RADA PROGRAM - USAID

RADA PROGRAM Responsible, Accountable, Democratic Assembly in Ukraine

ANNUAL PERFORMANCE REPORT

Year 4

(October 01, 2016 – September 30, 2017)

Submitted: October 20, 2017

Cooperative Agreement No. AID-121-A-14-00001

The USAID RADA Program Y4 Annual Report, October 01, 2016 – September 30, 2017

Program Background

The East Europe Foundation is pleased to submit the Annual Performance Report of its Responsible Accountable Democratic Assembly (RADA) Program in Ukraine for the period between October 01, 2016, and September 30, 2017.

The Program was awarded by USAID to the East Europe Foundation and launched in Ukraine on November 26, 2013, under Cooperative Agreement No. AID-121-A-14-00001. The Program is being implemented in cooperation with the Ukrainian Parliament, the Ukrainian Government, local governments, regional associations and highly qualified civil society organizations.

The RADA Program is designed to promote a representative, accountable and independent Parliament through (1) providing support to MPs to build constituent relations and improve their representation function; (2) expanding citizen education and monitoring of Parliament and MPs in order to increase their accountability, and improving civic engagement in the legislative process; and (3) promoting parliamentary independence to counterbalance the government by enforcing the rules and procedures that govern the body.

The RADA Program is administered to the following three program objectives:

i. Improved public presentation in the legislative process;

ii. Expanded role of citizens in monitoring Parliament’s work;

iii. Strengthened role of legislature in providing independent oversight of the executive branch of power.


Approach to Implementation

The RADA Program works in conjunction with partners to form an alliance of Ukrainian CSOs that offers the RADA Program as USAID’s primary vehicle for achieving one of the three USAID/Ukraine Mission Development Objectives: “More Participatory, Transparent and Accountable Governance Processes.”

The RADA alliance partners implement innovative programmatic tools based on their vast experience of previous work in the Ukrainian context with government agencies at both national and local levels, plus a variety of emerging local CSOs. Alliance partners include Internews-Ukraine (IUA), OPORA, and Agency for Legislative Initiatives (ALI). Their projects are supported via a sub-grant mechanism.

RADA’s approach is to institutionalize successful programs, such as the parliamentary internship program, citizens’ monitoring of the legislative process as well as MP and MPs’ aides training programs with Ukrainian CSOs and VR’s constituent units. RADA builds strong double-sided relationships with the VR Secretariat, the VR Committee on Rules of Procedure, the VR Committee on Preventing and Countering Corruption, the VR Committee on Legal Policy, the VR Committee on State Building, Regional Policy and Local Self-Government, the VR Press Services and other structures of the Parliament to strengthen VR’s legislative capacity through effective cooperation with civil society.

RADA’s alliance partners share their experience in effective participation and monitoring of the legislative and other government processes with emerging NGOs and regional civil society groups. They focus on raising the awareness and skills of regional constituents so as to reduce the political abyss between citizens and their elected representatives. Civic education efforts ensure more active civic engagement in the process of policy development and implementation at both national and regional levels.

The RADA Program is guided by the USAID imperative factors (Anti-Corruption, Gender Equality and Local Capacity Building) when planning and coordinating all of its activities.


Acronyms ALI Agency for Legislative Initiatives (RADA Program partner) APDU Association of People’s Deputies of Ukraine AUC Association of Ukrainian Cities CM Cabinet of Ministers CoE Council of Europe COP Chief of Party CSO Civil society organization DCOP Deputy Chief of Party EEF East Europe Foundation EP European Parliament EU European Union IL Interns’ League (RADA Program partner) IPU Inter-Parliamentary Union IT Information Technologies IUA Internews Ukraine (RADA Program partner) LSG Local self-government MP Member of Parliament MPs’ aides Assistants to Members of Parliament NDI National Democratic Institute NF Narodnyi Front, political party NGO(s) Nongovernmental organization(s) ODIHR/OSCE OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights OGP Open Government Partnership OSCE Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe PIP Parliamentary Internship Program PPB Petro Poroshenko Bloc, political party PWD Persons with disabilities RPR Reanimation Package of Reforms SMD Single mandate district SME Small or medium enterprise SMS Short Message Service via mobile telephones ToT Training of trainers UN United Nations USAID United State Agency for International Development VR / VRU Verkhovna Rada / Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine (Parliament of Ukraine) VRC Committee of Verkhovna Rada VRS Secretariat of Verkhovna Rada WG Working group

https://www.google.com.ua/search?q=Parliamentary+internship+program&spell=1&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiE1ISHob3TAhWI8ywKHaTxCd0QBQgfKAA


Table of Contents

Program Background .......................................................................................................................................... 2

Approach to Implementation ............................................................................................................................. 3

Acronyms ........................................................................................................................................................ 4

Table of Contents ........................................................................................................................................... 5

Achievements ..................................................................................................................................................... 7

The RADA Program Contributed to Improved Dialog between the Parliament and Local Communities ............ 7

League of Interns Succeeded to Raise More Funds for the 2017 Internship Program .............................. 7

The Public Monitoring of Parliamentary Committees’ Accountability Makes Change .............................. 8

E-Petitions to the Parliament Proved Their Effectiveness ......................................................................... 9

Journalism Award for “Parliament.Reform” TV Program on Hromadske.ua ............................................. 9

New Secondary School Curricula on Policy Sciences Is Based on RADA Program Recommendations ......... 9

The RADA Program Improves Transparency of the Ukrainian Parliament ............................................... 10

Quality of Legislative Process Index Showed Slight Improvements in the Parliamentary Processes in

2016 .......................................................................................................................................................... 11

ACTIVITIES......................................................................................................................................................... 12

OBJECTIVE 1: Improved public representation in the legislative process .................................................... 12

Expected Result 1.1. Effective communication, outreach and constituency services developed ........... 12

Expected Result 1.2. Inclusive legislative practices established .............................................................. 23

Expected Result 1.3. Cooperation between MPs and local governments strengthened......................... 30

Expected Result 1.4. Cooperation and communication between the VRU and VR ARC institutionalized

and strengthened ..................................................................................................................................... 36

OBJECTIVE 2: Expanded role of citizens in monitoring the work of Parliament .......................................... 36

Expected Result 2.1. Civic education initiatives promoted to foster greater citizen engagement in the

legislative process..................................................................................................................................... 36

Expected Result 2.2. Civil society monitoring of the VR fostered, including strengthening of lobbying

groups. ...................................................................................................................................................... 45

Expected Result 2.3. Reform legislation passed by partnering with other USAID programs ................... 47

OBJECTIVE 3. Role of legislature in providing independent oversight of the executive branch

strengthened ................................................................................................................................................ 52

Expected Result 3.1. Anti-Corruption efforts strengthened, including parliamentary budgetary

oversight ................................................................................................................................................... 52

Expected Result 3.2. Parliamentary oversight strengthened through improved structural effectiveness

.................................................................................................................................................................. 56

Expected result 3.3. Internship program institutionalized ....................................................................... 59

CROSS-CUTTING USAID COMPONENTS ............................................................................................................ 62

Other Relevant Activities .................................................................................................................................. 67


Lessons Learned ............................................................................................................................................... 69

List of Sub-Grants ............................................................................................................................................. 70

ANNEXES ........................................................................................................................................................... 71


Achievements

The RADA Program Contributed to Improved Dialog between the Parliament and Local Communities

The USAID RADA Program made significant progress in bringing the communication between the Parliament and local governors and communities closer to the agenda of individual Members of Parliament and the Parliament in general. The synergy effect was achieved through a combination of several types of activities that included taking MPs to their electoral districts (Model Districts) and consulting MPs on the most effective way to report on their work and keep the dialog with the local communities. RADA offered a lot of innovative communication tools: public reports in communities on the use of video presentations, infographics and interactive speeches, press briefings and press tours in the regions, public hearings and forums, expert support during meetings of parliamentary Committees with local communities and associations of local governors, and finally, support for two major regional events that contributed to effective local governance development: the Prybuzhia Forum on Decentralization Issues in Volyn oblast and the Fifth Municipal Forum in Lviv.

The Shadow Report “Effectiveness of Property Registers in Ukraine" Enabled Registers' Improvements

The RADA Program celebrated the successful implementation of its recommendations made after its presentation of the Shadow Report "Effectiveness of Property Registers in Ukraine" held on November 21, 2016. The recommendations concerned urgent improvements to be made to several state registers.

The VRU Committee on Preventing and Combating Corruption that hosted the presentation advanced the ALI recommendations by sending them to the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, and the State Service for Geodesy, Cartography and Cadaster in the form of the Committee’s inquiries. In response, the respective executive agencies relied on the recommendations and improved their registers:

• The Administration of the State Land Cadaster included in its Action Plan for 2017 an important modernization feature for the public cadaster map: search for land plots by address on the map will be made available during the year.

• The Ministry of Interior made changes to the work of the Unified State Register by allowing the grouping of cars based on ownership in information requests in the absence of identity data about the cars (available data can be grouped and provided per request).

• The Ministry of Justice used the roundtable recommendations to update the software of the State Register of Real Estate Titles.

League of Interns Succeeded to Raise More Funds for the 2017 Internship Program

The League of interns faced a growing number of applications from candidates, the 2017 figure exceeding those for the 2015 and 2016 Internships by 100. The League of Interns reduced the number of interns for this year by 40, inviting 59 interns in 2017. All the selected interns started their Internship with the Parliament in January 2017.

The Interns’ League (IL) succeeded to raise funds for 31 young professionals applying for scholarships in the Parliamentary Internship Program. There was a risk that the 2017 Internship Program would have to reject some of the regional participants on account of lack of funds. Overall, IL raised UAH 410,385.00 from five donors in addition to support from the RADA Program. Die Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH allocated funds for 12 stipends; and Mr. Valeriy Karpuntsov, 8th convocation MP and PIP alumnus, granted stipends to 11 young professionals. This year's statistics attest to a great success for the Internship Program, because since 2010 the demand for internship had never been fully met. Compared to the 2015-2016, the number of granted scholarships has increased by 40%.


On January 25, 2017, due to the efforts and negotiations held by the League of Interns, a memorandum on the implementation of the German Youth Internship Program in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine was signed by the VR Secretariat and the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Ukraine. On March 2, five students from Germany began their internship at the VR Secretariat. The League of Interns paid attention to their adaptation and integration into the community of Ukrainian interns. This was the first official internship for young people from abroad in the Ukrainian Parliament. Such an example of fruitful cooperation is very important, since it attests to progress in the process of institutionalization of our Internship Program and demonstrates the openness of the Parliament and the will to work with young people from Ukraine and abroad.

The Committee on Public Health welcomed the presentation made by RADA’s intern Oleksandra Telehuzova, Medical University student, who thoroughly and clearly described during the parliamentary hearings "Medical Education In Ukraine: A Look Into the Future" (March 22, 2017) the challenges faced by medical education in Ukraine. Speaking at Committee hearings or other parliamentary events is unusual for interns. The case involving the VR Committee on Public Health proves the high quality of the program participants’ selection process in 2017.

PIP Interns contributed to the placement on the VRU web-portal of videos from the Parliament’s events, important activities and meetings. This improvement was made possible as a result of bringing an intern to the Information Department of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. Links to some interesting videos: http://bit.ly/2opMzdP, http://rada.gov.ua/news/Novyny/142259.html, https://youtu.be/onUuF7xRgtc.

The Public Monitoring of Parliamentary Committees’ Accountability Makes Change

To raise the Parliament’s accountability and transparency, RADA’s partner OPORA has been monitoring the performance of the parliamentary Committees and providing recommendations for them. The monitoring methodology includes 34 indicators to measure completeness of information on the Committees’ websites, ranging from basic info on structure and membership to availability of all decisions, protocols and video/audio recordings of Committees’ meetings.

Compared to 2016, experts noted a positive trend towards increased transparency of the Committees, which had posted necessary information on their websites by autumn 2017. The monitoring of six session of the 8th convocation of the Verkhovna Rada showed that 16 Parliamentary committees posted on their websites more than 50% of the requested information, three Committees published 50% of the requested information, and 8 committees placed less than 50% of the requested information on their websites. Thus, 21 Committees improved their showing, three had the same results, and three more did worse than before (https://rada.oporaua.org/novyny/novini/13904-yaki-parlamentski-komitety-pratsiuiut-naibilsh-prozoro-ta-publichno).

Due to raised awareness of civil society, the VR Secretariat, the MPs, and the VR Committees began to adjust their activities to civil society expectations. VR Committees addressed OPORA asking for recommendations on work improvement, raising transparency and information delivery. Eight committees, in particular the

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale

Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH; 12

Valeriy Karpuntsov, 8th convocation MP ,

PIP alumnus; 11K. Kovshevych Foundation; 5

Construction Industrial Foundation ; 2

Internship Program alumnus

Olga Stefurak; 1RADA Program; 31

Funds Raised for PIP 2017

http://bit.ly/2opMzdP

http://rada.gov.ua/news/Novyny/142259.html

https://youtu.be/onUuF7xRgtc

https://rada.oporaua.org/novyny/novini/13904-yaki-parlamentski-komitety-pratsiuiut-naibilsh-prozoro-ta-publichno


Committee on Legislative Support of Law Enforcement, the Committee on Freedom of Speech and Information Policy, the Committee on Human Rights, National Minorities and Interethnic Relations, and the Committee on Foreign Affairs, asked OPORA for assistance.

E-Petitions to the Parliament Proved Their Effectiveness

By supporting the development of e-petitions for the Verkhovna Rada platform, the RADA Program ensured citizens’ involvement in the legislative process. Diana Dovhan from Vinnytsia, one of the co-authors of a successful e-petition to the Verkhovna Rada, wrote in her feedback, “It took us only eight days to collect 27,262 signatures under the e-petition to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, which requested that MPs vote urgently for Draft Law of Ukraine No. 5240. The bill amended the provisions of the Law on Higher Education regarding the extension of the admission period for the R&D "junior specialist" in higher education until 2019 and clarified the status of colleges and their graduates, which had remained unclear for about two years after the adoption of the Law on Higher Education in 2014.”

"My advice to all those demanding qualitative changes in the country and planning to involve e-democracy tools is as follows: study relevant current legislation, submit your petition, and seek supporters. Describe the essence of the problem and decide on the addressee of your appeal, make sure that you address the appropriate institution: the Presidential Administration, the Verkhovna Rada, or the Cabinet of Ministers. You need to work hard with your target audience. For example, we mailed letters explaining why it is necessary to sign petitions; held meetings, created systematic presentations, with instructions on how to get registered on the chosen resource. Thus, we took into account all the factors needed for successful advocacy campaigning: a crucial problem, the right target audiences, and the right institution to address,” Ms. Dovhan summed up (https://itd.rada.gov.ua/services/Petition/Index/2085?aname=responses).

Journalism Award for “Parliament.Reform” TV Program on Hromadske.ua

The national journalism contest “Honor of Profession 2017” granted an award to Hromadske.ua in the special UNDP nomination "Building the New Ukraine together" for the television program "Parliament. Reform" that was coproduced by OPORA and Hromadske.ua. The production of the weekly program became possible due to the monitoring, analysis and rigorous expert work by the Civil Network OPORA as part of the USAID RADA Program in 2016. More information is available on the Contest website http://www.konkurssmi.org/articles/publications/285.

New Secondary School Curricula on Policy Sciences Is Based on RADA Program Recommendations

The Institute of Educational Content Modernization approved the methodological guidelines and the role-playing game “AGORA: Democratic Procedures of Law Drafting in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine” for use in general secondary schools of Ukraine. The Decision was fixed by official letter No. 21.1/12-G-452 of the Institute of Educational Content Modernization dated 26.07.2017. The methodological guidelines will be officially published and presented by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine at an event co-organized by the RADA Program and the Institute of Educational Content Modernization which is tentatively scheduled for November-December 2017.

https://itd.rada.gov.ua/services/Petition/Index/2085?aname=responses

http://www.konkurssmi.org/articles/publications/285/


The RADA Program Improves Transparency of the Ukrainian Parliament

The USAID RADA Program contributed to transparency of the Ukrainian Parliament with OPORA regular monitoring and reports on the Parliament’s efficiency. The Complex Summary Report “Two Years of Ukrainian Parliament: Legislative Capacity and Law-Making Process” (in English: http://bit.ly/2iD6hij; in Ukrainian: http://bit.ly/2j51Ei7) reflected the Parliament’s performance over two years. Media and social networks widely distributed the report after its presentation at the National Forum, which took place in Kyiv on November 29, 2016 (http://bit.ly/2k0FjGO).

According to the Report, only 11% of the registered draft laws were adopted by the Parliament of 8th convocation; the Radical Party appeared to be the most effective group, 13.8% of its draft laws having been adopted, while the Opposition Block had the lowest coefficient of adopted laws: 3.6%. In terms of lawmakers’ efficiency, the President’s legal initiatives got the highest rate of adoption: 81%, while much lowers shares of bills proposed by the Government (29%) and by the MPs (7%) became laws. The MPs’ lawmaking efficiency coefficient has been decreasing gradually – from the maximum of 16% achieved by the 3rd convocation Verkhovna Rada to 6–7% displayed by the last two convocation of the Parliament.

During the first two years of work, the MPs of the 8thConvocation Parliament registered twice as many drafts compared to their colleagues who had been working in the faraway Parliament of 3rd convocation. The share of drafts initiated by the Government or by the President is minimal and has been gradually decreasing, compared to the previous convocations. In this respect, the Ukrainian Parliament differs from the parliaments of the European Union countries, where most legislative acts are usually initiated by the Government.

The monitoring was conducted in accordance with a list of criteria elaborated by OPORA that included: (1) MPs presence at plenary sessions; (2) MPs’ participation in Committees’ work; (3) legislative activities: number of draft laws submitted for consideration in the Committees; (4) MPs’ inquiries and requests as part of parliamentary work; (5) voting against the position of the MP’s own faction; and (6) MPs’ activities in the voting district. Similar reports with focus on MPs elected from particular regions were published separately for each region in the regional media.

MP Svitlana Zalishchuk noted at the OPORA National Forum, “The 8th Convocation Parliament became a force of reforms and was able to achieve more positive changes than the previous seven convocations did. However, the Parliament has not become a bridgehead for decision-making; nor has it implemented all the clauses of the EU-Ukraine Agreement yet; the Parliament made the greatest progress in building its institutional capacity in public communications.”

An online survey of single-seat constituency MPs about the influence of OPORA’s monitoring activities resulted in 61 responses, revealing that 57 MPs (93.4%) were ready to cooperate with OPORA when contacting local communities, and that 56 MPs (92%) considered OPORA’s monitoring to be an important initiative (the survey was held in July-August 2016), http://bit.ly/2jkiXfZ.

The civic education campaigns held by OPORA involved 931 regional activists (50% women) that took part in seminars and public lectures on parliamentary work and ways to monitor MPs’ efficiency with the OPORA

http://bit.ly/2iD6hij

http://bit.ly/2j51Ei7

http://bit.ly/2k0FjGO

http://bit.ly/2jkiXfZ


website and social networks. OPORA web-sources provided a rigorous analysis of each MP’s lawmaking, voting, presence at the workplace in the Parliament, and communication with constituents. The web-audience of the OPORA websites https://rada.oporaua.org and https://rada4you.org increased significantly after the events. The public education materials – brochures and leaflets – evoked citizen’s dignity and their desire to oversee the MPs, as well as raising their awareness of the rules of democratic parliamentary work.

After a lot of regional presentations and discussions of oversight mechanisms in the regions over 2015-2016, the RADA Program recorded an increase in the number of appeals and requests addressed to single-seat constituency MPs that may be a sign of enhanced public monitoring, slightly improved communication between MPs and local communities, and higher civic involvement in resolution of local problems in cooperation with MPs. OPORA’s regional network of 24 consultants assisted citizens and NGOs in obtaining responses from 68 MPs to appeals from their communities; the responses presented explanations and opinions on particular decisions or reported on MPs’ activities in addressing problems.

The RADA Program and OPORA fostered a new culture of public reporting among MPs by proposing a format for an MP’s Public Report. In response to OPORA recommendations, 35 MPs distributed their public reports (29 of which were presented in OPORA format and 6 had a different structure) to inform voters about their parliamentary activities.

Quality of Legislative Process Index Showed Slight Improvements in the Parliamentary Processes in 2016

RADA held an Expert Panel to assess the quality of the Parliamentary legislative processes with the Quality of Legislative Process Index in December 2016. This regular analytical exercise provides external evaluation of the effectiveness of internal processes and management systems within the Verkhovna Rada by focusing on 9 variables (see description below), rated on a 5-point scale where 1 is very low and 5 is very high. The index indirectly measures the legislature’s independence and representative character, through a focus on transparency and public accessibility as well as on the legislative-executive relations. The instrument is based on experts’ opinions, and is therefore subjective.

The Expert Panel comprised 13 experts that represented the Deputy Corp (1), Think Tanks and Analytical Centers (6), US Embassy (1), IFES (1), International Renaissance Foundation (1), Association of People’s Deputies (1), European Information and Research Center in VRU (1), and the VRU Secretariat (1).

The Index demonstrated the improvements in several areas during the 5th Plenary Session, compared to the 4th Session of the Parliament: the Parliament considered more urgent legislation; drafting competence improved; there were more discussions on the issues without digression and political manipulations in the plenary meetings. Experts also noted success of the Parliament in adherence to the parliamentary procedures over the period of 1 year.

