Civil participation in decision-making is an important component of any democratic society. It is a social dialogue on the most important issues. Citizens often make decisions and trust their representatives when they are able to speak during political discussions on important issues and decisions.

Local government is the level closest to citizens, and this proximity should in principle convert into increased levels of civil participation in local affairs. In practice, Ukrainian legislation often involves complex and inflexible methods and procedures that discourage citizens from active participation in decision-making at the local level. Another important challenge at the local level is the low level of people's trust in public officials and elected representatives.

It is therefore crucial that individuals and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) participate in public affairs. To help member States ensure civil and NGOs participation in political decision-making, the Committee of Ministers adopted in 2017, the Guidelines for civil participation in political decision-making and in 2018, Recommendations CM/Rec(2018)11 on the need to strengthen the protection and promotion of the civil society space in Europe and CM/Rec(2018)4 on the civil participation in local public life.

The Council of Europe project “Strengthening democratic resilience through civic participation during the war and in the post-war context in Ukraine” (2023-2024) is implemented within the framework of the new Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine for 2023-2026 "Resilience, recovery and reconstruction" and is a continuation of the development of the results of the Project 2021-2022.

We aim to create conditions for strengthening civic participation, mutual trust, respect, and recognition between representatives of CSOs and public officials for further cooperation between them and building a sustainable inclusive dialogue in the decision-making process. We systematically help pilot communities and authorities of various levels to implement effective procedures and regular practices of civic engagement in community management and development, decision-making process at the local, regional, and national levels. We provide support in the implementation of innovative mechanisms of civic participation, as well as promote the development of civil society, in particular at the local level.

Our main tasks for 2023-2024 are:

• 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.
• 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.

Project page on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CivilParticipationPlatform

To promote civic participation at regional and local levels, strengthening the resilience of democratic processes, during the war and in a post-war context.

1. Provision of legal expertise and technical support in the area of civic participation, the creation of the enabling environment for civil society development, and the promotion of voluntarism and voluntary activities.
    
2. Capacity building in the area of civic participation, and voluntarism for public officials, CSOs, volunteer initiatives and citizens.
    
3. Provision of technical expert support in the design and implementation of participatory processes.

The implementation of project activities involves needs assessments, studies and researches, expert meetings and working group discussions, NGO platform and dialogue building activities, legislative expertise, capacity-building, awareness-raising, Academy of civil participation, trainings for trainers, development of a publication on best practices in civil participation, conferences, peer-to-peer visits and reviews, fellowship programmes or small scale study visits, development and implementation of various guidelines for NGOs and authorities. The methodology followed aims to reinforce the ownership of national and local stakeholders and to ensure the sustainability of the outcomes in line with the Programme Management Methodology of the Council of Europe.

This project supports the objectives reflected in the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine for 2023-2026 and in its Part III: Democracy –  Strengthening Democratic Governance – Civic Participation.

• Academy of Civil Participation Handbook 2019
• CIVIL PARTICIPATION: POLICY ANALYSIS, ADVOCACY, BRINGING ABOUT CHANGE ACADEMY OF CIVIL PARTICIPATION HANDBOOK 2019
• Guidelines for civil participation in political decision making
  (Adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 27 September 2017 at the 1295th meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies) 
• Recommendation CM/Rec(2018)4 of the Committee of Ministers to member States on the participation of citizens in local public life
  (Adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 21 March 2018 at the 1311th meeting of the Ministers' Deputies)
• Recommendation CM/Rec(2018)11 of the Committee of Ministers to member States on the need to strengthen the protection and promotion of civil society space in Europe
  (Adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 28 November 2018 at the 1330th meeting of the Ministers' Deputies)
• Best practices in regulating civil participation tools at the local level 2019
• Newsletter March-June 2019
• Newsletter July-August 2019
• Comparative analysis. Government structures promoting civil participation and cooperation with NGOs in policy making 
• Civic Engagement and Public Space: What is it and Who is responsible? 
• School Participatory Budgeting Toolkit 
• The Council of Europe toolbox on citizen participation 
• Project Journal - Stories that Change Ukraine 
• Involving children and young people under 18 in civil participation mechanisms and decision-making 
• CivicLab methodology Toolkit