PARTICIPATORY GOVERNANCE:

BUILDING AN INCLUSIVE AND TRANSPARENT POLICY PROCESS IN UKRAINE

2002-2005

The lack of transparency in the decision-making process has been a major constraint in the Ukrainian government’s efforts to reform its public administration and introduce a system of good governance. There is a need to create a new policy making-culture in government based on the principles of transparency, openness, and accountability. The Participatory Governance project is part of a comprehensive UNDP approach to support the government of Ukraine in its declared objective to reform the system of governance. The project is focused on policy formulation process and aims to contribute to the development of more transparent and inclusive policy processes at central, regional and local government levels through the development of various mutually reinforcing sets of interventions. The project is closely linked to the programme focused on building a democratic accountability system, which constitutes the second pillar of the UNDP governance portfolio for the next three years. Together, both projects aim to ensure that an open, accessible and responsive policy culture will emerge in Ukraine.

The project will have four building blocks, reflecting the need to fulfil the conditions outlined above:

1. Advocacy for building transparent and accessible policy processes: designing policies and implementation mechanisms. This building block would consist of two distinct but related elements: the design of framework policies and their implementation through the reform of internal rules and procedures in government

2. Building a participatory policy culture at the local government level. Advocacy and training workshops will be used to ensure that regional development policies designed at central level and ongoing initiatives at local self-government level are based on the same participatory methodology and approach.

3. Building public administration and civil service capacity through training. For consultative processes to work in practice, it is essential that civil servants be trained in how to manage consultative processes. It is crucial that officials balance openness to external inputs with an ability to avoid potential conflicts of interest.

4. Civil society capacity building. This component would contribute to building sustainable civil society involvement in and influence over the development and implementation of government policy at different levels.

The project will partner with the Presidential Administration, Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, Ministry of Economy, Academy of Public Administration as implementing and execution agencies.

The Project’s work is closely linked to the programme focused on building a democratic accountability system, which constitutes the second pillar of the UNDP governance portfolio for the next three years. Together, both projects aim to ensure that an open, accessible and responsive policy culture will emerge in Ukraine.