There was an unexpected backslide in transparency and access of the public to the legislative processes, despite noticeable effort of the Parliament’s Committees to involve civil society and external expertise to law making and discussions. RADA Program Expert Mr. Volodymyr Kryzhanivskyi provided the following explanation for that discrepancy: “Experts and the public have grown accustomed to having access to the legislative processes very fast, and they demand more transparency and accessibility without noticing the progress made over the past three years.”

https://rada.oporaua.org/

https://rada4you.org/


ACTIVITIES

OBJECTIVE 1: Improved public representation in the legislative process

Expected Result 1.1. Effective communication, outreach and constituency services developed

1.1.i. Model District MP Offices

The USAID RADA Program assisted seven Members of Parliament to establish regular communication and interaction with their constituents through the mechanism of Model Districts. Regular presentations of MPs’ work, public consultations, Town Hall Meetings with the participation of local government officials, NGOs, deputies of all levels and journalists took place in seven regions of Ukraine in Year 4. The Model District project served as an e-democracy toolkit in parliamentary work.

In January-February 2017, the USAID RADA Program discussed the needs and expectations with the MPs participating in the Model District initiative that became the basis for a half-year plan of MPs’ communication with constituents in their regions. The highest demand was for RADA’s assistance in organizing Town Halls Meetings (THM) with citizens to discuss urgent local issues. The plan also included a series of public hearings on decentralization, access to electoral rights, and media tours for local journalists to cover parliamentary activities. Besides, MPs expressed their need in training on collaboration with local authorities and CSOs, communication skills, and education events for teachers on teaching the Parliament activities. As a result, the plan included 30 events to be held by September 30, 2017.

The list of events in the Model Districts included:

• October 3-4, 2016, Kyiv: public report by MP Yehor Sobolev, Samopomich faction

• October 25, 2016, Volyn Region: MP Ihor Huz, single-seat constituency MP

• November 10, 2016, Kharkiv: public report by MP Olena Sotnyk, Samopomich faction

• November 21, 2016, Chernihiv: public report by MP Oleksandr Chernenko (http://bit.ly/2xPC9gj)

• February 24, 2017, Brovary, Kyiv oblast, and March 03, 2017, Baryshivka, Kyiv oblast: MP Pavlo Rizanenko delivered public reports to voters about his work in the Parliament over the last year. The report was presented in the form of a press briefing to highlight the MP’s accomplishments in the period between February 2016 and January 2017: the Parliament adopted 8 out of the 70 draft laws proposed by him. Mr. Rizanenko noted,

2,94

2,76

2,91

2,62

2,61

2,37

3,18

2,97

2,24

2,62

2,72

2,78

2,46

2,70

2,24

3,50

3,02

2,32

1. Salience of the adopted legislation

2. Committee effectiveness in assessing and presenting draftlegislation

3. Drafting competence: clarity of language, internalconsistency and consistency with other laws

4. On-the-point discussion of the issue (without digressions)

5. Influence of political institutionalization of parliament

6. Efficiency and clarity of and adherence to parliamentaryprocedure

7. Transparency of and access of public to the legislativeprocess

8. Legislative-executive relations

9. Oversight over the executive government

Quality of Legislative Process Index, RADA Program, 2016-2017

5th Plennary Session 4th Plenary Session

http://bit.ly/2xPC9gj


“Most of the bills are for the long run. The impact of the Law on Fixed-Term Deposits became visible one year after its adoption in 2015: it helped to stabilize the country’s financial system.” The USAID RADA Program’s partner Internews-Ukraine invited media and streamed the press-briefing online (linked to ER. 1.1.ii).

• On March 10 and March31, 2017, at the request of participants in the Model District initiative MPs Oleksandr Chernenko and Pavlo Rizanenko, the USAID RADA Program held two Colloquiums for schoolteachers "Presentation of Methodological Materials on Civic Education" to introduce best practices in Civic Education to teachers of Chernihiv and Brovary and Baryshivka rayons, Kyiv oblast. The Colloquiums were developed and conducted by the Agency for Legislative Initiatives (ALI) to enhance the capacity of teachers to deliver lessons on law drafting and the Parliament’s key functions for school students (linked to ER 2.1.).

• With USAID RADA’s support, on March 22, 2017, model district MP Olena Sotnyk launched her 8-stage initiative for developing Ukraine’s positioning in the international informational and economic environment. That initiative received support from the USAID RADA Program and the Parliament of Ukraine after a field meeting of the VR Committee on European Integration "State policy on positioning Ukraine in European information and economic space" in Kharkiv in 2016.The strategic Initiative includes different tools such as brainstorming, town hall meetings, public discussions, committee hearings to incorporate the ideas of voters from her district in creating a vision of Ukraine for its international branding.

• The RADA Program provided expert and technical support to MP Svitlana Zalishchuk with her site visit to the Model District in Luhansk oblast. On March 28-29, 2017, the MP conducted a series of important meetings: with the head of the Luhansk Oblast Military and Civil Administration Yuriy Harbuz, representatives of law enforcement bodies and CSOs as well as with voters to discuss the problems of the region and collect ideas to be used in the MP’s subsequent activities.

• On May 29, 2017, the USAID RADA Program and IFES conducted a roundtable “On Public Access to Electoral Rights” where Ms. Svitlana Zalishchuk presented Draft Law No. 6240 (co-registered by her) on amending certain legislative acts regarding the rights of Internally Displaced Persons. About 30 national and local journalists participated in the meetings and covered Ms. Zalishchuk’s visit with Internews support (linked to ER. 1.1.ii.). In a follow-up to her meeting with voters, MP Svitlana Zalishchuk met with the Minister on Temporarily Occupied Territories Mr. Chernysh and presented to him 21 citizens’ appeals collected during her visit.

• On March 29-30, 2017, the USAID RADA Program supported the Prybuzhia Forum on Decentralization that was organized in the Model District of MP Ihor Huz. About 100 leaders of communities, representatives of local authorities and local self-government bodies, and civic activists got together in Volodymyr-Volynskyi to discuss challenges and successes in the decentralization process in Volyn oblast; special attention was paid to the specifics of implementing newly adopted legislation on decentralization. It was a second big public forum in the Model District of Ihor Huz since 2016. Compared to 2015, the number of amalgamated communities in the Model District increased from 2 in 2015 to 7 in 2017. Internews assisted with inviting local journalists (linked to ER. 1.1.ii). Mr. Ihor Huz benefited from the event by gaining a deeper insight into the local communities’ concerns that allowed him to draw forth ideas to be promoted through legislative initiatives at the national level (linked to ER 1.3).

• During April – June 2017, the RADA Program supported initiatives in the model district of MP Olena Sotnyk to engage Kharkiv oblast residents in cooperation with the MP to collect ideas on future development of the international image of Ukraine using People’s Diplomacy tools. Olena engaged local CSOs, civic activists, scientists, members of Kharkiv council, youth specialists and students in the cooperation. On April 20, local activists created expert groups to analyze the strengths and weaknesses in visions of “Ukraine in the Eyes of Importers,” “Ukraine in the Eyes of Investors,” “Ukraine in the Eyes of Foreign Tourists,” “Ukraine in the Eyes of Foreign Governments,” and “Ukraine in the Eyes of Ukrainians.” On June 11, in partnership with the CSO Nova Kraina, Olena Sotnyk conducted a World Café "Creative Meeting on Positioning Ukraine in the World" to present the results of work and discuss with a wider circle of people how Ukrainians can contribute to an improved image of their country. The gathering tried to find answers to three questions: “What is the vision of Ukraine's future in this field?”, “What are the current problems?”, and “What kind of projects can be developed to achieve the vision and eliminate problems?” The event was attended by about 70 Kharkiv residents representing business, civil society, scientific, educational and state institutions, and students.


• On June 15 and 30, 2017, the RADA Program’s implementing partner Agency for Legislative Initiatives organized three Town Hall Meetings in cooperation with Model District MPs Ihor Huz and Ivan Krulko. Civic activists, regional partners, and MP Ivan Krulko conducted Two Town Hall Meetings: (1) on Youth Policy, with participation of local authorities and the Ministry of Youth and Sports; and (2) on waste management in Uzhhorod to discuss possible changes to Draft Law No. 4838 “On Waste Products” (Linked to ER 1.3. iii).

• In view of the importance of investing in youth awareness, on June 24 MP Olena Sotnyk initiated the Youth Forum “Impulse of Change” in Kharkiv to engage young people to learn more about parliamentary activities and opportunities for self-fulfillment in the social, business, and public sectors. Up to 200 participants were instructed by the Minister of Youth and Sports Ihor Zhdanov, the Deputy Interior Minister Anastasia Deeva, MPs Boryslav Bereza, Yaroslav Markevych and Olena Sotnyk, Kyiv council member Vadym Vasylchuk, the USAID RADA Program COP Ihor Kohut, ANTI-AIDS Foundation Executive Director Olena Rudneva and other speakers. Local activists presented their best ideas on how to improve the country’s image that had been discussed at the World Café event. Youngsters also had opportunities to meet young scientists, startupers, ATO participants and other young successful people.

• The RADA Program, together with MP Olena Sotnyk, held a hackathon about the positioning of Ukraine in the world. The event took place as a continuation of The Impulse of Change Forum in Kharkiv on July 1-2. The event was attended by 7 teams from Kharkiv, Dnipro, and Kyiv. The Grand Prix was awarded to a project team that will design a map and a mobile application presenting tourist routes and useful information for the development of local tourism.

RADA undertook an effort to institutionalize the Model Districts practice through cooperation with the Organizational Department of the VRU Secretariat. The RADA Program has been developing recommendations on relevant procedures for communication with constituents for MPs of the current and future convocations of the Ukrainian Parliament.

1.1.ii. Regional issue-specific press tours

October – December 2016: RADA’s implementing partner Internews Ukraine (IUA) held three regional press tours to assist MPs from the Model Districts to spread their public reports about their work in the Parliament. IUA produced 3 infographics and 3 video reports for MPs Ihor Huz, Olena Sotnyk and Oleksandr Chernenko, who conducted presentations in their Model Districts.

• October 25, 2016: regional press briefing as part of public reporting by MP Ihor Huz in his Model District.

• November 10, 2016: regional press briefing as part of public reporting by MP Olena Sotnyk, participant in the Model District initiative in Kharkiv.

• November 21, 2016: regional press briefing as part of public reporting by MP Oleksandr Chernenko, Model District in Chernihiv.

January – March 2017: USAID RADA partner Internews-Ukraine (IUA) assisted three MPs – Pavlo Rizanenko, Svitlana Zalishchuk and Ihor Huz – to better communicate with communities and media by organizing three press tours for journalists from different regions to three Model Districts. Each press tour included press briefings, meetings with local authorities, and public events. IUA instructed MPs and their aides on how to improve MPs’ reporting standards by using more visuals, i.e. video presentations, infographics, and by undertaking site visits to local communities to provide reporters with the opportunity to learn more about the difficulties faced by people living in rural areas and small towns. IUA efforts to invite 62 journalists from 8 regions resulted in over 70 media materials describing problems of particular regions. Realistic media reports about the problems of Ukrainian citizens living in the ATO zone after the media visit to Luhansk oblast generated the greatest interest – in view of the limited access to these territories for media representatives. In general, the press tours were a new practice for the Ukrainian MPs, helping them to effectively interact with


the communities, so as to better understand their needs and communicate the results of their work through media.

• A two-day press tour for regional media to towns of Baryshivka on February 24, 2017, and Brovary on March 03, 2017, was organized to support the public report by MP Pavlo Rizanenko. This time the MP’s report was supplemented with infographics and video reports that clearly demonstrated the indicators that Pavlo Rizanenko achieved this year (please see Annex 3 to this Report). The public report by Mr. Rizanenko attracted twice more residents of the towns than the previous year. Members of local councils, NGOs and local government attended the events to learn about the MP’s activities. IUA noted that the audience’s questions fully correlated with the MP’s work, whereas last year the attendees posed a lot of irrelevant questions and voiced claims of a general nature that had nothing to do with Pavlo Rizanenko’s activities. Those who could not attend the events had an opportunity to watch a live stream broadcast on the Facebook pages of the NGO Internews Ukraine and the USAID RADA Program.

• A two-day press tour to the Model District of MP Svitlana Zalishchuk in Luhansk oblast was organized for regional media. Journalists were invited to the towns of Severodonetsk and Stanytsa Luhanska on March 28-29, 2017, to hear the public report by Ms. Zalishchuk, take part in meetings with local authorities, and interview citizens living on territories close to the contact line of the anti-terroristic operation (ATO). A meeting with the Head of the Luhansk Oblast Military and Civil Administration Yuriy Harbuz, his deputies and law enforcement officials, as well as public organizations was held in Severodonetsk. The visit to Stanytsia Luhanska provided an insight into the problems related to the so-called gray zone of the ATO. Journalists heard expert opinions on the problem of IDPs’ voting rights during a roundtable held in coordination with The International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES).

Summing up the two-day visit, MP Svitlana Zalishchuk emphasized the need for and importance of such visits, which help MPs and the media to highlight and resolve problems in frontline areas: “Security issues, the problem of rebuilding social infrastructure, housing people, living conditions of IDPs, working conditions of teachers and doctors are neglected in Luhansk oblast. Problems that people experience elsewhere in Ukraine should be multiplied by two to understand situation in Luhansk. During such visits, I look for opportunities to resolve the region’s problems one by one.”

IUA assisted the MP in preparing qualitative information for journalists that included a lot of analytical and evidence-based data on Luhansk oblast. The meetings and analytical data were conducive to a deeper understanding of the situation in the region among reporters who had never visited the area before.

• IUA assisted MP Ihor Huz in organizing and conducting a one-day press tour for regional media to his Model District town of Volodymyr-Volynskyi, Volyn oblast, on March 30, 2017.This year the press tour was of a more illustrative nature: journalists visited the Zymne integrated territorial community to witness a successful example of decentralization reform in progress. According to the reporters, the site visit demonstrated better than words how local population can benefit from the reform and so the journalists got inspired to support the nationwide decentralization effort in their further publications.

1.1.iii. Open Government Partnership Implementation

OPORA initiated citizens’ appeals to members of the Parliament to (1) stimulate MPs’ attention to the resolution of local communities’ problems; and (2) monitor how MPs fulfill their obligations to respond to citizens’ appeals within 30 days, as prescribed by the law. OPORA consulted citizens and NGOs in writing and sending appeals, prompted and mentored them. The monitoring showed that 68 out of 198 appeals were answered: MPs either got involved in the discussion and tried to remedy the problem or filed official deputy inquiries to relevant government institutions.

In the summer 2016, OPORA encouraged MPs to prepare and distribute public reports on their activities during the four plenary sessions since November 2014. OPORA activists proposed a format for an MP’s public report and distributed it upon request. As a result, 29 MPs (out of 442) published their activity reports in line with the OPORA form and 6 more reported in a free format in November-December 2016. The reports were published on http://rada.oporaua.org and popularized in social networks and media to allow wider audiences to learn about the work of particular MPs and create public demand for MPs’ regular reporting.

http://rada.oporaua.org/


The RADA Program, together with the Open Government Partnership Support Unit and the Interns’ League, took part in the donor-driven meeting at UNDP office on February 14, 2017. The donor-driven meeting discussed opportunities for further involvement of civil society into the parliamentary processes and international practices to motivate MPs to be more open to the public.

On May 19-20, 2017, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine hosted the Global Legislative Openness Conference (http://www.openparlconference.org/). The two-day event was organized by the Legislative Openness Working Group of the Open Government Partnership and Open Parliament Initiative in Ukraine. The event convened leading legislators, government officials, and civil society representatives to consider how an open legislative process can strengthen public trust in representative institutions and build a responsive XXI century legislature. On the first day, the RADA Program supported the holding of four breakout sessions addressing the Open Government Academy related to the Open Government Partnership (OGP) – OGP’s New Legislative Engagement Policy, Reviewing Parliamentary Commitments, and Engagement with Civil Society.

On the second day, the RADA Program conducted a Regulation of Lobbying and Parliamentary Ethics session with Daniel Freund, Head of Advocacy, Transparency International; Svitlana Matvienko, Chair of the Board, Agency for Legislative Initiatives; Sarah Myers-Mutschall Counsel, U.S. House Committee on Ethics; Olena Sotnyk, MP, Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine; and Patricio Vallespín, MP, Congress of Chile. The session was chaired by Ihor Kohut, Chief of Party of the USAID RADA Program.

On September 18, 2017, Executive Director of the “Interns’ League” NGO Maria Savina took part in a meeting of the Monitoring Committee of the "Open Parliament" initiative which discussed the implementation plan for the Communication Strategy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. The meeting came up with proposals as to the main implementation pillars to enhance citizens’ trust in the Parliament as an institution.

1.1.iv. Training for MPs, MPs’ aides and faction staff

Study Tours for Members of the Parliament

The RADA Program, in cooperation with the Council of Germans in Ukraine, organized a study tour to the German Parliament for the three most active model MPs: Ihor Huz, Committee on Foreign Affairs, Pavlo Rizanenko, Committee on Finance and Banking, and Oleksandr Chernenko, Committee on Legal Policy and Justice, and their aides. They studied the German parliamentary system from the perspectives of the Parliament oversight function, the EU funding system, and the relationships between the state budget and local authorities. The Ukrainian delegation expressed the utmost interest in political decentralization and its local level manifestation in Bavaria.

The MPs had an opportunity to observe communication with constituents by two members of the German Parliament (Bundestag), Dr. Christoph Bergner and Mr. Hartmut Koschyk, during their constituency week on May 8-13, 2017, in Halle (Land of Saxony-Anhalt) and Beyreuth (Land of Bavaria). The Ukrainian MPs and their aides made a dozen site visits together with German parliamentarians to meet with constituents, local authorities, and CSOs for delivering public reports and considering voters’ needs. The Ukrainian delegation visited the public hearing on presentation of the electro-mobility concept for the Bayreuth district by 2050. Each MP could satisfy his/her specific interest that concerned their parliamentary work, in particular:

a. MP Rizanenko took part in several working meetings with Bundestag officers to learn about the work of MP Bergner’s Bureau and the Bundestag Secretariat.

http://www.openparlconference.org/


b. MPs Ihor Huz and Oleksandr Chernenko met with the President of the Christian Democratic Union in Beyreuth Sebastian Machnitzke, Head of Bundestag Offices Thomas Konhäuser, and MB Hartmut Koschyk to learn about the structure and organization of the Bayreuth Citizens Office and the communication between the Bayreuth Citizens Bureau and the Bundestag Office.

c. MPs Huz and Chernenko, together with MB Koschyk, met with the Bayreuth District Administrator Hermann Hübner in order to get an insight into the specifics of local communal and housing policy, revenue of the county, local tax, local healthcare system, the Bavarian Landrat and to obtain other important information that could be used for facilitating the decentralization process in Ukraine.

d. MPs Huz and Chernenko and Director of the Upper Franconian District Office Rudolf Burger discussed cooperation of the district of Oberfranken with Uzhhorod city as the Transcarpathian oblast center.

Based on the study tour, MP Ihor Huz decided to organize a similar tour to Bayreuth for leaders of his election district in amalgamated communities of Volyn oblast in the autumn of 2017.

The Ukrainian delegation is listening to information about the infrastructure transmission network operator Tennet, a high-voltage network in Germany. Public Affairs officer Mr. Marius Strecker explains how the communication between the national government, BM Koschyk, local civil society, local councils and authorities was built to bring satisfactory results.

The Ukrainian delegation with MB Hartmut Koschyk and Bayreuth District Administrator Hermann Hübner.

Training, workshop and manuals

• IUA produced and distributed a manual for the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine (VRU) – Guidelines on Communication and Information Campaigns to Promote Reforms. The manual was prepared after two working meetings with the RADA Program and VRU experts who discussed the concept, content and format of the Guidelines. Five hundred copies of the guidelines were presented to the VRU Press Service, MPs’ aides, and VRU experts on communication. On October 4-5, 2016, IUA held a two-day workshop for 17 VRU Press Service staff members and MPs’ aides to instruct them in the content of the Guidelines. One thousand print copies of the manual were distributed to Press Services of state agencies: the VRU communication staff, MPs and their aides, and regional governors. The PDF version is available online at http://internews.ua/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/%D0%9Aomunukaciaya-reform-planuvannya.pdf.

• On October 12, 2016, the RADA Program, jointly with the Financial and Economic Analysis Office at the Verkhovna Rada, held a seminar for over 30 MPs’ aides with focus on the state budget process in Ukraine and on work with parliamentary inquiries and requests. The seminar was led by Volodymyr Kryzhanivskyi, Senior Consultant of the USAID PADA Program, and Viktor Maziarchuk, head of the Financial and Economic Analysis Office under the VR – see goo.gl/axMkRP.

http://internews.ua/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/%D0%9Aomunukaciaya-reform-planuvannya.pdf

http://internews.ua/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/%D0%9Aomunukaciaya-reform-planuvannya.pdf

file:///C:/Users/Suslova/AppData/Local/Microsoft/Windows/Temporary%20Internet%20Files/Content.Outlook/SM55R6LP/goo.gl/axMkRP


• On October 19-20, 2016, IUA held a training entitled “The basics of digital security for parliamentarians” for MPs and VRU Secretariat staff. The participants appreciated practical advice based on their needs in digital literacy. Three more two-day trainings will be delivered for MPs, their aides and services of the Parliament in 2017.

