On September 27, 2021 the President of Ukraine signed the National Strategy for Promoting Civil Society Development 2021-2026. The Draft-Strategy was adopted on June 16, 2021 by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. The National Strategy defines 4 strategic objectives for the authorities to create favorable conditions for developing CSOs, charitable foundations, and self-organisation bodies. It also has a Section on Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation Mechanisms of the Strategy to prepare the evaluation of implementation and achieved results.
The main principle that underlines the state policy is “no decisions for civil society without civil society”. The purpose of the Strategy is to create favorable conditions for public initiatives and self-organisation, the formation and activities of civil society organisations (institutions), and the establishment of partnerships between them and the authorities, local self-government bodies. Implementing the Strategy will support the realisation and protection of human and civil rights and freedoms and ensuring public participation in decision-making processes.
In particular, the Strategy includes:
- introduction of online competition for public funding of CSO projects;
- public grants for institutional development of CSOs;
- introduction of online registration for CSOs;
- adoption of regional programmes for the development of civil society, streamlining the operation of regional coordination councils for the development of civil society;
- promotion of volunteer activities through exemptions from taxation and establishment of state and local volunteer support programs;
- introduction of tax incentives for charitable work;
- introduction of public consultation procedures, strengthening of residents’ participation in the local decision-making, and adoption of a new law on community associations;
- establishment of a flexible and efficient fiscal environment for social entrepreneurship;
- involving CSOs in the provision of social services.
Consultative process with civil society
The National Strategy was developed by a working group under the Department of Information and Public Relations of the Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers. The preparation of the document was a transparent and open process. Representatives of the public sector had the opportunity to join a specially created public government platform, work in thematic subgroups of the working group, as well as engage in public discussions on the draft (over 40 events including regional). It includes a number of recommendations from the Legal Enabling Environment Reforms Roadmap for Civil Society developed by more than 100 CSOs in 2020.
Influence of the CSO Meter in the shaping of the Strategy
In addition to the Legal Enabling Environment Reforms Roadmap, the National Strategy for Promoting Civil Society Development 2021-2026 is based on the evidence and recommendations from CSO Meter Country Report Ukraine. The UCIPR’s team took part in the developing the National Strategy, with the main CSO Meter legal expert, Maksym Latsyba as co-head of the chapter on Developing the Enabling Environment for the Formation and Institutional Development of Civil Society Institutions. According to the Strategy, the CSO Meter will also be used for tracking the implementation progress.
In order to support the drafting process, ECNL , together with OSCE Ukraine, organised a webinar on the effective ways for implementation of CSO Strategies, based on the ECNL experience in other countries. The event was attended by a number of key stakeholders (state institutions and CSOs) that later took part in the drafting of the Strategy. The final version of the Strategy has 2 dedicated sections to the topics presented – Mechanisms for Strategy Implementation and Monitoring and Evaluation of the Strategy Implementation. At the request of OSCE Ukraine, we also prepared comments to the draft Strategy in November 2020 where we provided ideas on how to strengthen the implementation and suggested to highlight more prominently the principles for cooperation between the government and civil society.
Next steps
The Implementation Plan for 2021-2022 shall also be developed and approved this year.
The implementation of the Strategy will be monitored with the involvement of civil society institutions and international organisations on the basis of quarterly and annual reports prepared by the Cabinet of Ministers and analytical reports developed by civil society. The Cabinet of Ministers will determine the mechanisms for monitoring and coordinating the implementation of the Strategy, including establishment of a coordinating body involving civil society institutions participating on a parity basis. Local state administrations will ensure the operation of such coordinating bodies on a regional level. Moreover, national and regional civil society forums will be held annually to discuss the status of implementation of the Strategy and all the relevant issues.