On February 20, the team of “Make the City Transparent, Take Part in Governance” organized the seminar for activists, journalists and all those interested in transparency “How Can a Regular Person Influence the Authorities” in Melitopol.
Together with activists, journalists and active citizens we discussed the local budgeting process and practical tools for participation in the budget process; the mechanics for reform of the management of municipal enteprises in Melitopol.
Olha Omelchuk, Master of Public Administration, lawyer, expert in local development, mayor of Netishyn (2010-2012) guided the discussion about these complex issues.
Relying on her experience as an activist and mayor, Ms. Olha and the participants of the seminar conducted practical activities and tried to create a plan for lobbying and decision-making campaigns. Activists have determined that the city needs to build a municipal sports and recreation complex, because the lack of space for active recreation may increase the incidence among children and adults.
Another idea of the activists was to create a coworking center / business incubator for the youth, which would allow to provide them with practical skills in different areas, to organize their leisure time, and to ensure the preservation of human resources in the field. Activists offered to involve the senior citizens in the coworking center as volunteers, which will allow the two generations to exchange practical skills.
A detailed advocacy plan for both projects and a plan for switching from a utility to a profitable company was proposed: “I very much hope that both teams will make real projects of these ideas, because this is exactly what our city lacks, and we are able to implement these ideas,” – said the activist.
“We have to make sure that every city resident is not indifferent to the life of the city.That each Melitopol citizen is interested in solving problems that you – activists – consider important. And the key to this is creative campaigns, wide publicity and involvement,” said Olha Omelchuk, coach of the seminar.
Why did we come to Melitopol? Melitopol ranks only 55th in the transparency ranking of 100 Ukrainian cities. The city received only 29.2 points out of 100. The city scored the highest points in the sector of Information on grants and funding – 4 points and in the Education sector – 4.5 points. However, the city got 0 points in two sectors, namely, housing policy and social services are the most non-transparent ones.
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.