• On November 1-2, 2016, IUA delivered a workshop "Effective communication: use of Internet tools and social media in MP’s work" for 18 MPs’ aides. Due to a high demand for participation in the workshop (IUA registered 5 times more applications than the workshop could accommodate), RADA will deliver six more workshops on use of social networks and Internet communications for MPs in 2017.

• On November 17, 2016, RADA’s Coordinator on Regional Policy and Local Self-Government Ihor Parasiuk delivered a training “New tools for regional development” for MPs Lubomyr Zubach and Vasyl Amelchenko, Head of the Secretariat of the Committee on State Building, Regional Policy and Local Self-Government Anzhela Maliuha, and staff of the VR Secretariat. The participants discussed the contemporary approach to local economic development that proved efficient in other countries, legal barriers to economic development in the regions, problems related to the functioning of amalgamated territorial communities around cities, and possible ways to attract foreign direct investments to Ukrainian regions. Activities of state agencies in the realm of regional development were also given consideration. The Head of the Committee on State Building, Regional Policy and Local Self-Government expressed his appreciation in an official letter to the RADA Program and invited Mr. Parasiuk to participate in the Working Group on Drafting the Laws “On Municipal Agglomerations” and “On Principles of Administrative and Territorial Division.”

• On November 22-23, 2016, the RADA Program, with participation of the VR Secretariat and the Financial and Economic Analysis Office at the Verkhovna Rada, held a training for the aides of newly elected MPs and newly appointed aides of MPs "Methods of work of an MP's team." The event was attended by more than 35 aides to 20 MPs. The training focused on the following issues: the rights and obligations of MPs’ aides; the structure of the VR; cooperation with the VR Secretariat; the basics of the legislative process; the budget process in the Parliament; the tools of an MP’s team in its work with the public; parliamentary inquiries and requests; the MP’s office; and Parliamentary Rules. https://goo.gl/2cpSuO

• On November 23, 2016, RADA’s Coordinator on Regional Policy and Local Self-Government Ihor Parasiuk delivered a presentation “Communication of an MP’s Team at the local level” at the training for 38 aides of newly elected MPs. The presentation focused on the importance of regular communication with voters, NGOs and local authorities and highlighted the approach to MPs’ effective communication with constituents in the districts, mentioning MPs’ most frequent mistakes in their communication.

• On December 13, 2016, for the purpose of supporting legislative inclusiveness of local self-governments and the public, particularly in the discussion on the decentralization reform in Ukraine’s Parliament, the RADA Program took part the in roundtable "Economic policy and decentralization: interaction and interdependency. Example of Kirovohrad oblast" held by VR Committee on Economic Policy jointly with the Swedish-Ukrainian Project DESPRO and the NGO Spilna Diya (Common Action). MPs Stanislav Berezkin, Bohdan Matkivskyi, Viktoriya Ptashnyk, their aides, representatives of the Secretariat of the Committee on Economic Policy, the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Economic Development, Deputy Governor of Kirovohrad oblast, and deputies of local councils discussed the specifics of economic development of agricultural regions, the economic problems that the oblasts face after the decentralization reform, and the need in particular legislation to be adopted to support economic capability of oblasts and their communities. RADA Coordinator on Regional Development Ihor Parasiuk made a presentation “Legal issues that prevent investment in Ukrainian cities.”

https://goo.gl/2cpSuO


• On December 20, 2016, RADA took part in the expert discussion “Decentralization: opportunities for complex development of big cities and surrounding communities” that focused on prospects for changing the administrative and territorial structure and land legislation. The Kyiv-based event organized by the International Renaissance Foundation, the Swedish-Ukrainian Project DESPRO and the Institute of Civil Society brought together more than 40 experts, scientists, NGO representatives to discuss the details of two draft laws: (1) “On Municipal Agglomerations” and (2) “On Principles of Administrative and Territorial Division” in order to support the local self-government reform and the decentralization process. RADA Coordinator on Regional Development Ph.D. Ihor Parasiuk delivered a presentation “Influence of the decentralization reform on investment. The economic dimension of land issues for city suburbs.”

• On December 25-26, 2016, the RADA Program delivered a training on effective communication with constituents for 37 aides and staff members of reception offices of MP Ihor Huz in the settlement of Litovezh, Volyn oblast. The training addressed the best practices in holding public presentations, making public appeals, rules for producing video reports, and effective communications during public events. The workshop was a combination of both theoretical recommendations and practical exercises in groups. Mr. Ihor Huz and deputies from local councils of Volyn oblast used the opportunity to join the training, http://bit.ly/2jfZJZd.

• On December 16, 2016, the RADA Program, jointly with the NGO “Suspilne Oko” (“Public Eye”), held a conference “New tools for MPs: profile of constituency”. The conference aimed to discuss the approach to portraying the constituents’ profiles for each electoral district. The event was attended by more than 70 MPs, staff from VRU Secretariat and factions, MPs’ aides and consultants, managers of international technical assistance projects in the field of social and economic development, GIS software companies, and regional activists. The conference enabled the creation of a template (structure and content) for the typical profile of an electoral district to be used in RADA’s subsequent work on MP’s mobile workplace and on the е-RADA system. MP Pavlo Rizanenko, who represents one of the USAID RADA Program’s Model Districts, talked about his experience in communicating in the district during the prorogation period. Although the main function of an MP is lawmaking, Mr. Rizanenko emphasized the importance of regular effective communication for MPs’ political success, especially in single-seat constituencies. Use of information received from the constituents is crucial for the law-making process. According to Mr. Rizanenko observations, 3-5 percent of citizens’ appeals can potentially become a basis for lawmaking; the rest of the appeals are complaints about problems that can be resolved through public education. Pavlo Rizanenko drew the audience’s attention to the Verkhovna Rada е-petitions platform that the Parliament had introduced last year: the service provides good opportunities to improve direct communications with constituents, i.e. open an е-reception room, collect and systematize appeals, and monitor changes. Currently, the USAID RADA Program cooperates with the NGO “Suspilne Oko” (“Public Eye”) to build other е-resources to enforce MPs’ communication with their districts.

• IUA produced an educational video about the budget process, aiming to instruct the MPs and their aides in the principles of budget drafting. As a result of an arrangement with the VR Secretariat, 450 copies of USB sticks were distributed among MPs via their personal Mail Boxes in the Parliament. The video can be used in trainings for MPs and in public educational campaigns.

• Internews-Ukraine delivered a two-day workshop Digital Security for MP in Kyiv on March 30-31, 2017. Digital security expert of the Institute of Mass Information Iryna Chulivska and Digital security expert and analyst of "Center UA" Anton Kushnir spoke about the key measures for personal and institutional digital security. The event was attended by VR staff members and MPs aides (8 women and 7 men). The trainers provided the participants with basic data protection rules that included protection of accounts (email, social networks), protection of mail accounts and social networks, protection of devices from physical loss / physical access, protection of devices from spyware and viruses, protection of data link surveillance by Internet service providers and other intermediaries. An analysis of the feedback attested to participants' interest in the subject, relevance of the provided information, and appreciation of the high level of event management.

http://bit.ly/2jfZJZd


• In April-June 2017, RADA’s implementing partner OPORA held 13 one-day trainings on MPs’ Public Reporting for 60 MP teams representing 14 regions of Ukraine. In total, 186 people including 101 women and 75 men learned about the public demand for MP reporting, about the things that are expected to be included in an MP’s public report, discussed international and Ukrainian practice of parliamentarians’ reporting. The training aimed to assist members of the Ukrainian Parliament to get better prepared to delivering substantive public reports; it offered easy-to-use templates for the public reports and a format for reports by Members of Parliament. The trainings took place in Dnipro, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kropyvnytskyi, Lviv, Lutsk, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Poltava, Sumy, Kharkiv, Khmelnytskyi, Cherkasy and Chernivtsi. One training took part in the village of Svitiaz, Volyn oblast, as part of a three-day workshop for MPs and their aides in the Model District of Ihor Huz on June 16-19, 2017 (for details of the workshop in the Volyn Model District please refer to the previous page of this Report). More information on the trainings is available at http://bit.ly/2tdOKaE. Earlier, 15 trainers had been selected among OPORA experts and regional consultants and attended the training of trainers held by The RADA Program on May 12-13, 2017, in Kyiv (http://bit.ly/2t22lhp).

• Internews Ukraine (IUA) conducted its last Digital Security Training for MPs and VRU Management on April 26-27, 2017, in Kyiv. The 25 trainees (12 women and 13 men) included 11 representatives of VRU Management (44%), 7 MP advisors and aides (28%), 5 NGO representatives (20%), and 2 representatives of ministries and state enterprises (8%). Three experienced trainers in digital security – Anton Kushnir (NGO Center UA), Iryna Chulivska (Institute of Mass Information) and Vadym Hudyma (School of Data Fellow) – delivered knowledge on protection of personal data, individual accounts in social networks, devices from physical loss / physical access of third parties to the device, spyware and viruses and data transmission from tracking by the ISP and other intermediaries. Five employees of the Computer Systems Office of the Management of the VRU Secretariat learned the technology of digital security for further implementation in the Parliament’s work. The participants highly appreciated the trainers’ work, giving them from 9.5 to 9.7 points on a 10-point scale, 10 being the highest score. The Digital Training corresponds to Pat Cox Mission Recommendation No. 27, which mentions cyber security studies among other types of assistance1.

• The RADA Program delivered a training course for MPs Oleksandr Kodola and Ihor Huz and their aides within the framework of the Model District Initiative in Volyn oblast on June 16-19, 2017. The three-day workshop covered the Rules and Procedures of the VR, e-tools to protect computer

1 Section "Openness, Transparency and Citizenship Accountability", Report and Roadmap for Internal Reform and Capacity-Building of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, https://goo.gl/o3LCMR.

Civic Adviser to OPORA in Chernivtsi Taras Prokop (center) delivers training "MPs’ public reporting" on June 24 in Chernivtsi

http://bit.ly/2tdOKaE

http://bit.ly/2t22lhp

https://goo.gl/o3LCMR


information, public speaking, and MPs reporting to voters. The most interesting part was sharing the experience of Model District initiatives and developing ideas for new tools to improve communication between MPs and their constituents. The participants analyzed the current state of cooperation with CSOs, mass media, and local authorities and elaborated strategies on improved cooperation between MPs and CSOs, mass media, and local authorities.

• The USAID RADA Program organized a training within the framework of the Model District initiative "Conclusions and prospects of the model districts" for Ukrainian and Latvian MPs and their teams in Chernihiv and Nizhyn on September 29 – October 1, 2017. Deputies summarized the activity of the Model District initiative, discussed the modern communication tools provided by the USAID RADA Program to participants in order to establish a dialogue with voters at a new level (Town Hall Meetings, public reports to local councils and district voters, press tours of regional journalists to the Verkhovna Rada and training sessions. They also took part in Oxford-style debates about the success of the decentralization reform in Ukraine.

• On June 14, 2017, at the request of participants in the Model District initiative MPs Oleksandr Chernenko and Oleksandr Kodola, the RADA Program held a training on Communication on Decentralization Issues for MPs and Local Deputies. Forty-seven local officials from Nizhyn and Chernihiv oblast discussed challenges and successes in the decentralization process in Chernihiv oblast and the specifics of implementing the recently adopted legislation on decentralization (linked to ER 1.3). NDI presented the CRM system to maintain an e-database of voters’ appeals and propositions.

• On June 2, 2017, the RADA Program piloted a training “State Policy Analysis and Legislative Process” for the VRU staff, for the Secretariat of the VR Committee on Legal Policy and Justice; and repeated it for the Main Research and Expert Department and the Main Judicial Department of the Verkhovna Rada on June 29, 2017. The trainings aimed to change the outlook of parliamentary analysts and lawmakers by explaining the vital importance of analytical expertise of draft laws to justify Parliament decisions that resolve certain problems in society. Thus, the legal expertise for draft laws should be supplemented with a description of the particular problem to be resolved with the bill, an analysis of alternative solutions and justification of the optimal one, an analysis of stakeholders’ interests, a forecast of the bill’s possible impact, and the need to review implicated legislation. Such approach would demand changes to the existing procedure of the draft laws’ narrative justifications.

Today, the analytical narratives that accompany each draft law in the Parliament do not supply sufficient information to the decision-makers (MPs) to make well-informed and conscious decisions. The trainings discovered issues in today’s analytical work in the Committees’ Secretariats


and the VRU Secretariat and explained the often poor quality of the draft laws’ justification: the analytics have an enormous number of bills to process and their inflow is unpredictable; methodology with standards for expert conclusions is absent; there is a lack of qualified analytical workers which is reinforced by the absence of training or advice to cultivate respective expertise in policy analysis and monitoring of their quality. The identified issues are to be faced by the RADA Program in the next periods. More information on the trainings is available in ER 1.2.4 of this Report and at http://bit.ly/2tWfvxy. The RADA Program will continue to deliver similar trainings for the VRU staff as part of Comprehensive Training Program for the VRU Secretariat, factions and MPs.

• IUA launched Communications Training for MPs and the VRU staff to improve their skills of effective interaction with audiences via Internet technologies. Four trainings were held in 2017: on April 24-25, May 29-30, July 18-19, and September 27-28 in Kyiv. Three trainers – Vitaliy Moroz (Internews-Ukraine), Dmytro Tuzhanskyi (Committee of Voters of Ukraine), and Serhiy Cherednichenko (RADA e-Parliament Program Manager) – spoke about the place and role of the VRU in the information field of Ukraine, the best approach to government communication in the social networks Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, the creation of effective texts to attract audiences, the use of visual Web tools for publications, and work with basic video services. Overall, 48 participants attended 4 trainings (31 women and 17 men); they represented the VRU Committees (39) and the VRU Secretariat; there were also MPs aides (5), representatives of NGOs (3), and a representative of the Accounting Chamber (1). The Communication Training was delivered in execution of the Pat Cox Mission’s Recommendation No. 26, which mentions training on social networks2 communication as a way to increase the visibility of the Parliament’s work.

By selecting the participants of the training, IUA tried to adhere to the principle of equal distribution of representatives from different departments of the VR Secretariat and the VRU Committees. Thus, 18 of the 27 Parliamentary Committees were represented; 48 trainees were selected from 216 applications. Trainers’ competence received the highest assessment in trainees’ feedback.

2 Section "Openness, Transparency and Citizenship Accountability", Report and Roadmap for Internal Reform and Capacity-Building of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, https://goo.gl/o3LCMR.

http://bit.ly/2tWfvxy


Expected Result 1.2. Inclusive legislative practices established

1.2.i. New Civic Platform NGO Register

According to the results of a survey conducted by ALI among VR Committees in December 2016, the VR would like to involve civil society to participate in working groups, to get advice from civil society. The RADA Program has optimized the NGO Register of Ukrainian NGOs for potential cooperation with the Parliament Committees (http://ngo.radaprogram.org/all?items_per_page=All) by creating a user’s personal cabinet in the Register for responsible staff of seven VR Committees – on State Security and Defense; on Rules and Support to Work; on Industrial Policy and Entrepreneurship; on Legal Policy and Justice; on Veterans, Combatants, Anti-Terrorist Operation Participants and People with Disabilities; on State Building, Regional Development and Local Self-Government; on Family, Youth, Sport and Tourism. Currently, 18 out of 27 VR Committees joined the Register to find NGOs with the relevant expertise.

In March 2017, the Agency for Legislative Initiatives passed the administration of the electronic NGO Register on to the other RADA partner, the Interns’ League. The electronic NGO Register was presented during the monthly coordination meeting of the representatives of the RADA Program and partner organizations with the heads of the Secretariats of Parliamentary Committees and secretariats of the parliamentary factions and groups on March 28, 2017. The presentation was made for heads and deputy heads of the VR Committee Secretariats in cooperation with the Constitutional Assembly, in the format of roundtable Expert Discussions on constitutional changes. Ninety-four percent of the Parliament’s representatives that participated in the presentation said they were planning to use this resource in the future as an information resource or directory. As a result of the presentation and further communication, two new Committees joined the Register: the Committee on Culture and the Committee on Veterans, Combatants, ATO Participants and the Disabled. An intern from the Committee on Culture was assigned to maintain the NGO Register.

1.2.ii. Practices of crowd sourcing and requests for information using NGO Register

During April – September 2017, the Interns’ League (IL) continued to maintain the electronic CSO Register, adding to it five Ukrainian NGOs that cooperate with the Parliament Committee on Informatization and Communications; the Register now includes 84 CSOs (please see attachment X).

IL promoted the Register through numerous personal and working meetings with representatives of the Parliament and Ukrainian NGOs. As a result, 18 of the 27 Parliament Committees subscribed to the database (please see Attachment X). Additionally, the RADA Program granted access to the Register to the Cabinet of Ministers Secretariat at its request. Some Committees invited several NGOs represented in the CSO Register to participate in working groups within the Committees.

The CSO Register is planned to be integrated with the online platform for citizens’ involvement in legislative discussion, Citizen E-Platform.

1.2.iii. Roundtable Expert Discussions on constitutional changes in cooperation with the Constitutional Assembly

• On November 22, 2016, RADA’s implementing partner Agency for Legislative Initiatives (ALI) held a roundtable “Reform of VR Rules and Procedures: Constitutional and Legal Analysis” organized by the VR Committee on Legal Policy and Justice. In view of the low effectiveness of VRU’s work and the need to reduce the number of registered draft laws in the VRU, participants in the roundtable recommended changes to the parliamentary procedures that included the following:

1) introduce the practice of discussing MPs’ initiatives rather than already registered draft laws at Committees’ meetings;

2) to register a draft law, its authors should obtain support from at least as many MPs as the number of those making up the smallest parliamentary faction;

3) make a rule on voting for priority laws to keep a balance between draft laws proposed by the Presidential Administration, the Cabinet of Ministers, and those proposed by civil society and business;

4) cancel the simplified procedure for consideration of bills to allow the legislative process to be deliberate and well thought-out. The report on the recommendations is available online at http://bit.ly/2jMqkfh.

http://ngo.radaprogram.org/all?items_per_page=All

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• During the reporting period, the RADA Program prepared a manual “The Legislative Dimension of Decentralization: An Overview of Ukrainian Legislation.” The manual was distributed among participants in different events on decentralization and regional reform (see ER. 1.3.i. and 1.3.ii). The publication is available at the RADA Program website http://bit.ly/2yTLrbe.

On April 3, 2017, the RADA Program, jointly with the Committee on State Building, Regional Development and Local Self-Government and the Ministry of Regional Development, conducted a roundtable “Legislature for Cooperation of the Amalgamated Territorial Communities.” The roundtable focused on cooperation of suburban communities with the administrations of cities. MPs discussed two bills aimed at regulating agglomerations: (1) draft law “On Municipal Agglomerations” and (2) draft law “On Amending the Law ‘On Cooperation of Territorial Communities’.” RADA Program Coordinator Ihor Parasiuk presented a number of international practices on legal regulation of agglomerations and economic models of agglomerations that make them more attractive to investors.

On May 15, 2017, the RADA Program, jointly with the Committee on State Building, Regional Development and Local Self-Government and the Ministry of Regional Development, held an expert discussion “Ways to Improve the Administrative and Territorial Structure of Ukraine at District Level as Part of the Decentralization Reform” with the participation of the USAID/DESPRO Project and Council of Europe (CoE) experts. RADA Program Coordinator Ihor Parasiuk presented European experience in forming administrative agencies at sub-regional level and emphasized the necessity to follow NUTS standards in Ukraine (NUTS – Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics http://database.espon.eu/db2/jsf/DicoSpatialUnits/DicoSpatialUnits_html/ch01s01.html). The participants discussed the Draft Law of Ukraine “On the Procedure for Formation and Liquidation of Districts, Establishment and Change of their Boundaries.” The RADA Program provided live streaming of the event; the video is available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HP6EFEDKzNw.

On April 19, 2017, the RADA Program, together with the VR Committee on State Building, Regional Policy and Local Self-Government and the Ministry of Regional Development and with the participation of the EU Project “Support for Developing Local Governance in Ukraine,” held a conference “Decentralization Reform: Results and Perspectives” in Kyiv. The conference became a communication platform for representatives of amalgamated communities and local self-governments to share their successes, challenges and concerns with the Parliament and the executive government. The event aimed to analyze the interim results of the decentralization reform since its beginning in April 2014 and to discuss necessary changes to the Constitution of Ukraine as regards local governance. The Head of the VR Committee Serhiy Vlasenko, the First Deputy Minister of Regional Development Viacheslav Nehoda, other MPs and executive officials, experts, representatives of NGOs and leaders of about 50 communities participated in the conference. During the conference, the Parliament speakers discussed the key legislative challenges. The RADA Program provided live streaming of the event, a recording of which is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlzDFSyXX_U.

On May 30, 2017, the RADA Program, together with the Council of Europe (CoE), conducted a roundtable “Reform of Local Governance and Territorial Organization of Power in Ukraine: Achievements and New Tasks” in Chernivtsi. RADA Program Coordinator Ihor Parasiuk delivered a presentation “Lessons and Perspectives of Legislation on Decentralization”. The RADA Program’s analysis of the failures and successes of implementing decentralization legislation exposed the need for developing additional legislation to

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facilitate the decentralization reform. The Head of the Committee on State Building, Regional Development and Local Self-Government Serhiy Vlasenko chaired the roundtable; seven other MP members of the Committee attended the event. The MPs also got feedback from communities as to the positive and negative aspects of implementation of the decentralization law. The problem of self-government’s limited jurisdiction in land tenure outside of settlements might be resolved through the adoption of draft laws No. 4355 “On Introducing Amendments to Certain Ukrainian Legislation with Regard to Increasing the Scope of Local Government Authority in Land Management and Strengthening the State Control over the Use and Protection of Lands"3 and No. 5253 “On Introducing Amendments to Certain Ukrainian Legislation with Regard to increasing the Scope of Local Government Authority of the Territorial Communities in the Entire Territories of Respective Rural and Urban Territorial Communities.”4Hopefully, the roundtable contributed to a more thoughtful and effective consideration of the two laws in the next plenary session of the Parliament in autumn of 2017.

