FW: Ukrainian OGP Civic Partnership Digest April-May

[michael gurstein]

This might be of interest to those involved with or looking towards an
involvement with the OGP process.  Certainly the situation in the Ukraine is
different from that in Canada (if for no other reason than that the World
Bank is putting $5 mil into OGP activities in the Ukraine), but this below
is worth a look to get an idea of the scale, breadth and seriousness with
which the OGP (particularly for Civil Society) is being taken in at least
this one country.

Mike
 
-----Original Message-----
From: [hidden email]
[mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of OGP Civic
Partnership (Ukraine)
Sent: Monday, May 14, 2012 2:38 PM
To: OGP Civil Society Working Group
Subject: Ukrainian OGP Civic Partnership Digest April-May


No. 4 (March 14 - May 9, 2012)
OGP CIVILPARTNERSHIP UPDATES

May 7 - FIRST JOINT MEETING OF GOVERNMENT & CIVIL SOCIETY AFTER THE ANNUAL
OGP MEETING HELD

On May 7th, the government and civil society representatives met regarding
the implementation of the Open Government Partnership implementation in
Ukraine. It was the first meeting after the Annual Open Government
Partnership Meeting took place in mid - April in Brasilia. Participants
included Volodymyr Semynozhenko and four of his colleagues from the Agency
for Science, Innovation and Information; OlesyaArkhypska from the National
Center of E-government; Oleksii Orlovskyy from the Renaissance Foundation
(Soros Foundation); Oleksandr Zhugay from the Main Department of
Constitutional Modernization from Presidential Administration of Ukraine;
and Oleksii Khmara from the Civil Partnership to support the Open Government
Partnership in Ukraine - President of TORO  Creative Union (Transparency
International - National Contact in Ukraine). Participants preliminary
agreed to hold a meeting of the Working Group on May 16th in the Cabinet of
Ministers of Ukraine, and to develop the Action Plan in the framework of
Ukrainian OGP National Plan. Before this officials and civil society plan to
endorse key chapters of the Action Plan including the regional dimension
into it. At the end of May, First Vice Prime Minister Valeriy Khoroshkovskyi
will head a meeting of the international partners who are supporting the
implementation of the Open Government Partnership initiative. In mid- June,
the national site on the OGP initiative will launch, and will contain
consolidated information about the OGP initiative, plans, contact
information, news and recommendations.

Moreover, the establishment the Coordination Council on the implementation
of the OGP in Ukraine is currently under the discussion.  It is preliminary
argeed that the Council will consist of 15 members from state and public. It
will meet once per month, and its working groups  on key issues will act on
a regular basis. Civil society will also nominate representatives to these
working groups. In addition, there is a government intention to develop a
plan for media promotion of the Open Government Partnership in Ukraine.

May 5  - REGIONS START TO IMPLEMENT THE OGP

The regions of Ukraine have their own visions of why they need the
government to be open. At the beginning of April, the Cabinet of Ministers
of Ukraine passed a Decree approving the plan for implementation of the OGP
in Ukraine (accessible online
athttp://zakon1.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/220-2012-%D1%80). Regional actors
immediately started to take practical steps towards implementation. In
April, Kirovograd gathered representatives from all over Ukraine to chat
about using e-systems in state bodies. In May, Chernigiv held a nationwide
talk about e-democracy in action. In June, Mykolayiv plans to conduct a
conference on lessons learned thus far from implementing the Open Government
Partnership initiative In Ukraine.


April 26 -  PRESS CONFERENCE ON THE OGP ANNUAL MEETING RESULTS FOR UKRAINE
HELD

On April 26, TORO Creative Union held a press conference on the results of
the presentation of the Ukrainian OGP Plan in Brasilia. The press conference
participants were Maryna Stavniychuk, Advisor to the President of Ukraine -
Head of the Department of constitutional and legal modernization of the
Presidential Administration of Ukraine ; Oleksii Khmara, Head of the
Secretariat of the Civic Partnership  to support Open Government Partnership
in Ukraine - President of TORO Creative Union (Transparency International -
National Contact in Ukraine); Oleksii Orlovskyy, Director of Civil Society
and Good Governance Program of International Renaissance Foundation (Soros
Foundation), a member of the International Steering Committee of the Open
Government Partnership initiative; Taras Shevchenko, Director of Media
Rights Institute; Matej Novak,  Director Bibliomist Program in Ukraine
(IREX),  member International Steering Committee of the Open Government
Partnership initiative; and Olesya Arkhypska, Head of National Centre for
E-government, Deputy director of the state enterprise "Derzhinformresurs".
Participants discussed what has already been done in Ukraine, results of
Brazil OGP meeting, and what should be done in the future. A number of
materials were produced based on the press conference:

Ukrainian initiatives on government openness have become priorities for
governments around the world. They await concrete actions from the Azarov
government, which will be held accountable in March 2013 at the
international level in the United Kingdom (in Ukrainian) -
http://www.toro.org.ua/news/894.html

