During the opening ceremony of the Academy, Olena Lytvynenko, the Deputy Head of the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine Ukraine, underlined that the goal of the pilot Academy is to strengthen mutual trust between public authorities and civil society, laying the foundations for a sustainable NGO platform to engage in inclusive policy dialogue with the Kyiv Authority in pursuit of genuine stakeholder participation in decision-making.

“I hope that the Academy will become a platform for effective and informal interaction between public officials and civic organizations’ representatives, which will result in joint work, action plans and road maps for the development and implementation of municipal policies. The experience of the pilot academy will allow further developing of the concept of Academy for future implementation in Kyiv, other regions of Ukraine, and at the local and national level throughout the Council of Europe member states,” said Olena Lytvynenko.

By signing a memorandum on co-operation, Ms Maryna Khonda, Director of Public Communications Department and NGO Platform members reconfirmed joint commitments aimed to build an inclusive policy dialogue and develop effective engagement mechanisms, including e-democracy tools.

During the Academy, the participants learned the Council of Europe standards, different models of civil participation and public consultations in Europe, in particular, the Slovenian experience of the NGO platform, discussed challenges to equal participation of women and men in decision-making, as well as gender-sensitive policies, Open Government Partnership, the concepts of different levels of engagement (consult-involve-collaborate). Decision-making phases and processes in Kyiv, as well as the entry points for NGO engagement were explained and mapped out by the representatives of the city administration and elected representatives.

The practical part of the training was dedicated to exercises on budget analysis and forecasting, role-playing and breakout groups. Public servants and NGOs examined challenges and opportunities regarding civic engagement by Kyiv authorities, forms of public consultations and mechanisms of civil participation, focusing on cross-cutting issues – draft water strategy, strategic and participatory budgeting and public consultations. Representatives of NGOs jointly with public officials (of different levels) elaborated an action plan on public consultations with regard to the draft water strategy, the draft Guidelines for public consultations both for Kyiv authorities and NGOs and the amendments to the municipal regulations on participatory budgeting.

This activity was organised in the framework of implementation of the Council of Europe Project “Promoting civil participation in democratic decision-making in Ukraine.”