1.2.iv. Training on Policy Analysis for lawmakers

The EIRC’s chief Roman Kobets delivered two trainings on public policy analysis: on June 2, 2017, for the employees of the Secretariat of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Legal Policy and Justice; and on June 29, 2017, for the employees of the Main Research and Expert Office and Central Judicial Office at the Verkhovna Rada. The training focused on the specifics of decision-making in public policy, the public policy cycle, problems of the legislative process as a stage of public policy formation, stakeholders and their role in public policy, and use of analytical papers in the work of public agencies across the world. Practical recommendations to the participants included a description of legislative act drafting problems, quality criteria for bills, and a classification of stakeholders. The trainees expressed confidence that the knowledge they obtained will be useful in their legislative work in the Parliament. (See http://kompravpol.rada.gov.ua/news/dijaln_komit/conf_seminar/73059.html.) A third training on public police analysis will be held on October 24, 2017 at the request of the Secretariat of the Committee on State Building, Regional Policy and Local Self-Government.

1.2.v. E-Platform to monitor and respond to citizens’ legislative petitions and complaints

After launching the E-Petitions platform on the Ukrainian Parliament’s website in late 2015, the RADA Program implementing partner Internews Ukraine (IUA) initiated a series of working meetings with RADA implementing partners and representatives of the IT Technology Department at the VRU to elaborate the structure and technical requirements for a mobile application that would popularize E-Petitions. IUA delivered a series of workshops for MPs and their aides, and produced a video-guide on using the application.

To popularize the service of electronic petitions to the Parliament, another implementing partner, the Interns’ League (IL), launched infographic weekly reviews on the progress of submission and consideration of electronic petitions in March 2017. The weeklies were distributed via IL’s website (http://www.interns.org.ua) and Facebook (4,090 followers), as well as via FB pages of the RADA Program (3,220 followers) and East Europe Foundation (8,090 followers). The secretariats of the VR Committees and all MPs of Ukraine were added to the mailing list of the reviews. Today, there are 710 recipients in the mailing list.

More activities on E-Platform are reported in section 2.2.i of this Report.

1.2.vi. Support activities of the European Information and Research Center (EIRC)

The RADA Program provided substantial support in building institutional capacity to the European Information and Research Center (EIRC) under the Parliament of Ukraine. To improve the PR capacity of EIRC, RADA assisted EIRC to start mailing its analytical reviews to MPs, VR Secretariat, advocacy NGOs and think tanks,

3 Draft No. 4355 was registered on March 31, 2016, and was adopted in 1st hearing on April 19, 2016; at present it is pending 2nd reading and adoption, http://w1.c1.rada.gov.ua/pls/zweb2/webproc4_1?pf3511=58610. 4 Draft No. 5253 was registered on October 07, 2016; at present it is under consideration in five Committees; see http://w1.c1.rada.gov.ua/pls/zweb2/webproc4_1?pf3511=60230.

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and donor organizations. EIRC refreshed its website5 and Facebook page6 and took ownership of its content management in March 2017; earlier it was managed by the RADA implementing partner Agency for Legislative Initiatives. Four young professionals from the Parliament Internship Programs (PIP) started their internship with EIRC and RADA Program and went through a training course on policy analysis for the EIRC staff that started on February 2017; later they proceeded to analytical work as the Center’s employees. Five other internal trainings on Policy Analysis were delivered for EIRC’s analysts, PIP interns working with different departments of the VR Secretariat, and the RADA Program staff. Besides, the RADA Program negotiated an agreement on regular reporting by EIRC experts about their analytical findings in programs of the Parliament’s TV channel “RADA.”

The USAID RADA Program promoted the analytical competence of EIRC by organizing presentations of EIRC activities at three events with participation of MPs and executives of the Parliament:

• At the Panel Discussion “The oversight powers of the German MPs over the FRG Government: best practices for the reform of the Verkhovna Rada” on March 6, 2017;

• At the Panel Discussion “Foreign experience of regulating the role of opposition in parliaments. Political debate. Regulation of the participation of opposition in the work of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine» on March 22, 2017;

• At the USAID RADA Coordination Meeting with the heads of secretariats of parliamentary Committees and deputy factions on March 28, 2017.

• A panel discussion “Participatory Democracy in the System of Local Self-Government” was held by the Verkhovna Rada Committee on State Building, Regional Policy and Local Self-Government on April 10;

• On April 13, the RADA Program’s partner Agency for Legislative Initiatives (ALI) presented an analytical policy paper “State Policy on Traffic Safety” at the roundtable of the VR Transport Committee. The paper reported on road traffic mortality and injuries in Ukraine, and identified the key systemic problems in state regulation of this field, i.e. safety roads, safety road users, safety vehicles, and emergency aid. Ukraine’s road safety ranking is the lowest among European countries, and the number of deaths in traffic accidents is enormous. The Sub-Committee on Traffic Safety of the VR Traffic Committee took an active part in the discussion and promised to consider the paper in its legislative work, http://bit.ly/2vvDxiq.

• On May 17, the VR Committee on State Building, Regional Policy and Local Self-Government held a meeting on implementation of the Law “On Civil Service” of December 10, 2015, in which about 80 MPs, executive officials, NGOs, media and international donor organizations took part. EIRC delivered an analytical presentation on legal regulation of ethical standards of public servants in countries of the European Union. The RADA Program provided video streaming; the record is available via the link http://bit.ly/2u25ZZF.

• At the Information Fair 2017, EIRC delivered a presentation for MPs and their aides, secretariats of parliamentary Committees, factions and groups, and the Secretariat of Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on May 16-17 (http://bit.ly/2usnuEW). EIRC employees conducted a flash-mob to distribute brochures about EIRC and its activities on May 17.

• On May 22, a panel discussion “Legislative Process and European Integration in the Context of parliamentary reform” was conducted; it was attended by the Chairman of the VRU, MPs, representatives of the Government, and public experts.

• On June 26-27, a parliamentary conference for regional journalists and a press conference of VR Speaker Andriy Parubiy for regional journalists were held in the Parliament.

• A meeting between EIRC head Roman Kobets and MP Anton Herashchenko was held on September 7, 2017.

The presentations resulted in a growing number of requests to EIRC for analytical information and justifications for legal initiatives. During 2017, the Center received 74 requests for analysis of policy papers and analytical

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justifications for draft laws from parliamentary Committees, MPs, administrators of the VR Secretariat, and international donor programs focusing on the reforms. Analytical notes developed by the EIRC responding to the requests are available at http://euinfocenter.rada.gov.ua/documents/Request/.

In Year 4, EIRC produced and distributed eight policy papers and three info briefs (short analytical papers). All of the papers were posted on the main page of the EIRC website and distributed in 700 print copies each. All papers are intended for MPs of Ukraine, public experts, and academics.

Info briefs:

1. “Oversight Functions of Parliamentary Committees”;

2. “The Parliamentary Sergeant-at-Arms”;

3. “The office of sergeant-at-arms”;

4. “Application of the d'Hondt Method and Sainte Laguë Method in Distribution of Leadership Positions in Parliamentary Committees”.

Policy papers:

1. “Legislative Process Reform in Ukraine” – an analysis of current reforms in Ukraine, with a review of international experience and conceptual recommendations on legislative process reform with an emphasis on strengthening coordination among the holders of the right to legislative initiative (http://bit.ly/2imE3y8).

2. “State Policy on Traffic Safety” at the roundtable of the VR Transport Committee reported on road traffic mortality and injuries in Ukraine, and identified the key systemic problems in state regulation of this field.

3. “Policy Proposal on the regulation of the status of local self-government deputy,” prepared at the request of the Committee on State Building, Local Government and Regional Policy. The paper covered problems related to the procedure for recalling members of the local councils and recommended a clear and transparent recalling procedure to be included in the law. EIRC recommended legally obliging every deputy to be tied to a particular district to stimulate his/her accountability to voters in a certain single-seat constituency. The recommendations were incorporated into Draft Law No. 6133 “On Amending the Law of Ukraine ‘On the Status of Local Council Deputies’ Regarding Confirmation of the Existence of Legal Grounds for Recalling a Local Council Deputy Based on Popular Initiative.” The paper will be presented at joint roundtables with the Committee scheduled for October 18 and November 6.

4. Policy paper “Policy Proposals on Employment of People with Disabilities” actualized the issue of observation of the rights of people with disabilities at the request of the Committee on Affairs of Veterans, Combatants, ATO Participants and Disabled People. The paper suggested adjusting Ukrainian legislation to the requirements of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in terms of non-discrimination in the field of employment, positive encouragement for open labor market employers, and ensuring reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. The paper will be presented at joint roundtables with the Committee scheduled for October.

5. Policy paper “Policy Proposals on Rehabilitation of People with Health Disorder” focused on international experience in the area of rehabilitation services for people with health problems involving insurance medicine. Considering the importance of obtaining rehabilitation services at the place of residence, the paper also made connection to existing systems of healthcare and social services. The policy proposals will be presented at joint roundtables with the Committee scheduled for October.

6. Policy paper “Policy Proposal on conflict of interest among the MPs of Ukraine” is relevant both for Ukrainian society and for the cross-cutting tasks of the RADA Program that include inter alia counteraction to corruption. The paper analyzed evidence of a conflict of interest for 9% of Ukrainian MPs and suggested developing conflict-of-interest policies. In Ukrainian realities, the prevention is possible only if the inevitability of punishment for violating existing conflict-of-interest regulations is ensured.

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7. Policy paper “Policy Proposals on Government Reporting in Parliament” covered the way for effective communication between the Government and the Parliament to improve the process of legislation adoption. The policy paper will be presented during a public debate dedicated to the parliamentary reform.

8. Policy paper “Policy Proposals on Execution of Judgments of the European Court of Human Rights,” requested by the Committee on Legal Policy and Justice, analyzed the practice of executing ECHR decisions in Ukraine and gaps in the Ukrainian legislation and provided recommendations. The policy paper will be presented at joint roundtables with the specialized Committee scheduled for October.

9. Policy paper “Policy Proposals on Supporting Documents in the Legislative Process” analyzed issues in justification of draft bills with low-quality supportive documents and proposed an improved format for explanatory memos that should prove connection between draft laws and existing legislation. The policy paper will be presented during public debates devoted to parliamentary reform.

The RADA Program’s implementing partner Agency for Legislative Initiative (ALI) drafted four issues of the Parliamentary Magazine “Chasopys ‘Parlament’.” The topics were discussed with the VR Secretariat, focusing on those that were recognized as relevant for both the Parliament and the RADA Program. The first issue covered international and Ukrainian experience of parliamentary internship programs7. The second one addressed practices of associations of former MPs and their influence on parliamentary work8. Third issue covered problems in functioning of VR Committees and prospects for their reforming. The fourth issue covered insufficient level of professionalism and reasons for low competences among employees of the VRU Secretariat.

Each issue was placed online; 1,000 print copies of each were distributed among MPs and sent out to expert NGOs, libraries, and local government bodies in Ukraine.

In the reporting period, ALI also prepared and distributed two short memos on specifics of parliamentary work in different countries and key new principles of parliamentary reform:

- “The Number of Committees in Different Parliaments of the World” was posted on the website and published in 1,000 copies. The printed memos will be distributed among MPs during the meeting, as well as sent out to expert NGOs, libraries, and local self-government bodies of Ukraine: http://parlament.org.ua/2017/10/06/kilkist-komitetiv-u-parlamentah-svitu-info-brief/.

- “Regulation of the Procedure for Registration of Draft Laws in Different Parliaments of the World” was posted on the website and published in 1,000 copies. The printed memos will be distributed among MPs during the meeting, as well as sent out to expert NGOs, libraries, and local self-government bodies of Ukraine: http://parlament.org.ua/2017/10/05/regulyuvannya-protsedury-reyestratsiyi-zakonoproektiv-u-parlamentah-svitu/.

1.2.vii. Policy Dialogue Meetings in cooperation with the Association of People’s Deputies of Ukraine

• On March 22, the USAID RADA Program jointly with the VRU Procedure Committee and Association of People’s Deputies of Ukraine conducted a roundtable “International experience of parliamentary opposition. The political debate. Regulation of participation of the opposition in Parliament." Forty-eight representatives of VR and civil society discussed possible solutions to improve the dialog between coalition and opposition in the Ukrainian Parliament. Senior USAID RADA Program Consultant Volodymyr Kryzhanivskyi summed up the suggestions of experts to resolve the issue as follows:

1) It is necessary to adopt amendments to the VR Rules of Procedure regarding the formation and activities of the coalition and the opposition. Such amendments will provide the legal basis for the dialogue between the coalition and the opposition.

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2) In view of the European Parliament’s Needs Assessment Mission Recommendations, the Conciliation Board (Agenda-Setting Council) of the VRU should play the role of an inter-factional platform for the dialog to include MPs from different parties and groups.

3) Considering the disunity of the parliamentary minority groups, their activities should be regulated in some way. Individual membership in the "minority" cannot be excluded; however MPs should be encouraged to join MP factions and groups.

• Together with the Association of People’s Deputies of Ukraine (APDU), the Interns' League held a discussion on regulating the roles of coalition and opposition in the Parliament. While preparing for the Policy Dialogue, the participants familiarized themselves with the legislation of other countries in order to find the best legislative decision for Ukraine. The event is very important for the interns, since they can participate in the modeling of parliamentary debates. The event was attended by the Secretariat of the VR Committee on Rules of Parliamentary Procedure.


Expected Result 1.3. Cooperation between MPs and local governments strengthened

1.3.i. Support regional local government associations and the Association of the Ukrainian Cities (AUC) – biannual MP district report sessions

• On December 7, 2016, the RADA Program assisted in organizing a meeting of the Committee on State Building, Regional Policy and Local Self-Government devoted to the issues of local governance in the regions. RADA aims to adjust and support a dialog between the Committee on State Building, Regional Policy and Local Self-Government, the Former Mayors' Caucus, and local government associations. There were more than 100 participants, including Vice-Chairwoman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Oksana Syroyid, Vice-Prime-Minister Hennadiy Zubko, more than 20 MPs, mayors, representatives of the Verkhovna Rada inter-factional deputy’s association “In support of local self-government” (mayors’ caucus), scientists, experts, and representatives of international projects.

The event allowed sharing opinions on legislative provision for local self-government and decentralization reforms and on prospects for the law-making process in this sphere in general. The European Information and Research Center (EIRC) presented and distributed its brochure “Local self-government in Ukraine and the world: interesting facts.” The RADA Program also presented its publication “Experience of decentralization in the countries of Europe” that has been prepared earlier jointly with VR Legislation Institute.

• On December 9, the RADA Program’s joint initiative with the USAID PULSE Project supported local self-government by participating in an exhibition of international technical assistance projects at the Kyiv City Administration. The exhibition attracted a lot of attention of local and national authorities who expressed their interest in implementing Ukrainian reforms with involvement of international expertise. The event was devoted to Local Self-Government Day celebration; also, the General Meeting of the Association of Cities of Ukraine took place.

• On December 21, the USAID RADA Program participated in a press-café for journalists and regional communication consultants. The participants spoke about opportunities for local communities to obtain assistance on decentralization reform from international projects. USAID RADA COP Ihor Kohut called upon local governors to cooperate closer with the VR Committee on State Building, Regional Policy and Local Self-Government in order to increase the transparency of the decentralization reform. The event was organized by the Association of Cities of Ukraine under the PULSE Program (Policy for Ukraine Local Self-Government).

• The RADA Program became one of the organizers of the Fifth Municipal Forum in Lviv, which was held on March 24-25, 2017. The event, which gathered more than 400 participants, including 20 MPs, several dozens of officials, local heads, representatives of local councils, experts and mass media representatives, was meant for discussing topics directly within the competence of the RADA Program.

The RADA Program was solely responsible for the formation of one panel discussion devoted to the collaboration of Ukrainian parliamentarians with local councils and their associations, and RADA COP Ihor Kohut moderated it. Three MPs – Yuriy Bublyk, VR Committee on State Building, Regional Development and Local Self-Government; two deputies running Model Districts – Ihor Huz and Pavlo Rizanenko; and deputy executive director of the Association of Ukrainian cities (AUC) and mayor of the town of Liubomyl (Volyn oblast) Valeriy Baranov took part in the panel. RADA Program coordinator Ihor Parasiuk presented an analysis of the impact of metropolitan areas in the world on economic growth and made proposals for the concept of the new draft law on agglomerations in Ukraine. The package of handouts prepared by the RADA Program included the manual “The Legislative Dimension of Decentralization.”


The Forum adopted a resolution that included the propositions of the RADA Program aimed at accelerating consideration of bills on (1) the ubiquity of local government under the European Charter; (2) enforced financial and technical support for the formation of amalgamated territorial units; (3) the specifics of functioning of agglomerations as a special form of intercommunal interaction. Some points in the resolution concerned parking system problems and related reforms, as well as the introduction of targeted state subsidies; no recognition of property rights for kiosks (small architectural forms) as a real estate property. All recommendations were based on the results of thematic discussions at the Forum, which brought together more than five hundred specialists in different fields from all over Ukraine and abroad.

• On March 29-30, 2017, the RADA Program, jointly with the Self-Government Association “Prybuzhia”, held a Forum of local self-government in the model district of MP Ihor Huz in Volyn oblast. About 100 local governors from village, settlement and district councils, academicians, media and local businessmen exchanged their opinions about decentralization issues that arise before and after the merger of small communities, the legal framework for land, water and forest community, creating Centers for Administrative Services, reforms in education, culture and health. The package of handouts for participants included a manual “The Legislative Dimension of Decentralization. An Overview of Ukrainian Legislation” prepared by RADA Program Coordinator Ihor Parasiuk.

On the second day of the Forum, the participants visited the amalgamated community of Zymne – the area that piloted the decentralization reform in the region. The forum participants learned about the current results of local government reform in Prybuzhia and witnessed successful implementation of reforms on the spot: renovated schools, kindergartens, roads, and operating Center for Administrative Services. The visitors, which included heads of local councils that had not joined the amalgamation process under the reform, were motivated to launch the amalgamation process in their territorial communities.

MP Ihor Huz appreciated RADA’s support in raising the awareness and strengthening the capacity of the local communities during the Forum, which became a driver for reforms in the region. During the Forum, participants set the goal to complete the process of amalgamating the territorial communities at least in the model district of Mr. Huz by end of 2018. The video-record of the Forum is available on YouTube – part 1: http://bit.ly/2oNfqva, part 2 – http://bit.ly/2pi7RxY.

1.3.ii. Regional policy dialog meetings in different regions in coordination with VR LSG and in cooperation with CoE

• The RADA Program, jointly with European Council Program “Decentralization and territorial consolidation in Ukraine” and Swiss-Ukrainian Project “Decentralization Support in Ukraine” (DESPRO), conducted a roundtable discussion with the participation of the VR Committee on State Building, Regional Development and Local Self-Government in Pyriatyn (Poltava oblast) on February

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24, 2017. The event discussed the implementation of the Law of Ukraine “On Voluntarily Amalgamation of Territorial Communities” on the basis of examples from Poltava oblast. RADA Program Coordinator Ihor Parasiuk made a presentation on implementation of already adopted acts and those pending consideration by the Parliament in 2017. The event provided an opportunity for the legislators to receive feedback from local communities on the positive and negative practical aspects of the law. The participants discussed possible changes that may resolve the decentralization reform implementation problems. For instance, the local governors were dissatisfied with the limited jurisdiction of self-governments in land tenure outside of settlements. The solution to this problem is possible through the adoption of draft laws No. 4355 “On Introducing Amendments to Certain Ukrainian Legislation with Regard to Increasing the Scope of Local Government Authority in Land Management and Strengthening the State Control over the Use and Protection of Lands" (http://w1.c1.rada.gov.ua/pls/zweb2/webproc4_1?pf3511=58610) and No. 5253 “On Introducing Amendments to Certain Ukrainian Legislation with Regard to increasing the Scope of Local Government Authority of the Territorial Communities in the Entire Territories of Respective Rural and Urban Territorial Communities” (http://w1.c1.rada.gov.ua/pls/zweb2/webproc4_1?pf3511=58610).

• On March 30-31, a roundtable discussion “Implementation of the Draft Law on Cooperation of Territorial Communities in Vinnytsia region” was held by the VRU Committee on State Building, Regional Development and Local Self-Government with support from the RADA Program. RADA Program’s Senior Consultant Volodymyr Kryzhanivskyi took part in the event (see the report by Kryzhanivskyi).

• The RADA Program conducted field meetings of the Committee on State Building, Regional Policy and Local Self-Government in roundtable format to discuss the practice of implementing the Law “On Voluntarily Amalgamation of Territorial Communities”; in particular cases from local communities of Khmelnytskyi oblast were discussed on May 29, 2017, in Kamianets-Podilskyi, Khmelnytskyi oblast. The event was attended by eight members of the Committee, including the Committee Head Serhiy Vlasenko and the Deputy Director of the Department of Ministry of Regional Development responsible for drafting laws on decentralization and local governance reform. RADA Program Coordinator Ihor Parasiuk delivered a presentation on problems and perspectives of the decentralization reform. The USAID RADA Program provided online streaming of the event. The video of the event is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGIAXzi5Qrw&app=desktop.

