The Ukrainian government recently launched the process of developing the new National Strategy to Promote Civil Society Development in Ukraine for 2021-2025. In July 2020 it convened the first meeting of the working group developing the draft Strategy.
The working group consists of both CSOs and government representatives chairing discussions under each topic of the draft Strategy, such as
- creation of favorable conditions for the organizational development of CSOs;
- establishment of effective procedures for public participation;
- CSO participation in the socio-economic development;
- creation of favorable conditions for inter-sectoral cooperation; and
- mechanisms for implementation of the Strategy.
The development of the draft Strategy has been an inclusive process, inviting proposals from interested CSO representatives. It also builds on previous analytical materials from CSOs, such as the Roadmap for Legal Reforms for Civil Society or our jointly developed CSO Meter Report for Ukraine.
ECNL has provided support to the process by sharing its comparative expertise. For example, in July 2020 together with OSCE Ukraine we organized a webinar, where we presented the international experiences with regard to the practices and mechanisms for implementation of similar policy documents in other countries.
The government recently published the draft Strategy for public consultations. In November 2020 OSCE Ukraine asked ECNL to provide an opinion on the draft Strategy. In our official position we focus on measures that can improve the implementation of the Strategy. Among others, ECNL had the following recommendations:
- We suggest that the Strategy gives a more prominent role for the principles of cooperation between CSOs and the government through a separate section.
- ECNL welcomes the suggestion to establish a Coordinating Council; however, we support the idea to establish the council as a joint CSO-government body that provides the possibility for dialogue between the two parties on how the Strategy is implemented.
- We suggest that the relevant ministries are required to submit annual reports to the Coordinating Council/Council of Ministers. These will be the basis of preparing a consolidated report on the implementation of the overall Strategy.
- In addition to the annual action plans, it is also important to have an overall Strategy action plan. This could include all the activities, the responsible state agencies, the expected timelines for the completion, the necessary resources and the performance indicators.
- ECNL also proposes to provide for an independent evaluation of the Strategy implementation. Such evaluation will help assess the extent to which the Strategy has achieved its objectives and help design the future government strategies for civil society development.
You can find the full opinion of ECNL below: