Civil society has always been a secret weapon of Ukraine

Andrii Borovyk, Executive Director of TI Ukraine, told how the public, together with the government, implements reforms and plans the rebuilding at the Open Government Partnership Europe Regional Meeting. 

Civil society in Ukraine has always been active. This became especially noticeable after the Revolution of Dignity.

However, our role has changed in recent years. Over the past 8 years, we have become partners of the government during the implementation of many reforms. Moreover, the majority of Ukrainian reforms that were successful did succeed because the government and civil society were partners:

• decentralization;
• public procurement;
• beginning of privatization.

Not enemies, but partners.

War

Many civil society organizations have become key partners of the state almost from the beginning:

• are engaged in international advocacy;
• help the government communicate with the governments of other countries;
• communicate with CSOs from other countries so that their governments help Ukraine;
• disseminate information about what is happening in Ukraine.

The army is fighting on the front. The government should solve numerous problems that Russian missiles are now causing, such as in the energy sector. And civil society not only advocates the need for reconstruction, but also takes an active part in its planning.

Reconstruction

In Lugano, we announced the launch of the Rise Ukraine coalition, which promotes the principles of integrity, transparency and accountability, open data, digitalization, and engagement of citizens and business in planning Ukraine’s reconstruction after the war.

More than 35 organizations from all over the world have already joined it. At the same time, government bodies and international partners support the principles of the coalition by signing the relevant memoranda.

Our goal is to rebuild Ukraine better and more convenient for life. To achieve this, we need to attract enough resources and make sure that they will be spent transparently and efficiently.

We are exploring the experiences of restoring other countries after the war, so as not to make the same mistakes. And now, we see digitalization of the reconstruction process and the establishment of control and punishment for corruption in the process as our key areas.

The electronic management system and monitoring of reconstruction will ensure the transparency of all processes — everyone see everything. In particular, this will allow the supervisory and law enforcement agencies to detect the violations faster. For its part, anti-corruption infrastructure reform should ensure punishment for such violations. 

Engagement

Unfortunately, the state does not engage the civil society in all the processes taking place. For example, I do not know any organization that would be invited to the Conference on the reconstruction of Ukraine in Berlin, where international partners will plan assistance to Ukraine with reconstruction.

However, it is civil society that has always been a secret weapon of Ukraine. It has repeatedly proved so before, and it also proves it now during the war.

It is important to engage CSOs at the planning stage. Thus, we will be able to share responsibility.

Common goal

It is crucial to do everything to make us united. Now that russia is destroying energy infrastructure, Ukraine cannot export electricity to Europe. This war affects not only Ukrainians, but also all Europeans.

To deal with reconstruction, we need to win the war. Your support is needed to win the war. If you are from a civil society organization, ask your government how it has helped Ukraine this week. If you represent the government, ask your colleagues about the number of weapons you have sent to Ukraine this week.

Estonia sent 1% of its GDP to support Ukraine. If all European countries were doing the same, the war would have been over long time ago.

The OGP Europe Regional Meeting is a conference that was jointly organized by the governments of Italy and Estonia. On October 11-12, it gathered organizations supporting the initiative, government representatives, and stakeholders. The main topics of the discussion were anti-corruption, digitalization, and engagement of the public.

The Open Government Partnership is a global initiative, within which the governments of the participating countries are developing two-year action plans for the implementation of the Initiative together with civil society institutions; ensure the openness of the process of implementation of the Initiative and public consultation; independently evaluate the results of the activity.

Transparency International Ukraine is actively engaged in the initiative since its inception in Ukraine.