• On June 19, 2017, the RADA Program, jointly with the USAID PULSE Project and the Verkhovna Rada Committee on State Building, Regional Development and Local Self-Government, conducted an expert roundtable on legislative provisions for the creation and functioning of military and civil administrations. The roundtable particularly discussed the non-regulated mechanism for recalling officials of local governance bodies in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts where military administrations operate instead of the usual civil ones. The People's Deputies, representatives of the central and local executive power, bodies of local self-government, associations, and experts participated in the event and discussed the weaknesses of the existing law “On Military and Civil Administrations” drafted by the working group under the Committee. It was decided to improve the law by developing the rules for the appointment and dismissal of officials in



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both military and civil administrations; RADA’s experts will assist the Committee in finalizing the draft law.

1.3.iii. Town-Hall Meetings to discuss emerging issues and voice the concerns and preferences

• On November 21, 2016, RADA, together with its implementing partners ALI and League of Interns, assisted MP Andriy Vatadurskyi in holding a Town Hall Meeting “City environment in Mykolaiv: transformation of Soborna Street into a more comfortable area” as part of the Model District initiative. Over 150 citizens of Mykolaiv were seeking the resolution of three problems: (1) excessive number of temporarily constructions for selling and entertainment in the street; (2) different sizes and forms of numerous outdoor advertisement carriers in the street (billboards, city lights, banners and mobile stands); and (3) the need to unify the exterior of buildings in the street in accordance with the construction regulations to avoid illegally glassed balconies, etc. Participants discussed two alternatives for resolving each problem. It was decided to involve public voting to approve temporarily constructions for small street vendors; to avoid the creation of a communal enterprise for authorizing new non-systemic advertisement carriers; and to make the city council responsible for the exterior of Soborna Street, http://parlament.org.ua/2016/11/23/thm-mykolaiv.

• On March 06, 2017, RADA held a one-day workshop on facilitation of Town Hall Meetings in the premises of the International Knowledge Platform “IDF Reforms Lab” for 60 persons (50 female and 10 male): students of the National University Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, participants in the Internship Program of the Parliament of Ukraine and other young professionals. The workshop aimed to expand the pool of highly skilled facilitators and note-takers for local Town Hall Meetings in 2017.

RADA involved the NGO “Institute for Peace and Understanding” in training the participants how to work under difficult and stressful circumstances that are customary for THMs. Trainers from the Institute Roman Koval and Alyona Horova developed an algorithm for working with scenarios and a sense-restoration exercise, which is a powerful tool for maintaining a constructive dialog; the attendees were instructed in the skill of professional note-taking and were familiarized with the fast typing algorithm. For the practical purpose of acquiring knowledge, the trainees tried out the role of facilitator and note-taker during an imaginary public discussion "Reform of the Parliament: searching for ways to reduce legislative spam and prevent ghost voting," developed by RADA and ALI experts Oleksandr Zaslavskyi, Volodymyr Kryzhanivskyi, and Olha Yurchyshyn. The press release of the event is available on the website of the Agency for Legislative Initiatives: http://bit.ly/2oXtsL8.

• On June 15, 2017, the Transcarpathian Regional State Administration hosted a Town Hall Meeting on solid waste management efficiency from the perspective of breakdown of financial obligations among municipalities, citizens, and waste disposing enterprises. Organized within the Model District of MP Ivan Krulko, the event addressed the urgent issue of pollution of the region with solid household waste. The Head of the Transcarpathian Regional State Administration Hennadiy Moskal noted that the problem had already reached a catastrophic level because of the absence of a proper legislative framework for attracting investors in the waste disposal business. Ninety-two city residents representing local NGOs, local authorities and businesses were looking for ways to solve the problem of solid domestic waste management.

During the discussion, the participants considered three alternative scenarios: the first of them amounts to maintaining the status quo without introducing any changes regarding the current situation; the second and third ones involve transition from the inefficient dumping to sorting, recycling and dumping of only those residues that cannot be recycled. The second scenario is aimed at introducing a utility tariff for the population; and the third one assumes the payment will be made by both consumers and manufacturers of products resulting in solid waste. Seventy-three percent of the THM participants voted for the third alternative to avoid raising the communal and housing service tariffs for consumers. MP Ivan Krulko promised to use the THM results in developing waste-related legislation in the Parliament. The press release is available at the ALI website: http://bit.ly/2tZ3NlK.

http://parlament.org.ua/2016/11/23/thm-mykolaiv/

http://bit.ly/2oXtsL8

http://bit.ly/2tZ3NlK


• On the same day, June 15, 2017, the Transcarpathian Regional State Administration hosted a Town Hall Meeting to discuss the strategy for developing youth policy in Transcarpathian oblast in cooperation with the Ministry of Youth and Sports. That THM was part of the Model District project of MP Ivan Krulko. Ninety-six residents representing young people’s NGOs, the oblast state education department, the oblast state department on youth and sport, the state university, and youth from the neighboring towns of Khust and Mukachevo discussed the age of young people as an important element in the Law “On Youth,” the development of a youth center in the region, and the involvement of young people with disabilities in the regular life of the communities.

The discussion of age defining the category of youth in Ukraine revealed three alternatives: 14-35 year-old people; from 0 to 29 years; and from 12 to 29 years. The distribution of votes was as follows: 48.9% for the first alternative, 23.4% for the second, and 27.7% for the third one. Consequently, the THM participants preferred 14-35 to be included in the draft law “On Youth,” which does not lead to any changes in the current age limits.

When discussing the creation of a youth center, the participants examined four alternatives: the first involved the creation of a municipal youth center; the second one implied the creation of a youth center under an NGO using local budget funds; the third focused on creation of a youth center as a subdivision of the municipal education or culture institutions; and the fourth proposed creating a youth center as a separate public initiative project. Forty-seven percent of the participants voted to create a local youth center by developing and implementing a public initiative project.

Two alternatives were discussed in respect of young people with disabilities: 1) creating a network of centers for youth with disabilities to provide assistance to them in social protection, education, and healthcare; 2) launching a regional program for youth centers that will provide assistance to youth with special needs. As a result, the participants preferred the second alternative: 89% votes. The press release of the event is available at http://bit.ly/2unPbPK.

• On June 30, 2017, the Volyn Theological Academy hosted a Town Hall Meeting to discuss the strategy for developing youth centers in Volyn oblast under the Model District initiative of MP Ihor Huz. One hundred twelve representatives of youth NGOs from Lutsk, Kovel, Novovolynsk, representatives of the Volyn oblast authorities and the Ministry of Youth and Sports, representatives of the academic community of Volyn and young activists from Lutsk, Kovel, and Novovolynsk discussed the establishment and development of youth centers, the communication between the youth centers of Ukraine, and organization of work with young people with disabilities. To institutionalize the youth center, the participants considered four alternatives and voted for the fourth one, which consists in creating a youth center by implementing a public initiative project. Remarkably, the Volyn oblast community supported the same approach that was preferred by the Uzhhorod THM on June 15.

The consideration of the four alternative approaches to maintenance of communication between youth centers in Ukraine resulted in a decision to establish a National Youth Center operating as organizational and methodological center of a network, with 44% votes. The Volyn THM supported the introduction of programs for youth centers to work with young people with disabilities, choosing it from among the two alternatives.

The results of the Town Hall Meetings will be implemented by Ihor Huz within his powers and competences as a People’s Deputy of Ukraine. The press release of the event is available at http://bit.ly/2vrxUlw.

http://bit.ly/2unPbPK

http://bit.ly/2vrxUlw


1.3.iv. Initiate, in cooperation with CoE, regular reports by local government associations in the VR LSG Committee with the participation of representatives of other committees

RADA continued helping with the dialog between the Parliament and professional associations representing local governments of Ukraine. RADA supported regular meetings of the Committee on State Building, Regional Policy and Local Self-Government with local associations and assisted in ensuring adequate participation of self-governments in reforms and in making the voice of self-government heard at the legislative level.

• The RADA Program initiated a dialog between the VRU Committee on State Building, Regional Policy and Local Self-Government and local government associations. With RADA’s support, the Committee held its first public hearing on October 5 in Kyiv to meet the Association of Cities and listen to its report on problems of and prospects for implementation of Law of Ukraine “On Associations of Local Self-Government Bodies.” The event was attended by MPs, their aides, representatives of the Association, mayors and experts on regional development. RADA aims to establish two-way communication to enable local self-government to influence the lawmaking processes that concern regional development. Unfortunately, regular communications between the Parliament and local governments was reduced because of the completion of two USAID Projects: DIALOG (ended in 2014) and DAUCRO (ended in 2003).

• The report of the Association of Regional and District Communities (UAROR) to the relevant VR Committee was presented on February 8, 2017. The event aimed to provide the Committee with feedback on the decentralization reform from one of the most influential associations in Ukraine. Representatives of the Association spoke about urgent problems that self-government bodies faced at regional and district levels while implement the current legislation, in particular those related to amalgamated territorial communities completely restricting the powers of the rayon authorities. The problem of duplication and overlapping powers might cause serious trouble for the reform in the localities unless appropriate regulations are adopted. The parties agreed to cooperate in the drafting of necessary legislation and to discuss its possible implications before registering and submitting to the Plenary Meetings.

• To let the voice of rural areas be heard in the Parliament, the RADA Program initiated a meeting of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on State Building, Regional Development and Local Self-Government with the participation of the National Association of Village and Settlement Councils. The Association’s Head Mykola Fursenko


reported on the realities of rural areas development under conditions of decentralization. It was the first time that a Committee of the Verkhovna Rada invited representatives of rural territories to communicate with the MPs. The associations exploited the unique opportunity to tell the MPs about the urgent issues facing their members – local officials of the regional and sub-regional levels, and to emphasize the necessity for developing appropriate laws. The Parliamentary Committee and the Associations agreed to continue the dialogue on urgent questions related to the decentralization reform.

Expected Result 1.4. Cooperation and communication between the VRU and VR ARC institutionalized and strengthened

The activity has been suspended. Instead, RADA launched a peer-to-peer exchange program for VRU staff in Y3 that allowed them to learn about parliamentary work in other countries. In Y3, the RADA Program successfully accomplished first peer-to-peer visits for three employees of VR Committees to the Parliaments of Estonia and Poland; each visit lasting from 7 to 10 days. The information on the visits within the reported period is available in the Model District initiative (ER 1.1.1).

OBJECTIVE 2: Expanded role of citizens in monitoring the work of Parliament

Expected Result 2.1. Civic education initiatives promoted to foster greater citizen engagement in the legislative process

2.1.i. Interactive map-based web portal with information about MPs

RADA’s implementing partner OPORA maintains its web portal https://rada.oporaua.org, which is a powerful tool providing analytical data about the Parliament’s work. The site attendance increased from 85 daily visits after the site launch in 2016 to 250 in September 2017. In total, 25,000 unique users have visited the OPORA RADA web portal.

In Y4, OPORA posted 24 publications with analytical materials about parliamentary Committees’ performance and overviews of other countries’ parliamentary practices, 260 monitoring reports of MPs and local deputies’ work and 95 news stories on OPORA’s work. The analytical materials were devoted to the equator of the current convocation period; the other seven materials covered parliamentarians and parliamentary parties’ communication with their regional constituents9. News stories reported on current activities of OPORA and the results of regional public discussions and trainings conducted. A total of more than 500 publications in national and local media highlighted OPORA’s activities, including references to the analytical materials and OPORA’s research results. OPORA will continue to update the rada.oporaua.org web portal to let citizens know important information about MPs and the Parliament’s effectiveness.

OPORA went on with its monitoring of MPs’ voting, along with its monthly rating of 88 single-seat constituency MPs. All findings were published on the website https://rada4you.org. Additionally, the half-year monitoring was consolidated into a final ranking of MPs’ work during the 6th session of the Verkhovna Rada of 8th convocation (February-July 2017). The monitoring resulted in over 400 publications online (please read more in section 2.1.ii of this Report).

9 https://rada.oporaua.org/analityka/zviti



https://rada.oporaua.org/analityka/zviti


"We are proud of the representatives of People's Front Party Maksym Burbak (Chernivtsi oblast), Mykhailo Bondar (Lviv oblast), and Anatoliy Dyriv (Ivano-Frankivsk oblast). The Civil Network OPORA has found them to be the most active MPs elected in the respective oblasts.”

Post on Facebook page of the People's Front Party

"According to the June rating from OPORA, I was second among 88 single-seat constituency MPs due to a number of statements made in the session hall of the Verkhovna Rada and to participation on 9 occasions in discussing the agenda.”

MP Valeriy Pysarenko, Vidrodzhennia Party, Kharkiv


2.1.ii. Civic Education Campaign in regions on both national and regional specific policy issues

• RADA’s implementing partner Internews Ukraine (IUA) developed three public education videos that cover the main messages about the Parliament’s work in Ukraine. The video will be used in the VRU Public Awareness Campaign InfoBus in 2017: (1) Use of E-Petitions to make propositions to VRU (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wEUg43QrzY); (2) Three main functions of the Parliament and elucidations on them

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANZuBJ6PXbA); and (3) Ways to address MPs, with explanations of the procedure and the requirements for sending a written or online appeal (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmlHckdfEk8).

• IUA produced a video PSA on public health reform to be placed on TV (1:12 min) and a longer video story to distribute in the Internet: http://bit.ly/2jh6I44 http://bit.ly/2j0Y5tn. The video PSA was broadcast on two national channels: UA: Pershyi and 5th Channel, and on ten regional channels (see the table on the right).

• On October 10-11, IUA conducted a two-day training for 13 journalists of national and regional media as part of its awareness campaign on the Parliament’s work in Kyiv. As to the agenda, after the training every trainee had to develop public awareness materials covering the Parliament work’s in any reform area.

• The OPORA public education campaigning was enriched with two videos concerning the global legal and Ukrainian parliamentary experience. A video lasting for 3:40 explained the principles of parliamentary work in a user-friendly format illustrated with animated infographics. The first video, “How it is done there: Ghost voting and truancy in the Parliament,”10 was posted on the RADA OPORA portal (https://rada.oporaua.org) on March 24, 2017, and was distributed via Facebook as a YouTube embedded video. 2,359 people watched it during the first 9 days. The second video, “How the parliamentary Committees work,”11 was posted on March 30, and got 524 views in five days. OPORA presented the video “How the parliamentary Committees work” during the aforementioned Coordination Meeting of RADA representatives and VRU Committees’ heads.

OPORA undertook significant information campaigning via its website https://rada.oporaua.org that published over 400 materials based on monitoring of the Parliament’s efficiency and the monthly rating of legislative activities and actions of MPs in their constituencies for 88 single-mandate Members of the Parliament (please refer to section 2.2.i of this Report). Analytical publications, monitoring reports and

10https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boqQZsSRmaY 11https://youtu.be/Sw69waZJd9Y

Channel Coverage

1 UA: Pershyi National

2 Channel 5 National

3 TRC "Hrad" Odessa and oblast

4 TRC "New Chernihiv" Chernihiv oblast

5 TRC "Scythia" Kherson and oblast

6 TRC "Sterkh" Dnipro and oblast

7 TRC "Winter" Vinnitsa and oblast

8 TRC "Donbas" Donetsk oblast

9 TRC "Alex" Zaporizhia and oblast

10 TRC "Vidikon" Sumy oblast

11 TRC "Lux" Lviv and oblast

12 TRC "ATN" Kharkiv and oblast

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wEUg43QrzY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANZuBJ6PXbA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmlHckdfEk8

http://bit.ly/2jh6I44

http://bit.ly/2j0Y5tn



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boqQZsSRmaY

https://youtu.be/Sw69waZJd9Y


education videos were seen by up to 5,000 unique viewers a month and 250 users a day. The monitoring was popularized among the active part of civil society in Ukraine through public events, presentations and all other types of activities of the RADA Program partners. In total, 25 thousand unique users have entered the portal RADA OPORA.

OPORA held six public presentations of its monitoring of the MPs’ work. These presentations explained the methodology and findings of the monitoring during the following events:

1. the Information Fair 2017 at the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on May 16-17, 2017 (refer to section 2.3.i of this Report);

2. the Second Global Legislative Openness Conference, session "Demonstration of New Technologies" held on May 20, 2017, in the premises of the Verkhovna Rada in Kyiv;

3. the Seventh International Scientific Conference "Parliamentary Readings" held by the RADA Program’s alliance partner Agency for Legislative Initiatives (ALI) on May 26-27;

4. the media marathon "ELECTIONS: VOX CIVIUM" held on June 8-9, 2017, which focused on citizens’ participation in the Electoral Reform in Ukraine;

5. the conference "Openness of the Power through Access to Public Information" organized by the Information Department of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine in partnership with the World Bank Office on June 14, 2017;

6. the Parliamentary conference on the results of the half-term of the Parliament’s 8th convocation, held on June 26-27, 2017, by the RADA Program’s alliance partner Internews Ukraine,

7. the workshop on MPs’ reporting that was part of the training course “Conclusions and Prospects for Model Districts” held on September 29 – October 1, 2017, in Chernihiv within the framework of the USAID RADA Program’s Model District Initiative;

8. the presentation of parliamentary monitoring instruments by the Civil Network OPORA, held during the Third Regional Open Data Forum on September 29-30, 2017, in Kherson.

2.1.ii. Civic Education Campaign in regions on both national and regional specific policy issues

• On March 8, 2017, RADA’s partner OPORA held a coordination meeting of 13 regional public consultants, project managers and analysts. The Kyiv-based event was attended by a total of 19 persons (10 men and 9 women).

• RADA’s implementing partner OPORA continued its public awareness campaign by conducting thirteen public discussions "Parliamentary Parties and Voters. How to Find a Common Language at the Local Level" in 13 regions of Ukraine. The event discussed the use of monitoring to track the single-seat constituency MPs and learn more about the opportunities to communicate with the Parliament. Representatives of all six parliamentary and a number of non-parliamentary political parties took part in the events, along with regional NGOs and media. As a result, the parliamentary parties were provided with recommendations on how to improve the quality of communication with voters merely by using their own websites.

• Representatives of the Civil Network OPORA participated in four programs on national TV channels (twice on the 5th Channel and twice on the Espresso Channel); moreover, on one occasion they were studio guests on Public Radio.

• Two national press conferences were held in Kyiv. The first was entitled "Semi-marathon of the Verkhovna Rada. What did the parliamentarians do during the half of their term?"; the second, "The beginning of a new political season. The performance of the single-seat constituency MPs during the sixth session.”

• Thirteen regional public press conferences under the title "Semi-marathon of the Verkhovna Rada. What did the parliamentarians do during the half of their term?" were held in 13 districts of Ukraine. These press conferences were attended by 70 media representatives.


• OPORA started to develop an educational module for university students about the Parliament’s legislative work and ways to communicate with the Parliament by using e-tools. At first, consultations with experts and negotiations with 13 universities were held. OPORA planned to conduct 5 lectures within the module in each of the 13 leading Ukrainian universities during October-November 2017.

2.1.iii. Workshops for youth on culture of effective engagement in the legislative process

• IUA produced a 22-minute educational video for youth “How the Parliament works” that was saved on 350 USB-sticks for distribution at public events including colloquiums for teachers. A public presentation of the video took place on October 24 at Kyiv secondary school No. 148; it was attended by 50 students and teachers, media representatives, and RADA staff (http://internews.ua/2016/11/parliament-movie-presentation). The presentation was followed up by a discussion on the key messages of the film and the importance of young people’s active participation in the Parliament’s work. All participants received the video on a USB stick. It is also available on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkAVv2VwErA.

• On May 15, 2017, ALI held a training “Youth in Government Programs” in cooperation with the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine and the Interns’ League. The training was conducted by the Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports of Ukraine Oleksandr Yarema. The 57 trainees included interns of the Parliament Internship Program at the VRU, students from the Kyiv National Economic University (KNEU), National Taras Shevchenko University (KNU), Kyiv-Mohyla University (NaUKMA), National Yaroslav the Wise University of Law, aides to MPs of Ukraine, representatives of youth NGOs, representatives of local self-government bodies and student trade union committees. The event provided an overview of possible youth participation in government youth programs and encouraged effective engagement in the development of governmental decisions on youth policy in Ukraine. The training explained the principles of the state youth policy in Ukraine and its application at national and regional levels, especially as regards the possible influence that youth can have on state youth policy. The participants’ survey showed that 93% of the participants had enhanced their knowledge of the principles of state youth policy; 71% of the respondents said the training had achieved its goal. More information about the training is available on the ALI website: http://bit.ly/2qlacI9.

• RADA’s partner Internews Ukraine, in cooperation with the Agency for Legislative Initiatives, conducted a webinar "Youth in Government Programs" on June 20, 2017. During the webinar, 103 participants (62 women and 41 men; more than 60% were youth and students) got acquainted with the state youth policy in Ukraine, learned how to influence the formation of state youth policy at the national and regional levels, and had the chance to ask questions of the Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports of Ukraine. The Webinar provided information about new opportunities to participate in specific youth programs. The questions and answers session accounted for up to 50% of the webinar’s length, which was indicative of the audience's profound interest. IUA also created a Facebook page devoted to the event at https://goo.gl/qry9xr. The video of the webinar is available at http://bit.ly/2uyjKCJ and https://goo.gl/69nUFR.

