21 December 2022, the Council of Europe project “Strengthening civil participation in the democratic decision-making in Ukraine” held a closing event with partners representing central, regional and local authorities, CSO representatives, international and national experts.

The project team presented the project results in 2021-2022 and outlined the objectives of the new project “Strengthening democratic resilience through civic participation during the war and in the post-war context in Ukraine”, the implementation of which started in January 2023 within the framework of the  new Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine for 2023-2026 "Resilience, recovery and reconstruction".

Steen Nørlov, Head of the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine, thanked the project team, experts and partners for effective cooperation and promised further support. "Everything we do in the Council of Europe is aimed at strengthening democracy and human rights. This is the aim of the project on strengthening civic participation. We could not do that without the fruitful cooperation and commitment of our partners. Today we have a good occasion not only to discuss what has been achieved but also to look at the future. We will continue to provide expert, methodological and legal support to our partners to improve and implement innovative civic participation mechanisms in Ukraine at the local, regional and national levels," he said.

The project team summarized the results achieved in 2021-2022 and noted that in 2021 the project had successful cooperation with 26 territorial communities, regional and central authorities:

• development of analytical documents and policy proposals, including on the  international standards and best practices regarding such mechanisms of civic participation as: 1) citizens’ appeals, 2) civic councils, 3) participatory budgeting at the national and regional levels, 4) involvement of children and youth in the instruments of civic participation;
• recommendations for improving the mechanisms of 1) the all-Ukrainian participatory budgeting, 2) civic councils at the national and regional level;
• recommendations for the advancement of Ukraine in the United Nations E-Participation Index and the United Nations E-Government Survey.

The support was provided in the development of the concept for the modules on the VzaiemoDiia platform, in particular: participatory budgeting, citizens’ appeals, civic councils; the National Strategy for Civil Society Development and the implementation action plan, the action plan for the implementation of the "Open Government Partnership''. The project contributed to the development and advocacy of the Draft laws No. 4254 "On Public Consultations" and No. 7283 "On Citizen Participation at the Level of Local Self-Government"; normative legal acts regarding the standards of work of the youth centers, youth spaces, and youth councils.

An important vector of work was the development of a regulatory and practical frameworks at the local level, the implementation of effective civic participation mechanisms, namely:

• Statutes of territorial communities  (Kherson, Zhovkva, Vorokhta, Krolevets, Chortkiv, Stryi, Zviahel, Novoyavorivsk, Radekhiv),
• Regulations on public space and citizens’ engagement  (Kyiv, Stryi, Khmelnytskyi, Chernivtsi, Druzhkivka),
• Regulations on school participatory budgeting (Khmelnytskyi, Drohobych, Sumy, Kamianske, Zhovkva, Rivne, Kherson, Chortkiv, Pyriatyn, Lubny, Novovolynsk, Stryi, Avdiivka),
• Regulation on e-petitions (Kyiv).

During the 2021, project conducted seminars, educational initiatives, including the Academy of Civil Participation, trainings on school participatory budgeting, certified CivicLab program, etc.

In 2022, despite the war, the project effectively supported 13 territorial and 1 regional council. In particular, the project team and Council of Europe consultants worked on planning and organising participative processes regarding the renaming of toponyms in Poltava and of the city of Novograd-Volynskyi (now Zviahel). The project supported two local councils and one regional council in promoting the engagement and the integration of IDPs into decision-making, local life, and expanding their opportunities for participation, formulating policies sensitive to their needs. With this aim, the regulation "The procedure for providing housing for internally displaced persons on the territory of the Zviahel city territorial community" was developed and piloted. Upon the request and in cooperation with Lviv Regional Council, the participatory process was designed and implemented, and recommendations were developed and provided regarding the problems and challenges of IDP school students in adapting to the 2022 education process in the Lviv region.

Within open participative processes, community development strategies were developed in Novoyavorivsk and Zhovkva, the strategy implementation was monitored in Khmelnytskyi. With the expert and methodological support of the project, the 3-year municipal programme on promotion of volunteer activities was adopted in Mukachevo, Ivano-Frankivsk, Brusyliv, Zviahel and Lviv.

The following capacity-building activities were implemented: Academy of civic engagement, a series of Academies of civil and volunteer initiatives during the war, mentoring programs for  volunteers, CSO and local authorities.

The project :

• conducted the study "How war affected civil participation" (147 representatives of CSOs, 14 authorities engaged in the research),
• conducted the study of foreign practices of the IDPs’ engagement in the process of forming municipal policies;
• developed and provided the conceptual proposal for amendments to the legislation to ensure the right of IDPs to participate in the mechanisms of civic participation at the local level;
• developed the civic engagement mechanism, enabling and empowering IDPs to participate in the local decision-making;
• developed a model municipal programme on promotion of volunteer activities.

Advocacy of draft laws No. 4254 "On public consultations" and No. 7283 "On people's power at the level of local self-government" was supported.

The objectives of the new project “Strengthening democratic resilience through civic participation during the war and in the post-war context in Ukraine” were presented:

• improvement of existing or development of new legislature and policies related to civic participation, creation of the enabling environment for the development of civil society, voluntarism and volunteer activities, their implementation;
• supporting authorities, in particular at the local and regional level in establishing the decision-making processes resolving most pressing problems, and responding to the needs of citizens in general and in particular of those affected by war, based on broad participation and involvement of all stakeholders, including seldom heard;
• increasing citizens' awareness of  participatory mechanisms and opportunities to influence the development and implementation of decisions and policies on local, regional and national levels and strengthening their role in the civic oversight of the activities of public authorities;
• supporting the implementation of inclusive and transparent practices of public consultations, involvement of CSOs in the formation of the reform agenda, development, implementation and monitoring of reforms under martial law and in the post-war period;
• support in strengthening the role of volunteering in general, civic and volunteer initiatives in the resilience and reconstruction of communities and regions affected by the war.

The next steps:

• selection of the project partners;
• in-depth needs assessment, context and priorities;
• development, approval and implementation of the work plan based on the in-depth consultation with partners;
• holding of the steering committee meeting with the project partners.

One of the goals of the final event was to receive comments and feedback on joint work from partners and experts, as well as to understand what requests and needs they have for further cooperation within the framework of a new project.

In general, the partners highly appreciated the cooperation with the Council of Europe project “Strengthening civil participation in democratic decision making in Ukraine” in 2021-2022, thanked the team and consultants for their professionalism and for their significant contribution in the development of territorial communities in Ukraine,  especially for the challenging and difficult work during the time of war.

A large number of requests were made in regard to helping volunteers, supporting the implementation of participative processes concerning important issues of community development, integration and adaptation of internally displaced persons, and psychological support for veterans and their families.

More than 60 people took part in the final event, including representatives of the Ministry of Communities, Territories and Infrastructure Development of Ukraine, the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine, the Secretariat of the Parliamentary Committee on State Building, Local Governance, Regional and Urban Development, the Association of Cities of Ukraine, Lviv Regional Military Administration, Poltava Regional Administration, Zhytomyr Regional Council, Zakarpattia Regional Council and 18 local authorities, as well as CSO representatives and project consultants, the Head of the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine, project team and the management  of the Elections and Participatory Democracy Division of the Council of Europe.

The Council of Europe project on civic participation aims at promoting civic participation at regional and local levels, strengthening the resilience of democratic processes, during the war and in a post-war context.

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