The international community recognizes Ukraine's commitments on e-
government and e-democracy as some of the best (in Ukrainian) -
http://nc.gov.ua/news/index.php?ID=449;
http://www.dknii.gov.ua/2010-09-27-06-54-32/105-2012-/736-2012-04-27-11-56-5
0

The public will control the implementation of the Open Government
Partnership Initiative in Ukraine (in Ukrainian) -
http://www.irf.ua/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&catid=23&id=3654
7&Itemid=25

Summary of the international conference on the Open Government Partnership
initiative (in Ukrainian) -http://bibliomist.org/ua/about-
bibl/novini/594-pidsumky-vsesvitnoi-konferentsii-initsiatyvy-
qpartnerstvo-vidkrytyi-uriadq

Ukraine could receive $5 million from the World Bank for the implementation
of the Open Government Initiative in Ukraine (in
Ukrainian)  - http://press.unian.net/ukr/pressnews-111189.html


April 23 - CABINET OF MINISTERS OF UKRAINE BEGAN WORK ON OGP IMPLEMENTATION
PLAN

After the Ukrainian Plan on Implementation of the Open Government
Partnership Initiative was presented at the OGP Annual Meeting in Brasilia,
Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykola Azarov appointed First Vice Prime Minister
Valeriy Khoroshkovskyi and Chairman of the State Agency for Science,
Innovation and Information Volodymyr Semynozhenko to coordinate the work.
The Cabinet of Ministers also plans to develop an appropriate implementation
plan with civil society in the nearest future.


April 18 - OLEKSII KHMARA REPORTS ABOUT UKRAINIAN OPEN GOVERNMENT
PARTNERSHIP IMPLEMENTATION PROGRESS AT THE OGP ANNUAL MEETING

How the process moved forward you can find out from his speech.

"I represent Ukraine, the country,  where geographical center of Europe is
located  and which residents  aspire to become a part of the European Union.
At the same time,  I come from a country,  which was a part of the Soviet
Union for the long 70 years - the most closed political system of the world.
Why am I relating to this? In countries from my region there exists such a
notion as "facade democracy". This is the phenomenon, when all laws and
public governance seem to respond generally established standards,  however
they don't lead to any real reforms, whereas constant imitation of reforms
is taking place".


April 17-18 - CIVIC PARTNERSHIP TO SUPPORT THE OPEN GOVERNMENT PARTNERSHIP
PARTICIPATED IN THE OGP ANNUAL MEETINGIN BRAZIL

On April 17 and 18, the Ukrainian Plan on Implementation of the Open
Government Partnership OGP Initiative was presented at the OGP Annual
Meeting in Brasilia. Earlier, the OGP Steering Committee approved the
Ukrainian Plan without reservations. Oleksii Khmara, President of TORO
Creative Union (Transparency International - National Contact in Ukraine),
represented Ukrainian civil society at the event (the text of his speech is
available in English online). Additionally, at the meeting in Brasilia, the
Steering Committee announced the Top10 commitments for an open government.
Ukraine was acknowledged as one of the 20 countries whose priorities
correspond to the Top10, specifically regarding natural resource
transparency and e-petitions.


UPDATES FROM THE REGIONS
LUGANSK REGION:

Supported by the Department of internal policy and public relations of the
State Administration, a second wave of trainings on the Open Government
Partnership was conducted for members of the public councils under district
state administrations.


CHERKASSY REGION:

Cherkassy region finished creating a website for e-procurements. Officials
plan to first test the system together with entrepreneurs and ultimately
conduct all procurements online through this site. This system will allow
people to access procurement information from anywhere in the world, thereby
supporting unrestricted participation in procurement competitions and full
transparency.

 The full version of digest is available here:
http://www.watchtheogp.org/find-your-country/ukraine
http://www.toro.org.ua/en/ogp/digest/

Reference:

All information on the activity of the Civic Partnership to support the
'Open Government Partnership' initiative in Ukraine is available
atwww.toro.org.ua/ogp/. The Civic Partnership's activity is financially
supported by the International Renaissance Foundation in the framework of
the project "Assisting the Ukrainian Government in the proper implementation
of the Open Government Partnership initiative, first stage," which is being
implemented by the Creative Union TORO (Transparency International -
National Contact in Ukraine). The OGP Civic Partnership now consists of more
than 60 Ukrainian NGOs and 13 individual members. The Creative Union TORO
(Transparency International National Contact in Ukraine) serves as the
Secretariat for the Civic Partnership.

The Open Government Partnership is a multilateral initiative that was
formally launched on September 20, 2011. Its priorities include: a) securing
concrete commitments from governments to facilitate transparency of
governance; b) involving citizens in governance processes; c) fighting
corruption; d) harnessing new technologies to strengthen governance.

To become a member of the OGP, participating countries must embrace a
high-level Open Government Declaration; deliver a country action plan
developed with public consultation by March 2012; and commit to independent
reporting on their future progress. 50 countries have already joined the
initiative, including Ukraine.