The RADA Program presented two interactive lectures for youth on “Culture of Lawfulness” to provide students with an opportunity to acquire knowledge and skills needed in monitoring the authorities.

http://internews.ua/2016/11/parliament-movie-presentation

http://internews.ua/2016/11/parliament-movie-presentation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkAVv2VwErA

http://bit.ly/2qlacI9

https://goo.gl/qry9xr

http://bit.ly/2uyjKCJ

https://goo.gl/69nUFR


• On September 25, 2017, Deputy Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Oksana SYROID spoke to 44 students of Kyiv universities (National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Borys Hrinchenko Kyiv University, and Dragomanov National Pedagogical University), alumni of the Internship Program at the Verkhovna Rada, MPs’ aides, and representatives of NGOs. In the course of the lecture, the young people were invited to discuss the following questions: Why are government agencies needed? What functions does the Parliament perform and how does it control the Government? How is the voting for the Budget conducted? How did the oligarchic economy emerge in the 90s? What makes the functioning of the State possible and how can it provide for the payment of taxes? What is the quality of laws and how can we ensure it? The participants’ feedback revealed that 80% of the students had acquired important knowledge; 75% had received answers to their questions; and the trainer’s work was highly appreciated. The press release is available at http://bit.ly/2xAOXFA.

• On September 27, 2017, President of the NGO “Ukrainian Legal Foundation” and former Minister of Justice of Ukraine Mr. Serhiy Holovatyi delivered a second lecture at the Kyiv MediaHub for 30 students and postgraduate students from Kyiv universities (National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv), lecturers of the National Academy of Internal Affairs, graduates of the Internship Program at the Verkhovna Rada, MPs’ aides, representatives of NGOs, a judge of the Fastiv City District Court in Kyiv oblast, and a private entrepreneur. The lecturer covered the essence of the rule of law difference between soft law and hard law, the approach to assess the rule of law in the country, and discussed the difficulties of RoL integration into the Ukrainian realities. 100% of participants reported that they had received important knowledge and that they highly appreciated the lecturer’s work. Press release: http://bit.ly/2xe6uR9.

IUA tested the online broadcast of the 3-hour lecture by Mr. Holovatyi on the UkrLife TV channel that provided an opportunity to maintain contact with both online and offline audiences in the question-answer format. The lecture is available on the websites of ALI and IUA, on Facebook: http://bit.ly/2iqsxld, and on YouTube: http://bit.ly/2zq0A0h. Serhiy Holovatyi’s lecture “Culture of Lawfulness: the Rule of law” received 1,700 views on the Facebook page of Internews-Ukraine and 559 views on YouTube, which attests to high public interest in the topic.

2.1.iv. Public discussions on proposed legislation in public libraries (Bibliomist)

No activities in the past year.

2.1.v. Methodological recommendations for teachers in high schools on Legislature for Youth

• RADA and its partner ALI organized five Colloquiums for teachers that took place on October 21 and March 10 in Chernihiv, on October 27 in Poltava, on October 28 in Sumy, and on March 31 in Brovary. The purpose of the Colloquiums was to introduce civic education into secondary schools in Ukraine with already developed courses " Legislature for Youth," "Youth in Public Programs," "The Political System of Ukraine," and "The Election Process" using innovative teaching techniques such as brainstorming, open

http://bit.ly/2xAOXFA

http://bit.ly/2xe6uR9

http://bit.ly/2iqsxld

http://bit.ly/2zq0A0h


discussions, and role playing that help to better grasp theoretical knowledge. RADA presented teachers of social sciences with methodological materials for these four programs, along with the interactive youth computer game “AGORA: Democratic Procedure of Lawmaking in the Parliament” that imitates the legislative process from the stage of discussion of legal ideas to the point of law implementation, and integrated the four programs into practice. The short video "How the Parliament Works" developed earlier by RADA partner Internews-Ukraine became a good supplement for the courses; it was presented during the events and shared online for use in teaching at schools.

Overall, 210 teachers of history and social sciences took part in three events12. The Ushinsky Chernihiv Regional Institute of Postgraduate Pedagogical Education: http://choippo.edu.ua/?p=18242; the journal Naukova Dumka: http://bit.ly/2pFhjey. A press release on the event was published on the ALI website: http://bit.ly/2oXG6de and in two Brovary local media: http://bit.ly/2oporYy, http://bit.ly/2oXO8Th. A video from the colloquium in Brovary is available on YouTube at http://bit.ly/2oNmbNJ.

2.1.vi. Civic educational campaigns on citizen rights, roles and responsibilities

The USAID RADA Program is a regular guest on analytical talk-shows on the Parliamentary TV channel Rada, where experts talk about the reforms and in particular about international community’s expectations regarding the Ukrainian parliamentary reform. RADA has also broadcasted five educational videos on the channel since March 2017. Produced by the RADA Program’s partners Internews-Ukraine (IUA) and OPORA, the videos promoted public awareness of parliamentary work. The list of videos is as follows:

1. Educational film for high-school students “How the Parliament Works” (IUA)

2. Video “E-petitions” (explaining how to submit an e-petition to the Verkhovna Rada) (IUA)

3. Video “Understand Your Parliament” (about the functions of the Ukrainian Parliament) (IUA)

4. Video “Inquiries to an MP” (focusing on the drafting and submission of an inquiry to an MP) (IUA)

5. Video “How to work with an MP. A tutorial for active citizens.” (OPORA).

OPORA continued to maintain its other website “They Vote for You” that presented the findings of the monitoring of MPs’ voting at https://rada4you.org/divisions. OPORA invited two interns of the Parliament Internship Program to manage the content of the site.

2.1.vii. Press tours for regional media to VR

• On October 3-4, 2016, IUA organized a press tour to the Parliament for regional media from Kyiv oblast to learn about parliamentary work and meet MPs and the Head of the Committee on Preventing and Combating Corruption Yehor Sobolev within the framework of his Model District activities. Media representatives also had an opportunity to attend a lecture by Volodymyr Kryzhanivskyi, USAID RADA’s Senior Consultant. He discussed parliamentary rules and the ongoing reform of the judicial system.

• On June 26-27, 2017, RADA’s partner Internews-Ukraine (IUA) held a two-day press tour for regional media to the Parliament of Ukraine to participate in the Parliamentary Conference. On the first day, journalists learned about the Model District initiative from the RADA Program and the MPs’ presentation at the press briefing. East Europe Foundation President Viktor Liakh, RADA Program Director Ihor Kohut, MP Oleksandr Chernenko and seven aides to MPs participated in the Model District program involving MPs Svitlana Zalishchuk, Yehor Sobolev, Pavlo Rizanenko, Ivan Krulko, Olena Sotnyk, and Ihor Huz.

In order to clarify the mechanisms and ways of effective communication of parliamentary information in regional media, a meeting with the Press Service and the Information Department of the VRU was held. The first day of the Parliamentary Conference is available for viewing through the stream-video posted on the YouTube channel of the RADA Program at https://goo.gl/g5ba2k.

12 http://parlament.org.ua/2016/10/21/chernihiv-civil-education, http://parlament.org.ua/2016/10/27/colloquium-poltava, http://parlament.org.ua/2016/10/29/agora-symu, http://parlament.org.ua/2017/03/10/7676/.

http://choippo.edu.ua/?p=18242

http://bit.ly/2pFhjey

http://bit.ly/2oXG6de

http://bit.ly/2oporYy

http://bit.ly/2oXO8Th

http://bit.ly/2oNmbNJ

https://rada4you.org/divisions

https://goo.gl/g5ba2k

http://parlament.org.ua/2016/10/21/chernihiv-civil-education

http://parlament.org.ua/2016/10/27/colloquium-poltava,

http://parlament.org.ua/2016/10/27/colloquium-poltava,

http://parlament.org.ua/2016/10/29/agora-symu

http://parlament.org.ua/2017/03/10/7676/


The second press briefing for regional journalists was held with the participation of partners and staff of the RADA Program. It highlighted RADA products and solutions for regional media in presentations by Tetiana Bibik, Deputy Director of the RADA Program; Kateryna Zhemchuzhnikova, press secretary of the public network OPORA; Oleksandr Zaslavskyi, deputy chairman of ALI; Anastasia Parshikova, analyst for the European Information and Research Center; Kateryna Parygina, Project Manager, Internews-Ukraine; Maria Savina, Executive Director of the Interns’ League; Yulia Teleshova, assistant to the Interns’ League; and Serhiy Cherednichenko, USAID RADA e-Parliament Program Manager.

June 27, the second day of the Parliamentary Conference, was devoted to achievements of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine at the half-term of its 8th convocation: 2.5 years. A press conference of the Parliament Speaker Andriy Parubiy was held in the morning to summarize the Parliament's activities for the period in question. Mr. Parubiy responded to journalists’ questions for 1.5 hours. The RADA Program made a live stream of the Speaker’s press conference which is available at the YouTube channel of the Parliamentary Channel RADA: https://goo.gl/nGCGGg).

On the afternoon of June 27, 2017, journalists met with the three largest parliamentary factions to hear about their activities and plans. In particular, journalists met MP Hryhoriy Shverk, faction of the party “PETRO POROSHENKO BLOC”; MP Oleksandr Danchenko, faction of the political party “‘SAMOPOMICH’ Association”; and MP Ihor Popov, faction of Oleh Liashko’s Radical Party. The meeting was moderated by RADA Program Director Ihor Kohut. A video of the press conference with the participation of faction representatives is available at https://goo.gl/SVp6Cj.

IUA ensured open competition among journalists to select participants for the Parliamentary Conference this year. IUA received 4 applications per vacancy; the selection criteria included the media subject area, gender balance, and equal representation of media platforms – television, radio, print and online media. As a result, 49 journalists participated in the event, including 26 women and 23 men. A media coverage report on the Parliamentary Conference will be available in next quarterly report.

2.1.viii. Youth Parliament Initiative to discuss the pressing issues for young people

Activities under this objective were modified to public lectures; reported in 2.1.iii.

2.1.ix. TV program “Dear MPs” (Re:Forma)

https://goo.gl/nGCGGg

https://goo.gl/SVp6Cj


OPORA produced nine TV programs in the series "Reform. Parliament" and broadcasted them on the Hromadske TV channel: www.hromadske.ua. An audience of 110 thousand viewers learned about the urgent problems of the parliamentary reform, MPs’ communication with voters in the districts, the specifics of lawmaking, the funds allocated for the Parliament’s work, the coalition formation principles, the MPs’ Ethical Code and conflict of interests, etc. The guests of the studio included MPs Ivan Krulko, Olena Sotnyk, Yuriy Levchenko, Aliona Shkrum, Oleksandr Chernenko, Ihor Popov, Oleksandr Chernenko, Viktoria Ptashnyk, Ostap Yednak and a number of leading Ukrainian political experts. The programs are available at https://rada.oporaua.org/novyny/reformaparlament and on OPORA’s YouTube channel http://bit.ly/2yEstlW.

Andriy Saichuk and Olha Aivazovska running the program "Reform. Parliament" in the television studio of Public Television during the live broadcast.

In OPORA’s studio: recording of an interview on the reform of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine for the program "Reform. Parliament" with Pat Cox, President of the European Parliament (2002-2004), head of the European Parliament's mission (center left on the photo).

2.1.x. Series of programs “Parliament through Young People’s Eyes” on RADA TV Channel

• RADA’s partner OPORA produced another television program about the Parliament. Please refer to section 2.1.ix of this Report.

• RADA was focused on getting young people involved in the monitoring of the Parliament through OPORA activities (please refer to sections 2.1.ii and 2.1.vi of this Report), Town Hall Meetings in Transcarpathian and Volyn oblast (sections 1.3.iii), and ALI training for youth (section 2.1.iii).

• In April 2017, RADA’s partner the Interns’ League held a professional discussion on "Social Elevators for Youth" for the Internship Program’s alumni and activists. The discussions aimed to develop better mechanisms for dialogue between civil society organizations about social issues of youth for further use in CSO activities and possible legislative changes. The first discussion resulted in a decision to draft amendments to the Law of Ukraine "On Civil Service" to introduce the young professionals’ reserve to the HR Department for further employment with the Parliament.

2.1.xi. Annual Parliamentary Hearings

On November 18-19, 2016, RADA’s partner Agency of Legal Initiatives (ALI) held a two-day conference “Parliamentary Readings” at the Kyiv Teachers’ House. The Conference brought together university teachers to talk about the parliamentary reform and the challenges facing the modern Ukrainian Parliament, in particular about the way to legitimize parliamentary ethics, stop violations of parliamentary procedures, and adjust the Constitution of Ukraine to the needs of Ukrainian society: http://parlament.org.ua/2016/11/21/parlam-readings-2016/. The event aimed to raise political literacy among teachers who communicate with their students on a daily basis and could evoke a higher interest in parliamentary work among young people.

RADA’s partner Agency for Legislative Initiatives (ALI) also organized the Seventh International Scientific Conference “Parliamentary Readings” in Kyiv on May 26-27, 2017. This year the conference brought

http://www.hromadske.ua/

https://rada.oporaua.org/novyny/reformaparlament/

http://bit.ly/2yEstlW

http://parlament.org.ua/2016/11/21/parlam-readings-2016/


together high-level national and international experts, representatives of the academic community of Ukraine along with young political scientists for discussion panels that analyzed the institutional development of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, qualitative and quantitative methods for assessing internal parliamentary processes, and methodology for studying the behavior of parliamentarians. Twenty-six speakers including MP of Ukraine Svitlana Zalishchuk, domestic and foreign scholars shared their studies and analytical reviews with 83 representatives of civil society experts and students. The conference abstracts will be presented in a print digest of the Seventh International Scientific Conference “Parliamentary Readings” and will be available online to serve as an academic and practical basis for further analysis and for making changes to the Parliament’s Rules and Procedures. The press release of the event is available at http://bit.ly/2uqwZF9; media reports about the Conference can be found at http://www.golos.com.ua/news/54887; http://lawfaculty.chnu.edu.ua/?p=5337; http://bit.ly/2uzBjCe. The conference was organized in partnership with the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy (the Faculty of Law, the Faculty of Social Sciences and Social Technologies), the law students’ society Scholaris, and the National Academy of Public Administration under the President of Ukraine (Department of Parliamentarianism and Political Management).

Expected Result 2.2. Civil society monitoring of the VR fostered, including strengthening of lobbying groups.

2.2.i. With Institute of Legislation, develop and institutionalize the platform for public commentaries on proposed legislation

The RADA Program, jointly with the VR’s IT Department, has designed the Citizens-Rada Legislative Discussion E-Platform (Citizen E-Platform) (https://itd.rada.gov.ua/services/pubd/) in 2016. The RADA Program negotiates with the VRU Secretariat to institutionalize the E-Platform, i.e. to make its usage a compulsory step in legislative process.

• A further step in the E-platform development is its integration with the CSO Register (see 1.2.i and 1.2.ii). On November 4, 2016, the RADA Program initiated an evaluation meeting with the VR’s IT Department to discuss the approach to integrate two sources for joint use by the MPs, members of the VR Secretariat, civil society organizations and media. The meeting resulted in a decision to combine both resources into one tool (http://parlament.org.ua/2016/11/07/e-instruments-for-vr). This will raise the transparency of the parliamentary processes through involvement of active citizens in the legislative process.

• The RADA Program has made three study presentations of the E-tools developed for VRU:

o On November 21 and November 24, 2016 (in Mykolayiv and Chernihiv respectively) the beta version of the Citizens-Rada Legislative Discussion E-Platform (Citizens e-Platform) and CSOs e-Registry were presented (http://radaprogram.org/en/content/e-resources-presented-mykolayiv-and-chernihiv);

o On November 24, 2016 the presentation of the beta version of the Citizens-Rada Legislative Discussion E-Platform (Citizens e-Platform) and CSOs e-Registry was held to staff of VR committees (http://radaprogram.org/en/content/presentation-held-vr-committee-staff-citizens-e-platform-and-csos-e-registry).

• RADA Program experts Serhiy Cherednichenko and Borys Bespalyi participated in a workshop for the staff of the VR Computerized Systems Department that was delivered on April 25 by the Head of the ICT Conception and Development Unit in the European Parliament (EP) Ludovic Delépine. One of the most important sessions was devoted to the Citizens Rada Legislative Discussion E-Platform (Citizen E-Platform) and its institutionalization; it focused on some regulatory issues concerning the Legislative Discussion E-Platform and revealed possible provisions and directives to be adopted by the Ukrainian Parliament’s leadership. The expert spoke of the practice of using e-platforms in the European Parliament and in European national parliaments.

http://bit.ly/2uqwZF9

http://www.golos.com.ua/news/54887

http://lawfaculty.chnu.edu.ua/?p=5337

http://bit.ly/2uzBjCe

https://itd.rada.gov.ua/services/pubd/

http://parlament.org.ua/2016/11/07/e-instruments-for-vr

http://radaprogram.org/en/content/e-resources-presented-mykolayiv-and-chernihiv

http://radaprogram.org/en/content/e-resources-presented-mykolayiv-and-chernihiv

http://radaprogram.org/en/content/presentation-held-vr-committee-staff-citizens-e-platform-and-csos-e-registry

http://radaprogram.org/en/content/presentation-held-vr-committee-staff-citizens-e-platform-and-csos-e-registry


• On that same day, April 25, the RADA Program organized another meeting with the heads of VR Committees’ Secretariats and the heads of the VR Secretariat Departments. The meeting discussed the best practices for public discussion platforms functionality in the European Parliament and European national parliaments after the presentation by the Head of the ICT Conception and Development Unit in the European Parliament (EP) Ludovic Delépine. During the discussion, Mr. Delépine emphasized the high quality of the Citizens Rada Legislative Discussion E-Platform (Citizen E-Platform) developed by the RADA Program jointly with the VRU Secretariat Computerized Systems Department.

• The Interns’ League (IL) worked up the draft Communication Strategy to promote online platform for public commentaries on legislation among parliamentary committees. The Strategy targets two key audiences: (1) the VR Committees and MPs to stimulate them to publish draft laws for public discussions; and (2) citizens to promote their greater involvement into commenting of draft laws. On March 16, 2017, IL presented the platform for public commentaries on draft legislation for the members of the RPR coalition (http://rpr.org.ua/en/). The RPR experts expressed their readiness to comment on the draft laws appearing on the platform.

The e-petition tool on the web portal of Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine (https://itd.rada.gov.ua/services/Petitions/) has been functioning for more than a year. Each citizen can submit a petition to the portal. If a petition gathers 25 thousand signatures, the VRU will be obliged to answer it. During the reporting period, 2 of more than 800 e-petitions that are registered on the VRU web portal became successful – they got the necessary 25 thousand signatures.

To promote the e-petition tool, IL permanently monitors the site, publishes and disseminates infographics on the most popular petitions twice a month (for example, http://www.interns.org.ua/uk/content/oglyad-e-petyciy-do-vru-za-18-veresnya-1-zhovtnya-2017-roku). IL has also prepared infographics on how to make a successful e-petition (http://www.interns.org.ua/uk/content/yak-zrobyty-e-petyciyu-uspishnoyu-porady-diany-dovgan).

2.2.ii. Training module on CSO monitoring of constituency development funds and other district-specific allocations

This activity has been completed. The RADA Program has started to incorporate the methodology into the training module in the Model District component.

2.2.iii. Support citizen groups engaged in lobbying and advocacy campaigns for democratic legislation or legislative amendments

The RADA Program’s partner Agency of Legal Initiatives (ALI) prepared and published a practical guide for NGOs “Guiding Principles for Planning and Conducting Advocacy Campaigns.” The guide aimed to improve NGOs’ skills of planning and conducting advocacy campaigns through building effective communication with MPs, VR Committees and VRU Secretariat. ALI addressed the phenomenon of self-organized civil society of Ukraine (Reanimation Package of Reforms (RPR) Coalition uniting over 80 Ukrainian NGOs) and theories of the policy cycle along with highlighting the best world practices in advocacy. The guidelines also provide analysis of advocacy campaigns conducted by ALI in cooperation with the RPR Coalition in 2015-2016. The publication aimed to equip public activists, NGO leaders, government officials, and business professionals with systematized knowledge on effective advocacy and on building a relationship with the Government (http://bit.ly/2yXfsXy).

http://rpr.org.ua/en/

https://itd.rada.gov.ua/services/Petitions/

http://www.interns.org.ua/uk/content/oglyad-e-petyciy-do-vru-za-18-veresnya-1-zhovtnya-2017-roku

http://www.interns.org.ua/uk/content/oglyad-e-petyciy-do-vru-za-18-veresnya-1-zhovtnya-2017-roku

http://www.interns.org.ua/uk/content/yak-zrobyty-e-petyciyu-uspishnoyu-porady-diany-dovgan

http://www.interns.org.ua/uk/content/yak-zrobyty-e-petyciyu-uspishnoyu-porady-diany-dovgan

http://bit.ly/2yXfsXy


Expected Result 2.3. Reform legislation passed by partnering with other USAID programs

2.3.i. Beginning-of-plenary-sessions presentations of USAID projects in VR Committees

The USAID RADA Program, jointly with the VR Secretariat, held a Coordination Meeting on improving the efficiency of cooperation between the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the VR’s structural units, and international technical assistance projects on March 13, 2017. Up to 60 representatives of the VR and international technical assistance projects attended the event. The meeting served as a communication platform for Committees to express their needs and for organizations to offer possible support.

