Since joining  OGP in 2011, Ukraine has successfully implemented three national action plans, which has led to breakthrough transformations in governance. And now, the Ukrainian Government and its civil society partners have started implementing the fourth action planAction plans are at the core of a government’s participation in OGP. They are the product of a co-creation process in which government and civil society jointly develop commitments to open governmen..., adopted in December 2018.

Ukraine has become one of the leaders in Eurasia in terms of scale of events held during the Open Government Week (OGW) in March 2019. The Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine (SCMU) called on to regional state authorities, civil society partners, and donors to share event ideas. More than 25 events were held in total, covering 15 oblasts (or districts) across Ukraine.

So what are some of the new approaches we applied to align with OGP’s thematic priorities? And what challenges does Ukraine face in implementing its OGP action plan?

Smart Ways of Organizing Events to Boost Results

There are five new features of Open Gov Week (OGW) in Ukraine worth highlighting.

• The thematic areas discussed in this year’s  OGW were unprecedentedly diverse, covering a wide range of issues: from improving transparencyAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, transparency occurs when “government-held information (including on activities and decisions) is open, comprehensive, timely, freely available to the pub... More and efficiency of state control in public procurementTransparency in the procurement process can help combat corruption and waste that plagues a significant portion of public procurement budgets globally. Technical specifications: Commitments that aim t... to ensuring free user access to the National RepositoryAccess to relevant information is essential for enabling participation and ensuring accountability throughout the OGP process. An OGP repository is an online centralized website, webpage, platform or ... of Academic Texts.
• OGWk also significantly widened the circle of governmental counterparts. The consultations expanded to other ministries, regional state bodies, civil society partners, and donors. Involvement of youthRecognizing that investing in youth means investing in a better future, OGP participating governments are creating meaningful opportunities for youth to participate in government processes. Technical ... and student associations into discussions of the OGP commitments has become yet another new approach for OGW.
• The events stipulated discussions that went beyond the 17 commitments in the OGP action plan. The reforms’ priorities and policy issues, such as draft law on higher educationAccountability within the public education system is key to improving outcomes and attainment, and accountability is nearly impossible without transparent policies and opportunities for participation ..., have been reviewed as well.
• All the interested parties have gained understanding of the current state of the certain priorities’ implementation and brainstormed how to accelerate the progress.
• An increased public and media outreach has spurred the implementers of the recently adopted 2018-2020 OGP action plan to reconfirm their engagement, accelerating the implementation process.

Spillover Effect of Holding Open Discussions

It is necessary to stress that the events have often delivered unexpected results, taking the parties involved to a new level of implementation of  open government commitments.

For example, more than thirty civic activists and government officials joined a public discussion on introducing the e-calls mechanism for the civil society organizations, organized by the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine and SCMU with support of UNDP and other donors. Interestingly, there was no clear vision of how the e-call mechanism must look prior to the discussion. The event has enabled practitioners from the state bodies and civil society to brainstorm this issue together. It has led to the creation of the experts’ working group to elaborate further steps and develop concrete concepts for the e-calls mechanism for CSOs.

The Ombudsperson’s Office and SCMU, in cooperation with UNDP, led an important discussion on improving access to public information.  Experts in the community discussed how to boost access to public information and outlined next steps.

Moving the OGP Agenda forward

After a very successful Open Gov Week, we must take the next steps to tackle the challenges identified.

It is necessary to engage more state bodies at the local level, to promote the open gov values of openness and engagement with citizens to improve services, manage public resources, introduce innovations, create safer communities and support civic participation.

Information and advocacy campaigns to reinforce the OGP commitments must be launched at the regional level, involving  public and local civil society organizations.

The government and its counterparts need to creatively communicate their OGP commitments in a way that attracts media and allows them to clearly understand the potential impact these reforms can have in Ukraine.

UNDP will continue to be a key partner for open government in Ukraine since the OGP commitments closely align with the Sustainable Development Goals. The government and civil society are hopeful that the new action plan will finally lead to an increased efficiency and transparency of the democratic governance in Ukraine.