On the forthcoming weekend, on October 21-22, Mariupol will see a mini awareness campaign aimed at providing the citizens with tools of influence on the authorities. TI Ukraine’s representatives will hand out booklets with instructions how to make the city more transparent and force the authorities into more accountability. The events will take place as part of the project Make the City Transparent, Take Part in Governance.

Project experts will be personally handing out the booklets. They will be in a tent on Teatralna square next to the Drama theater from 10AM to 4PM.

Mariupol ranks 57th in the Transparency Ranking of 100 Ukrainian cities. The city got only 28 out of 100 points. That is why TI Ukraine decided to choose this city as one of those where we will work on reducing corruption risks and provide the citizens with participation tools. Pressure of the society and demand for transparency are essential for improving the authorities’ accountability. To ensure this, activists and other citizens need to receive information on their rights in the context of transparency.

Mariupol did not do too well in such areas as education (2.5 points), land use (2.2 points), social services (0.5) and municipal enterprises (0 points). That is why our bright handouts will contain a detailed description of what everyone can do for improvement of transparency and accountability in these very areas. Besides, the handouts will include a fun part related to anti-corruption.

Ukraine is now undergoing the process of decentralization, which involves transfer of authority and budget revenues to the local level. Still, some corruption risks remain. The problem is aggravated by the fact that the local public monitoring and control is not yet developed and effective enough. That is why TI Ukraine continues to work on transparency in the regions of Ukraine and actively motivate the locals to demand accountability from the authorities.

The project Make the City Transparent, Take Part in Governance is implemented by TI Ukraine together with the Center for Democracy and Rule of Law as part of the project Strengthening the RPR Coalition implemented with the support of the EU.

Here is a fragment from one of the booklets which will be distributed in Mariupol.

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