The USAID RADA Program and the VR Secretariat summarized the committees’ needs and suggestions in the Needs Assessment Report and built a plan for cooperation for 2017. The Needs Assessment Report was distributed among donor organizations for better coordination and planning of their support for the parliamentary reform. RADA expects such meetings to be conducted on an annual basis or even more frequently to contribute to better cooperation between VR Committees and international donor organizations.

Representatives of the VR Committees and the VR structural units voiced the following needs for cooperation, except those already included in the summarized work plan with the RADA Program:

• Unification of all contacts in the database of donor organizations and NGOs that are ready to cooperate with the Parliament;

• Staff training for VR Secretariat employees, in particular courses in using the case law of the European Court of Human Rights, foreign language courses, information security courses;

• Assistance in designing information and promo materials about the VRU’s operation including infographics to be placed on the VR web-resources and distributed in print;

• Translation of the VR’s website content into English language.

• The organizational aspects of effective cooperation with the partners of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine were also discussed with the participation of the Main Organization Office, the Personnel Office, the Information Office, and the Press Service. Natalia Ruzhytska, chief specialist of the Central Organization Office, expressed hope that after the Coordination Meeting and the profound discussion that had taken place there, cooperation would become stronger and the number of quality events would increase.

The USAID RADA Program continued its monthly coordination meetings with the heads of the VR Committees and faction secretariats to raise their awareness about existing tools and available technical assistance for the parliamentary reform. RADA pursued the enhancement of communication between the VR, international donor organizations, and civil society to strengthen the Parliament’s staff competence and capacity:

• On January 24, thirty-two VR representatives learned about instruments for assessing the parliamentary Committees’ transparency that are used by the Civil Network OPORA in its monitoring of the VR Committees (please read more in ER 3.2.ii).

The USAID RADA Program gender expert Olena Suslova announced a short-term course on “Gender analysis of the state policies” that started on January 31.


• On February 28, thirty-eight VR representatives discussed the Parliament oversight function over the executive authorities. USAID RADA Senior Consultant Volodymyr Kryzhanivskyi presented the mechanisms for the oversight, paying special attention to EU Needs Assessment Mission recommendation No. 16 concerning the establishment of an annual work plan for oversight activities by each Committee. Mr. Kryzhanivskyi emphasized the requirement that the number of VR Committees be equal to the number of ministries. DCoP of the Agency for Legislative Initiatives Oleksandr Zaslavskyi presented an application for Shadow Reports and described the first successful use of this tool by the Ukrainian Parliament. Participants in the meeting agreed that shadow reports significantly strengthen oversight function of the Verkhovna Rada and its Committees.

• On March 28, the CoP of the European Information and Research Center (EIRC) Roman Kobets presented information briefs, policy papers and policy briefs prepared by the EIRC for the VR Committees, factions and groups.

The League of Interns’ Communication Manager Mariana Doboni presented the USAID RADA’s e-tool – the CSOs e-Register, which contains the full information on the expert CSOs wishing to cooperate with relevant VR Committees: 80 CSOs and 11 VR Committees already created their profiles in the online register.

OPORA presented its video on the work of Committees to 26 VR representatives. The video can be used for public educational purposes when communicating with the Parliament, as well as in the course of public awareness campaigns conducted by OPORA and other CSOs.

• On April 25, am evaluation report on the legislative processes during the 5th plenary session of the 8th convocation of the Parliament was presented and discussed with the participation of representatives of the Main Legal Department of the VR Secretariat, the RADA Program, OPORA, and IFES experts, who took part in the evaluation. The evaluation was conducted by the RADA Program. The Quality of Legislative Process Index of the 5th convocation was 2.73, which is 0.02 points higher than the 4th plenary session’s score.

• On May 30, the main topics for discussion included a report on the VRU Secretariat’s study tour to the UK Parliament that was organized by UNDP/EC Rada for the Europe Project, where participants visited the independent parliamentary service department and learned about HR practices, legal services, and introduction of ICT. The Head of the ICT Conception and Development Unit in the European Parliament Ludovic Delépine presented European practices of public platforms in the European Parliament and emphasized the importance of the developed public discussions platform on the VR website that allows commenting on draft laws. The RADA Program presented a shadow report on Civic Service Law implementation, and facilitated the discussion on the draft concept for improvement of the legislative process to address the recommendations of the European Parliament Needs Assessment Mission.

• At a discussion on July 4, 2017, RADA’s partner, Agency for Legislative Initiatives, presented a Shadow Report on assessment of the implementation of the main reforms in the sphere of civil service in Ukraine. USAID RADA’s gender expert Olena Suslova also presented a handbook on gender analysis in public policy and regulatory acts.

• During the next meeting, which took place on September 26, OPORA presented its methodology for evaluating the VRU Committees’ transparency. Deputy Head of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Secretariat Mykola Shevchuk presented the VRU’s new communication strategy.

On May 16-17, 2017, the RADA Program, jointly with the VR Secretariat, held an Information Fair at the premises of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. That important annual event aims at informing the policymakers about resources and opportunities for cooperation with civil society organizations and international donor projects. Over 100 MPs, their aides, the VRU Secretariat, and mass media representatives learned about more than 50 projects and donor organizations cooperating with the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine from their presentations, brochures, analytical publications and reports that were distributed at stands located in the main building of the Parliament.

The VR Speaker Andriy Parubiy and the US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch took part in the Official Opening Ceremony of the Information Fair 2017. "There is so much going on that it can be hard to


keep track. That is why this fair is such a great opportunity. It is a one-stop shop that can help you do your job. The people you talk to today, and the projects you learn about, will probably tell you something new," said Ambassador Yovanovitch in her welcoming address to the participants and guests of the Fair.

The RADA Program prepared a Guide on organizations/projects/programs by international donors providing technical, analytical, and advisory assistance to the Parliament of Ukraine. It was separately presented during the InfoFair-2017. The Guide is also available at the RADA website http://bit.ly/2tjFWA6.

Other important coordination meetings in the Parliament included the following:

• RADA Program experts took part in the roundtable “Participative Democracy in the System of Local Self-Government” on April 10 to share their insights on the decentralization processes in Ukraine and barriers at the local level. The RT was organized by the Committee on State Building, Regional Policy and Local Self-Government jointly with the Ukrainian-Swiss Project DESPRO, the European Union, the Ukrainian Center for Independent Political Research (UCIPR), and the USAID Project “Citizens in Action.” RADA Program Director Ihor Kohut proposed that the VR Committee should play a leading role in the development of key foundations of public participation and good governance for self-government bodies in the oblasts of Ukraine. Local councils should establish consultative methodological centers to apply mechanisms for public participation, i.e. in the form of town forums, public hearings, or town hall meetings. Members of Parliament, local officials, civil society representatives, scientists and international organizations discussed the international experience of participatory governance and made propositions on possible strengthening of democracy at the local level, http://bit.ly/2t9BArg.

• On April 20, RADA Program Coordinator Ihor Parasiuk delivered a presentation about the expected changes to legislation on decentralization at the Third Forum of Democratic Governance, organized by IRI and the Government of Canada. In particular, Mr. Parasiuk focused on administrative and territorial structure in the context of creation of metropolitan areas and municipal agglomerates in Ukraine.

• On May 31, 2017, the USAID RADA Program hosted a coordination meeting of international technical assistance programs working in Ukraine (IPTAC) to discuss the status of the judicial reform and identify the main barriers to its implementation. The meeting noted significant progress in the adoption of important legislation that eliminated political pressure and ensured the independence of the judiciary; however, some acts are pending consideration and this slows down the reform; these are procedural codes, laws on the Constitutional Court, the bar, the Anti-Corruption Court, etc. Despite the enhanced independence of the courts, citizens have not noticed any changes yet; this requires powerful public awareness campaigning. The meeting contributed to mutual understanding of the court system reform context and assisted in planning joint donors’ efforts in promotion of the independent court system in Ukraine.

• On April 26, the USAID RADA Program conducted a coordination meeting of technical assistance projects working in Ukraine (IPTAC) to discuss the Lawmaking Index of the Ukrainian Parliament and the findings of the monitoring of the Parliament Committees’ work. RADA Program Coordinator for Cooperation with the Parliament Olena Bazylivska presented the recent Lawmaking Index that demonstrated slight improvements in the Parliament, which adopted certain recommendations of the Pat Cox Mission; laws on improving the Rules of Procedure and introducing changes to VR Committees’ work were drafted and are pending consideration by the Parliament; Committees gradually eliminate the political discourse when discussing draft laws by preferring justified opinions from professional experts, provide live streaming of their meetings, and publish minutes and transcripts. Low scores were received for the Parliament’s progress in legislature on electoral and political issues; the Parliament’s oversight function is mostly ignored. The Deputy Head of the VR

http://radaprogram.org/publications/dovidnyk-organizaciy-proektiv-ta-program-mizhnarodnoyi-tehnichnoyi-dopomogy

http://bit.ly/2tjFWA6

http://bit.ly/2t9BArg


Main Legal Department Volodymyr Milovanov described the index as logical and somewhat overrated, saying that it creates a motivation for further development of the legislative processes. The experts participating in the panel on Lawmaking Index explained their scores and added extra comments on the gains and failures of the parliamentary reform. The participants included representatives of international donor organizations, MPs, staff of the VR Secretariat, lawyers and NGOs cooperating with the Ukrainian Parliament, http://bit.ly/2usHuI5, http://bit.ly/2t92ZK4.

2.3.ii. Encourage USAID programs’ representation in WGs, discussions, Committee meetings

• On March 13, 2017, the USAID RADA Program, jointly with the VR Secretariat, held a series of coordination meetings on improving the efficiency of cooperation between the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the VR structural units, and international technical assistance projects. Please read more in ER 2.3.i.

• RADA Program coordinator Ihor Parasiuk took an active part in three Donor Board Working Groups that serve as a coordination mechanism between the Ministry of Regional Development, Construction and Communal Services (MinRegion) and the international donor organizations providing support in implementation of reforms in the spheres of decentralization, local governance, and regional development in Ukraine. Mr. Parasiuk moderated the first workgroup "Territorial Organization of Power and Decentralization of the Legal Framework " on February 27, 2017; two other workgroups met on March 16 and March 21, 2017, to finalize the table of activities and expected results to be supported by the donor communities. The workgroups reports and final plans are posted at http://donors.decentralization.gov.ua and http://donors.decentralization.gov.ua/uk/donors_senate.

• The RADA Program participates in all meetings of the Committee on State Building, Regional Policy and Local Self-Government. During the second quarter of 2017, the RADA Program took part in five meetings of the Committee; the meeting on June 7, 2017, appointed RADA Program Coordinator Ihor Parasiuk as a Consultant to the Committee working on a voluntary basis, in view of the high quality of his advice and the reliability of his competence.

• RADA Program Coordinator Ihor Parasiuk continued to work as a member of the Donor Board of the National Center for the Development of Self-Government. Mr. Parasiuk contributed to the efforts of Working Group No. 1 on Administrative and Territorial Reform and Legislation on Decentralization (http://donors.decentralization.gov.ua/donor_board) related to the Decentralization Results Matrix that included coordinated donor support for the Center’s activities and expected results. The document is publically available via the hyperlink http://bit.ly/2u0BlSl. The Matrix will enable regular assessment of the progress of the decentralization reform in key areas such as legislative support, finance and budgeting of self-governance, local democracy, regional development, administrative services, communication, and knowledge management.

2.3.iii. Develop recommendations of draft legislation tracking to be used by CSOs

The USAID RADA Program initiated monthly coordination meetings of its experts and implementing partners with the heads of the VR Committees’ and faction secretariats to enhance communication between the VR, international donor organizations, and civil society and hence to strengthen the Parliament’s capacity through cooperation.

• On November 29, 2016, the RADA Program and the VR Secretariat outlined the way to cooperate at the first meeting with the participation of 35 representatives. Also, the e-resources for the enhancement of citizen’s participation in the legislative process were presented.

• On December 27, 2016, the discussion concerned prospects for cooperation in 2017: it (1) summed up the results of selection of interns for the VR Internship Program in 2017; and (2) highlighted the work of the European Information and Research Center (EIRC) in the Verkhovna Rada. The Head of the VR Secretariat’s Computerized Systems Department Oleksiy Sydorenko presented new e-resources for the work of the VR Committees – “E-meeting of VR Committee” and “E-plenary session

http://bit.ly/2usHuI5

http://bit.ly/2t92ZK4

http://donors.decentralization.gov.ua/

http://donors.decentralization.gov.ua/uk/donors_senate

http://donors.decentralization.gov.ua/donor_board

http://bit.ly/2u0BlSl


of the Verkhovna Rada”. Forty-five representatives of the VRU and the RADA Program participated in the event. The presented tools are still in the process of elaboration.

• The Civil Network OPORA continues to promote its parliamentary monitoring methodology among national and regional CSOs and public activists. Those toolkits are currently in use throughout Ukraine (https://rada.oporaua.org/ and https://rada4you.org/). Please refer to sections 2.1.ii and 2.1.vi of this Report.




OBJECTIVE 3. Role of legislature in providing independent oversight of the executive branch strengthened

Expected Result 3.1. Anti-Corruption efforts strengthened, including parliamentary budgetary oversight

3.1.i. Video-based training manual on analyzing the state budget and the participation of MPs in the budget preparation and oversight

RADA experts developed a video training manual – a unique tool on the budgeting process for the parliamentarians and the public. The 51-minute video course consists of four parts, each devoted to different stages of the state budgeting process: (i) Legislative background and Ukrainian system of budgeting; (ii) Preparation of budget categories and discussions; (iii) Budget consideration process in the Parliament; and (iv) Parliament’s function of oversight of budget expenditures. The four segments are included in the full video which is available on the RADA Program YouTube channel and the RADA Program website (http://radaprogram.org/videomaterials/byudzhetnyy-proces). The training manual is a unique tool that allows presenting the entire budget process in the video format.

3.1.ii. Encourage use of the website resource corruptua.org on corruption activities by region

This activity was suspended, since the web resource does not function as a reporter on anti-corruption activities due to absence of funding for the website. The RADA Program was never supposed to fund the functioning of the website; it was expected to present cases of corruption for review by the VR Committee on Preventing and Combating Corruption. Instead, the RADA Program planned to conduct quarterly meetings together with the VR Committee on Preventing and Combating Corruption to follow anti-corruption activities. In Year 4, The RADA Program managed to organize and provide expertise to the following meetings:

• On April 17, 2017, the VR Committee on Preventing and Combating Corruption, together with the RADA Program, held a quarterly working meeting “Introduction of e-Declarations for NGOs: Problems and Challenges” with the participation of 60 representatives of international donor organizations, government anti-corruption bodies, civil society organizations, and Members of Parliament. The discussion concerned amendments to the Law of Ukraine "On Prevention of Corruption" that obliged NGOs and third parties involved in anti-corruption activities to declare their income. Participants in the meeting emphasized the necessity to cancel this undemocratic provision. “If we let the law provisions expand the categories of persons who must declare their income with amendment from MP Tetiana Chornovol and make e-declarations mandatory for anti-corruption NGOs, it will be a dangerous precedent mutilating anti-corruption as it is. When the state tries to control its citizens, this leads to totalitarianism,” MP Yehor Sobolev said. RADA Program anti-corruption expert Oleksandr Liemienov emphasized that the Law of Ukraine "On Preventing Corruption," which introduced the amendments, violates the Ukrainian Constitution and other legislation. A detailed analysis is available at http://bit.ly/2u0iIxC.

3.1.iii. Expert discussion on changes to the Law on the Rules of Parliamentary Procedure In cooperation with VR Rules Committee

The USAID RADA Program succeeded to introduce the Parliamentary Reform into the VR agenda. The

Parliamentary Reform Strategy has been refined and is under the oversight of the Speaker. Nevertheless,

the RADA Program observes no willingness among factions to introduce changes, partially due to lack of

professional knowledge on modern parliamentary processes and procedures among MPs and VR staff. To

overcome the barrier, RADA initiated 10 public discussions on key messages of Parliamentary reform to be

conducted to raise awareness on this reform as the essential basis for all reforms run in Ukraine. The

message about urgency of the Parliamentary Reform will be delivered to both: 1) civil society in order to

improve citizens’ awareness and willingness to demand transparency of Parliament as an institution; and 2)

all beneficiaries inside Parliament through different experts /actors of influence to set up effective and

mandatory rules of work. Upgraded training on rules of procedure, policy analysis, use of public expertise in

http://radaprogram.org/videomaterials/byudzhetnyy-proces

http://bit.ly/2u0iIxC


lawmaking, government oversight, and a tuned dialog with communities might help to strengthen the

productivity of the Parliament and quality of the policy making.

The RADA Program focuses its efforts on completion of the earlier launched reforms within the Parliament

— the Rules of Procedure (EP Rec. 1,2,3,4), Code of Ethics (Rec. 52), Parliament’s oversight of the executive

branch of the government (Rec. 14, 15, 16, 17), involvement of civil society and the public in legislation

development, and public discussion in local governments within the Model District project.

RADA Program works on the full introduction and effective functioning of E-Parliament instruments. (EP Rec.

#22,23). The RADA Program also conducts numerous working to raise the awareness of the VR staff and MPs

about the use of E-Parliament instruments including E-Petitions, Public Platform for Draft Laws Commentary,

E-Plenary, E-Committee and CSO Register.

RADA Program joins efforts with other international donors on many chapters of Parliamentary reforms,

that first of all includes coordination of work of the Working Group consisuting of VR Secretariat, MPs,

UNDP’s Rada za Evropu, NDI, Venice Comission, Westminster Foundation. In addition, RADA Program

coordinates activitis on work with EU Delegation’s Public Finance Management and Budget Transparency

on strengthening work of Acounting Chamber; with Transparency International – on OGPI (Open

Government Partnership Initiative), including Open Parliament component.

Finally, the Verkhovna Rada demonstrated its cooperative attitude toward USAID RADA Program. The VR

Secretariat expressed its readiness to introduce internal restructuring (part of EP Roadmap) by including into

its regular practice a bunch of products developed by RADA Program. That particularly included training

programs for newly elected MPs and their teams; training on policy cycle and policy analysis; strengthened

oversight function of Parliament over Cabinet of Ministers; activation of the Accounting Chamber work.

However, that requires the systematic assistance and further mentoring from the RADA side to enroot

desired changes. Currently, USAID RADA program also sets up systems, elaborated TOGETHER with VR

appropriate units such as e-instruments developed and introduced together with VR Chief Department of

Computerized Systems; budget allocation for the VR Internship Program that became part of VR Secretariat

Organizational Department; regular VR Speaker’s press events; design and proper distribution of the civic

education products along with the Parliament exhibition of technical assistance projects “InfoFair” with the

Informational Department of VR Secretariat; templates of policy books, green books, white books with the

Chief Legal Scientific Department of VR Secretariat).

• On November 22, 2016, the RADA Program partner ALI jointly with Verkhovna Rada Committee on Legal Policy and Justice held a roundtable discussion on “Reforming Parliamentary Procedures: Constitutional and Legal Analysis”. The roundtable discussion focused on the necessity of reforming the Ukrainian Parliament, present-day challenges, and possible ways of improving the work of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. The event was attended by MPs of Ukraine, representatives of state authorities, NGOs and associations, academics, and experts (http://parlament.org.ua/en/2016/11/22/roundtable-reforming-parliamentary-procedures-constitutional-and-legal-analysis/).

• On March 22, 2017, the RADA Program held a round table "International experience regarding parliamentary opposition. The political debate. Regulation of participation of the opposition in Parliament" jointly with the VR Procedure Committee and the Association of people’s deputies. The participants discussed whether the legal regulation of the opposition necessary, which was stated in the Roadmap on Internal Reform and Capacity Building for the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, developed in cooperation with the European Parliament’s Needs Assessment Mission (http://radaprogram.org/en/content/roundtable-international-experience-regarding-parliamentary-opposition-and-regulation).

https://ti-ukraine.org/news/prezentovano-novyi-plan-dii-iz-vprovadzhennia-initsiatyvy-partnerstvo-vidkrytyi-uriad/

http://radaprogram.org/radanews/golova-verhovnoyi-rady-parubiy-misiya-koksa-znachno-vplynula-na-parlamentsku-reformu

http://iportal.rada.gov.ua/news/Novyny/143923.html

http://euinfocenter.rada.gov.ua/uploads/documents/29181.pdf

http://parlament.org.ua/2016/10/01/white-book-info-breif/

http://parlament.org.ua/en/2016/11/22/roundtable-reforming-parliamentary-procedures-constitutional-and-legal-analysis/

http://parlament.org.ua/en/2016/11/22/roundtable-reforming-parliamentary-procedures-constitutional-and-legal-analysis/

http://radaprogram.org/en/content/roundtable-international-experience-regarding-parliamentary-opposition-and-regulation

http://radaprogram.org/en/content/roundtable-international-experience-regarding-parliamentary-opposition-and-regulation


• On May 22, 2017, the RADA Program hosted a working group of the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe and local experts on parliamentary rules and procedures to discuss the assessment of draft legislation that will change the VR Rules and Procedures in the context of the Ukrainian parliamentary reform and improvement of the legislative process (http://radaprogram.org/radanews/programa-usaid-rada-predstavyla-koncepciyu-zakonodavchogo-procesu-v-konteksti-zahodiv-po).

• To oversee smooth implementation of the Rules of Procedure, the RADA Program conducted two types of monitoring during plenary weeks: 1) Violations of the Rules of Procedure ;and (2) Government Question Hours on Fridays of plenary weeks. The results of the monitoring are posted on the RADA website for use in public discussions and by expert working groups so as to propose necessary amendments to the Rules of Procedure for advancing the parliamentary reform.

