the analytical data of the project, 32 problems were worked out at the event, 20 of them were prioritized, 31 proposals for Action plan were written. The developments are quite realistic, because they are formed taking into account the deadlines (6 months), conditions (quarantine restrictions), topics (4 areas), and the joint efforts of all participants. Priorities identified by the group members as urgent to address include improving communication between stakeholders, efficiency of administrative procedures and accountability, legislation, creation of a nationwide online platform for e-democracy. -> All materials of the event (in Ukrainian)
Based on numerous successful CivicLabs around the participatory development of national strategies, policy proposals and action plans, regulations, local programs, draft laws the project will soon present the innovative Toolkit on CivicLab Methodology, which will reveal the methodology for participatory development, analysis and forecasting of decision options and the process of their implementation and monitoring. The aim of the Toolkit, which will be based on Council of Europe standards of civil participation, is to make the decision-making at central, regional and local levels more effective.
