Ukraine has become a meeting spot for reformers from 10 countries of Eurasia for the first time

On February 16-17, within the Open Government Partnership global initiative representatives of governments and civil society of 10 countries of Eurasia brought together for the first time in Kyiv to discuss transparency and accountability practices and anti-corruption reforms.

On February 16-17, within the Open Government Partnership global initiative representatives of governments and civil society of 10 countries of Eurasia brought together for the first time in Kyiv to discuss transparency and accountability practices and anti-corruption reforms.

This meeting became possible also because of the Open Government Partnership international award handled to Ukraine for the successful implementation of the electronic system of public procurement ProZorro.

The meeting in Kyiv was organized jointly by the International Renaissance Foundation, Institute for Natural Resources and the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.

A democratic society is possible to be built only when the government is open and transparent. Ukrainian democracy has been oppressed by the closed government system for such a long time, that now there is sometimes an imbalance between social need of full transparency of power and the right to protect the privacy. Nevertheless, such society’s high demands on openness, combined with the international obligations of Ukraine to the Open Government Partnership, the European Union, the International Monetary Fund and other international partners stimulate positive changes in the country.

What kind of changes have occurred in Ukraine in recent years through participation in the Open Government Partnership?

  • Electronic petitions mechanism started to work.
  • Declarations web portal of income, assets and expenses of public servants started to work. 100 thousand declarations are already in the public domain.
  • A pilot version of the Unified state administrative services portal began to work.
  • Access to information as open data is opened: e-data to control the movement of public funds, ProZorro to oversee public tenders, “Party ticket” to monitor the funding of political parties and so on.
  • There was a national information campaign “Public libraries are bridges to the e-government.”
  • Standards of Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative in the areas of production and transportation of oil and gas were implemented.

New plans to enhance the government’s transparency are going to come, including: transparency in the extractive industries, the implementation of mechanisms to verify the authenticity of ultimate beneficiary companies, the implementation of new mechanisms for public monitoring of the environment, introducing a “safe community” principle in police work, oriented to local residents’ needs.

“Openness of Government” in the post-soviet space sounds a bit exotic, but the openness and transparency of public policy is a necessary element of social cohesion,” said Taras Kachka, Deputy Executive Director of the International Renaissance Foundation.

The Open Government Partnership is, in fact, the mechanism of changes in the system of governance. By partnering, Ukraine has not just built a dialogue between civil society, where ideas are born, and the government, which has got mechanisms for implementation, but created a new culture of innovation,” said Oleksiy Orlovsky, Democratic Practice Program Initiative Director of the International Renaissance Foundation.

Ukraine is one of 75 countries that joined the Open Government Partnership multilateral international initiative since its official introduction in the UN General Assembly in September 2011.

 

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