‘Public participation: A new reality’: How to expand opportunities for community development

The key questions at the forum "Public participation: A new reality" were how to amplify the influence of residents in the development of their communities and what tools are needed to achieve this. The event took place in Kyiv on 20–21 November with the support of the Swiss-Ukrainian EGAP Program.

During the discussions, participants focused on important aspects of local democracy development: effective communication between authorities and residents, engaging citizens in decision-making, accessibility of participation tools, and increasing the transparency of local processes.

Oleksandra Radchenko, EGAP Program e-Democracy Component Manager, emphasised:

"Public participation must always be timely. While approaches, priorities, and discussion topics may change, participation cannot be put on hold. Under any circumstances, there will be issues that warrant discussion with residents, ranging from communication channels for IDPs to the selection of reconstruction projects, and from public transport routes to the operating hours of educational institutions."

At the event, EGAP Program specialists presented the online course on the "School’s public budget" and shared the results of the project’s implementation.

The School’s public budget is operating in 367 educational institutions across more than 40 communities. The project has helped engage students in making decisions that affect the development of their schools, as well as implementing the initiatives they developed.

"The concept assumes that the focus is on the students themselves. They develop the projects, vote for them, and choose the specific changes they consider most necessary for their school. The idea is for students to understand that their participation is important, that they influence the development of their educational institution, and see the results immediately," noted Iryna Stasiuk, National Moderator of the E-DEM e-democracy platform.

The "Public participation: A new reality" forum was organised by the Association for Participatory Community Development and the Public Initiatives of Ukraine Union, with the support of the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Ukraine and funding from the Government of Denmark, the "EMPOWER" programme funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) jointly with the European Union and implemented by GIZ Ukraine; the Swiss-Ukrainian EGAP Program, implemented by East Europe Foundation, the European Association for Local Democracy, the Centre for Development and Cooperation of Communities NGO, and the Information and the Civic Space (Hromadskyi Prostir) NGO.