3.1.iv. Methodological Recommendations for VR Committees for reviewing the Chamber’s reports

The USAID RADA Program produced an analytical paper “Cooperation of the Accounting Chamber, the Parliament, and civil society organizations” as the principle document for MPs, VR staff, civil society and media (http://radaprogram.org/publications/rahunkova-palata-ukrayiny-spivpracya-z-verhovnoyu-radoyu-ta-organizaciyamy). The paper became a first step toward setting up a working group to produce a roadmap for transformation of the existing Accounting Chamber into an independent state auditor with oversight functions. The working group will consist of members of the VR Budget Committee and of the Accounting Chamber, independent experts, and representatives of appropriate international organizationsone a newly elected staff of the Accounting Chamber is assigned.

3.1.v. Participate in activities of the VR Committee on Combating Organized Crime and Corruption charged with the development of the Code of Ethics

• On October 21, 2016, the RADA Program held a consultative meeting within the framework of “II Dialogues on Parliamentary Ethics”. Invited experts, Margit Sutrop, Professor of Practical Philosophy, Marten Yuurik, Center for Ethics, University of Tartu, and Dirk Toornstra, Independent Governance Advisor, held a training game with representatives of NGOs involving the analysis of complex ethical cases, which will be further presented to MPs. The meeting was broadcasted online via YouTube (http://parlament.org.ua/en/2016/10/21/consultative-meeting-with-ngo-representatives-in-the-framework-of-ii-dialogues-on-parliamentary-ethics/).

• On February 9, 2017, a press-briefing “Signing the Declaration of Intent on the Code of Conduct” took place in the Verkhovna Rada. MPs Olena Sotnyk (Samopomich), Svitlana Zalishchuk (Petro Poroshenko Bloc), Sergiy Leshchenko (Petro Poroshenko Bloc), Oksana Yurynets (Petro Poroshenko Bloc), Yuriy Miroshnichenko(Opposition Bloc), Alyona Shkrum (Batkivshchyna), Ostap Yednak (non-aligned) and other MPs joined the briefing. During the briefing MPs declared their intentions to work in the framework of the dialogue platform created to discuss ethical dilemmas and provide an inclusive environment to work on the Code of Conduct “owned” by MPs (http://parlament.org.ua/en/2017/02/09/9143/).

• On February 24, the dialogue platform on parliamentary ethics met in the format of the world café. On the margins of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine MPs Sergei Leshchenko, Svetlana Zalishchuk, Ostap Yednak, Oleksiy Ryabchin, Grigory Shverk discussed ethical dilemmas concerning:

o how to prevent MPs’ indecent behavior;

o how to regulate the content and timing of MP’s speech in the voting chamber;

o how to prevent the domination of individual parliamentarians in the debate, deviations from the topic of discussion, the use of the parliamentary tribune for self-advertisement;

o how to prevent non-personal voting;

o how to regulate the MP’s lexicon during his / her speeches in the voting chamber.

http://radaprogram.org/radanews/programa-usaid-rada-predstavyla-koncepciyu-zakonodavchogo-procesu-v-konteksti-zahodiv-po

http://radaprogram.org/radanews/programa-usaid-rada-predstavyla-koncepciyu-zakonodavchogo-procesu-v-konteksti-zahodiv-po

http://www.radaprogram.org/reglamet-monitoring

http://www.radaprogram.org/hodyna-zapytan

http://radaprogram.org/publications/rahunkova-palata-ukrayiny-spivpracya-z-verhovnoyu-radoyu-ta-organizaciyamy

http://radaprogram.org/publications/rahunkova-palata-ukrayiny-spivpracya-z-verhovnoyu-radoyu-ta-organizaciyamy

http://parlament.org.ua/en/2016/10/21/consultative-meeting-with-ngo-representatives-in-the-framework-of-ii-dialogues-on-parliamentary-ethics/

http://parlament.org.ua/en/2016/10/21/consultative-meeting-with-ngo-representatives-in-the-framework-of-ii-dialogues-on-parliamentary-ethics/

http://parlament.org.ua/en/2017/02/09/9143/


This discussion format encourages better understanding of issues and allows for many views and opinions, and at the same time, thanks to the constant rotation of group members, presents the discussion point in different contexts. The proposed topic also included problems of non-parliamentary language, dress code, lack of gender-sensitive language, behavior during sessions etc. (http://parlament.org.ua/en/2017/02/24/world-cafe-on-parliamentary-ethics/).

• On September 7, 2017, the USAID RADA Program, ALI, and MPs Olena Sotnyk, Serhiy Leshchenko and Ostap Yednak presented an analytical report "The Ethical Code: structure, content, and subjects” that is meant to be the basis for the long-awaited Code of Parliamentary Ethics. The RADA Program and its partners will actively advocate the development and adoption of the Code of Parliament Ethics in 2018 despite the unwillingness of a majority of MPs to discuss and introduce ethical issues into their work.

3.1.vi. Series of roundtable discussions on political and campaign finance and changes to current legislation with IFES

On May 29, 2017, the USAID RADA Program and IFES conducted a roundtable “On Public Access to Electoral Rights” in Severodonetsk, Luhansk oblast (government-controlled area). Please read more in ER 1.1.i and 1.1.ii.

3.1.vii. Guidelines and methodological recommendations on the implementation of new anti-corruption provisions in the Ukrainian legislation, with Government Representative for Anti-Corruption Policy and NAUCS

No activities under this ER in Y4.

http://parlament.org.ua/en/2017/02/24/world-cafe-on-parliamentary-ethics/


Expected Result 3.2. Parliamentary oversight strengthened through improved structural effectiveness

3.2.i. Series of public hearings on pre-prepaid shadow reports

• On October 11, 2016, a meeting of the VR Committee on Preventing and Combating Corruption discussed the presented shadow report “Implementation of the law on opening the property registers.” The report identified significant limitations in the registers: only 10% of the data on property is open; sorting filters are unavailable, ruling out fast search for particular individuals; search for cars by the state registration number is not possible; the real estate register does not provide information about previous owners; no data filter in the search of real estate owners; streets renamed after de-communization are not included in the database, etc. A follow-up roundtable on the subject with the participation of the Civic Lustration Committee was held on November 21. RADA prepared and sent official petitions to the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Interior, and State Service on Geodesy, Cartography and Cadaster, insisting that the data in the Property Register be readjusted. The Committee’s Head Yehor Sobolev promised to submit similar requests on behalf of the Committee, http://parlament.org.ua/2016/11/21/shadow-report.

• On November 16, 2016, ALI presented its shadow report “On the Implementation Plan for Energy Efficiency by 2020” at the meeting of the Sub-Committee on Energy Efficiency of the VR Committee on the Fuel and Energy Complex, Nuclear Policy and Nuclear Safety. The full report will be available in early 2017, http://parlament.org.ua/2016/11/16/shadow-report-energy.

• On November 24, 2016, ALI presented a shadow report “Local Referendum as a Component in Local Democracy” at the meeting of the working group of the Sub-Committee on Elections and Referendums of the VR Committee on Legal Policy and Justice in Chernihiv, http://parlament.org.ua/2016/11/24/shadow-report-2. ALI analyst Tetiana Chernukha and Director of the USAID Project “Citizens in Action” Maksym Latsyba made presentations on the state of local democracy in Ukraine, providing retrospective statistics on the subjects of the referendums held in Ukraine in 1991-2012 and discussing the legal framework for local democracy. MP and Co-Chair of the Sub-Committee Oleksandr Chernenko took part in the discussion to express the VRU position on the issue.

• On December 21, 2016, ALI experts presented the Shadow Report “Reform of Higher Education in Ukraine: Implementation of the Specialized Law in 2014–2016” (http://parlament.org.ua/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/HE-shadow-report-final.pdf) at extended meeting of the Committee on Science and Education dedicated to topical education issues. The meeting was attended by MPs Oleksandr Spivakovsky, Ivan Kyrylenko, Oleksiy Skrypnyk, Taras Kremin, academics, experts, representatives of NGOs, and members of committees of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine (http://parlament.org.ua/en/2016/12/22/shadow-report-education-us/).

• The presentation of the shadow report at the roundtable meeting with the Committee on May 17, 2017, triggered an active discussion of the findings at the meeting. Later, the Committee drew up a petition to the Government with emphasis on the need to facilitate the civil service reform by taking into account recommendations of the Shadow Report. A video of the round-table discussion is available at http://bit.ly/2t7iyBF. The press release of the event can be found at http://bit.ly/2qVdWBi.

• RADA’s partner Agency for Legislative initiatives (ALI) assisted the Committee on State Building, Regional Policy and Local Self-Government in the preparation of the Shadow Report “Civil Service

http://parlament.org.ua/2016/11/21/shadow-report.

http://parlament.org.ua/2016/11/16/shadow-report-energy.

http://parlament.org.ua/2016/11/24/shadow-report-2.

http://parlament.org.ua/2016/11/24/shadow-report-2.

http://parlament.org.ua/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/HE-shadow-report-final.pdf

http://parlament.org.ua/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/HE-shadow-report-final.pdf

http://parlament.org.ua/en/2016/12/22/shadow-report-education-us/

http://bit.ly/2t7iyBF

http://bit.ly/2qVdWBi


Reform in Ukraine: Implementation of the Core Law in 2016-2017.” As an alternative to the executive government’s report, the Shadow Report exhaustively analyzed the law’s clauses and its gaps, and proposed a new vision of the civil service considering new tools for HR management in civil service.

• The shadow report “Assessment of the Effectiveness of the State Policy on Community Association” was prepared at the request of the Committee on State Building, Local Government and Regional Policy. The report analyzed the progress of the decentralization reform in Ukraine since April 2014. ALI also assessed the effectiveness and efficiency of the Association of Territorial Communities. The presentation is scheduled for the second week of December 2017 (https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B0vFQWaRD5NXVFcweUF5V1lLaHc). The report will be available online after the presentation.

• The shadow report “Assessment of State Policy on Data Collection and Statistical Methods” was meant to strengthen the oversight functions of the Committee for Informatization and Communications and to assess the implementation of the State Statistics Development Program for 2014-2017. The report analyzed the policy on Public Statistics Management in Ukraine, its key achievements and failures, and provided recommendations for improvements. Although ordinary citizens do not realize the significance of the state statistical service and of its influence on government decision-making, improvement of the service and parliamentary oversight of it are in fact of utmost importance. The report will be available online after its presentation scheduled to the last decade of November 2017 (https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B0vFQWaRD5NXVFcweUF5V1lLaHc).

3.2.ii. Support using MP inquiries, challenges to Government decisions and other oversight means during Committee-conducted hearings – in cooperation with VR Committees

• On December 22, 2016, RADA, in collaboration with the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, the International Open Government Partnership Initiative, and Transparency International Ukraine, with the participation of the VR Committee on Preventing and Countering Corruption, held a roundtable to discuss the interaction between the executive government and the Parliament in the drafting of laws under the Open Government Partnership Initiative. RADA presented the Action Plan to Implement the Open Government Partnership Initiative in 2016-2018. Director of the USAID Office of Democracy and Governance Thomas E. White, Deputy Minister of the Cabinet Volodymyr Bondarenko, members of the Coordinating Council for Implementing the International Open Government Partnership Initiative in Ukraine, People’s Deputies of Ukraine, representatives of the executive authorities as well as of civil society institutions and international organizations took part in the discussion. The participants were interested to hear from the Cabinet of Ministers on its capability to fulfill ambitious obligations and on the necessary measures for coordinating proper implementation of the Open Government Partnership Initiative in Ukraine.

• To strengthen the Parliament’s oversight capability, ALI published an informational and analytical Policy Brief: “THE PARLIAMENTARY OMBUDSMAN’S REPORT." ALI also prepared and published several Policy Papers that provided background info on urgent issues of executive government to be resolved within the Parliament that included:

1. Governance Reform: raising the efficiency of the decision making procedure by Cabinet of Ministers.

2. What kind of policy on road safety should the Ukrainian State pursue?

3. How should Ukraine protect its rights and interests when settling trade disputes at the WTO?

4. Approximation of Ukraine’s legislation to EU law under the Association Agreement: between legal obligations and policy analysis.

5. How to improve public policies to promote employment?

6. Strategic Plan of the Ministry: How to ensure consistency and predictability of executive power?

7. How to create modern Ukrainian qualifications?

8. How to improve the property tax?

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B0vFQWaRD5NXVFcweUF5V1lLaHc

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B0vFQWaRD5NXVFcweUF5V1lLaHc


3.2.iii. Updated training courses currently provided on Drafting Legislation, Norm Making, Lawmaking Techniques, Legal Language, Citizens and Lawmaking – with Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, IRF, VR HR Department, VR Secretariat, and Institute of Legislation

• OPORA presented its methodology to monitor the transparency of parliamentary Committees’ work during the Coordination Meeting of USAID RADA experts and heads of the VR Committees on January 24. After the presentation, representatives of four Committees expressed their willingness to work out recommendations towards increasing the transparency of their work. And so, OPORA has developed detailed recommendations for the four parliamentary Committees: the Committee on Freedom of Speech and Information Policy; the Committee on Construction, Urban Development, Housing and Communal Services; the Committee on Legislative Support of Law Enforcement; and the Committee on Agrarian Policy and Land Relations – to raise the transparency of their work. A part of the OPORA recommendations have already been found appropriate by the Committees; presumably, the other recommendations will gradually be accepted following the Committees’ feedback.

• After the meeting between the USAID RADA Program and the VRU Speaker Andriy Parubiy that took place in the Parliament on February 15, OPORA prepared recommendations on expanding the volume of public information which the Committees will be obliged to publish on their websites. In response to a later request from the Parliament Speaker’s Secretariat, OPORA updated its recommendations and included a proposal to unify the format of the parliamentary Committees’ websites; also, it developed a check-list for information to be posted on the unified websites of the Committees. It included a list of the Committee members, their short bios, regularly updated agendas for the Committee meetings, in particular updated contact information, the possibility to send requests and/or to comment on the draft laws, and reports on the Committee’s performance, sorted by date and topics.

• RADA’s partner Civil Network OPORA has presented its methodology for assessing the level of transparency and openness of the Parliamentary Committees. The presentation took place on June 14, at the conference "Openness of the Authorities through Access to Public Information" which was organized by the Information Office of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine together with the World Bank Office. Earlier in June 2017, OPORA applied the new methodology consisting of a total of 34 indicators and published the findings of its research. According to the study, the level of transparency of the VR Committees’ work significantly improved in comparison to October 2016: twenty-one parliamentary Committees raised the overall effectiveness of their work in terms of timely consideration of draft laws, providing expertise and allowing public access to the meetings; three Committees had the same indicator value; and only three reduced it. Moreover, the websites of the Parliament and the VR Committees have finally incorporated public information as required by VR Speaker’s Order No. 699 of May 19, 2015. However, OPORA methodology presupposed a wider scope of information to become accessible to the public via parliamentary web-platforms. These recommendations were delivered during the presentation to demand more transparency in the Parliament’s work.

• On September 27, during the Coordinating Meeting of the RADA Program representatives with the Heads of the Secretariats of the Verkhovna Rada Committee, OPORA presented a methodology for studying the level of transparency of work of parliamentary Committees. OPORA developed detailed recommendations on increasing the level of transparency and openness for the Committee on Freedom of Speech and Information Policy, which had asked for advice on two occasions during the year. According to the results of the June survey of the Civil Network OPORA, the Committee on Freedom of Speech and Information ranks 2nd in the transparency rating of parliamentary Committees.


Expected result 3.3. Internship program institutionalized

3.3.i. Support Parliamentary Internship Program (PIP)

The Interns’ League (IL), a partner of the USAID RADA Program, successfully administered the Parliament Internship Program 2017 which started in November 2016 and lasted until July 2017. For the first time, a part of the organizational work on preparing the selection was shared with the Secretariat of the Verkhovna Rada. The Internship Program was launched on January 23, 2017; there were 59 interns: 50 were assigned to the VR Secretariat and 9, to the Ombudsperson’s Secretariat, the USAID RADA Program, the European Information and Research Center, and the Office of the Financial and Economic Analysis of the Parliament.

The 2017 interns’ team consisted of 63% of women and 37% of men; 42% of the interns worked at the Parliament and its units on a part-time basis; 58% were employed full-time. Most of the interns were Kyiv residents (17 persons, ~ 29%); 5 were from Lviv oblast and the same number from Kharkiv oblast. No interns were selected for PIP 2017 from Transcarpathian, Zaporizhia, Luhansk, Mykolaiv, and Odesa oblasts.

This year the IT Department has provided interns with individual authorization, access to some databases on the VRU web-portal, and personal email accounts within the IT-system of the VRU; that happened for the first time in the 22-year history of the Parliament Internship Program. Access to the IT network of the Parliament provided interns with a unique opportunity to update the web-platform, to check and process public commentaries on proposed legislation, the CSO Register and other resources that the interns were allowed to access. Training managers and supervisors defined these resources for each intern individually.

To monitor the interns’ adaptation to work in the Parliament and elsewhere, on March 28 IL held a meeting with the heads of the Departments hosting our interns. At the meeting, opportunities for even more active involvement of the Internship Program in the everyday activities of VRU Secretariat were discussed.

The Intern’s League delivered its weekly Thursday lectures and events on leadership development for the interns of the Parliamentary Internship Program. In total, 48 events were conducted during the reporting period.

On July 14, the official closing ceremony of the Parliamentary Internship Program 2017 with presentation of certificates giving was held. First Deputy Chairwoman of the Verkhovna Rada Iryna Herashchenko, MP Serhiy Leshchenko, MP and alumnus of the Internship Program Valeriy Karpuntsov, and representatives of the United States Agency for International Development greeted the interns and emphasized the unique opportunity they had been granted: to enhance their knowledge and skills at the Parliament; then certificates were presented to the fifty-six interns who had successfully completed the Parliament Internship Program (PIP) in 2017.

As a result, two interns were employed by the Secretariats of the VRU Committees, six became aides to MPs, and one was invited to work at the Secretariat of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights.

3.3.ii. Assist the Interns’ League in conducting recruitment campaign for Parliament Internship Program 2015-2016 and build institutional capacity for the Interns’ league

The selection to the Internship Program 2017 was conducted in November and December 2016 with support from the USAID RADA Program. For the first time, a part of the organizational work on preparing the selection was shared with the VRU HR Department. It is important to mention that PIP 2017 was planned to be co-funded from the State Budget under the Law “On Civil Service,” but received tangible cuts that brought the number of interns from 100 down to 50, and the length of internship was reduced from 8 to 6 months in 2017.


With RADA’s support, IL started preparations for the 2018 Parliamentary Internship Program (PIP). Thus, together with the VRU HR Department, IL developed the plan of available vacancies for interns in 2018. According to the plan, the selection will take place in October-December 2017.

From the capacity building perspective, the Interns' League continued to develop rules and procedures for the Internship Program aiming to increase its transparency, designed training for the interns, and incorporated leadership development components into the rules and procedures manual. IL Board considered and adopted two policies: (1) Provisions on prevention of conflict of interests; and (2) Policy on equal opportunities. Besides, IL developed an action plan on institutionalization of the PIP with the Parliament and had several meetings with the chief accountant of the Parliament to seek opportunities to include the Internship Program in the budget of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine starting this year.

The Interns' League team participated in training on result-based management in NGOs that was conducted on May 20-21. During the training, IL formed an organizational vision, set up strategic objectives, and planned strategic directions for NGO work for the period before 2019. After the training, IL developed an operational plan to achieve the strategic objectives.

The League’s assistant Yulia Teleshova went through the training course "Professional Fundraising School" with financial support from the Initiative Center to Support Social Action "Yednannia." After completing the course in October 2017, she will be able to write projects, grant proposals, and search for other sources of funding for the organization more effectively and professionally.

The RADA Program supported the Executive Director of the League of Interns to enter the Master's Program "Management of Nonprofit Organizations" conducted by the Ukrainian Catholic University in autumn 2017. This training course will assist the IL in strategic development and will strengthen IL’s institutional capacity.

The Interns’ League went through the internal organizational assessment procedure on April 7. The Board and the managerial staff were interviewed in line with the USAID methodology OCA. The assessment showed significant improvements in a majority of indicators: they increased from 0.5 to 1 point on a 5-point rating scale compared to a similar assessment in May 2015. The report was prepared by Maria Savina, the Interns’ League Executive Director.

3.3.iii. Develop a Sustainability Plan and Exit Plan for the Interns’ League

In December 2016, the USAID RADA Program and Interns’ League developed the institutionalization plan of the Internship Program which included advocacy campaign to allocate the stipends at the VR Budget for 2018.

The RADA Program and the Interns’ League developed a Manual on the Parliament Internship Program (PIP) to share with the VR Human Resource Department. The Manual describes the full cycle of the program administration, from the announcement and selection of interns to training and supervision of the interns’ work.

3.3.iv. Negotiate the transfer of the Parliamentary Internship Program’s to the VR Secretariat and provide limited programmatic training support

IL and RADA management met with the Head of the Personnel Department Mr. Maksymiak to discuss the plan for PIP implementation in 2017-2018. According to the plan, the VR Personnel Department will play an important role in selection and supervision of the interns. The meeting also aimed to discuss the labor division between IL and the VR Personnel Department in recruitment and maintenance of the Program. Mr. Maksymiak informed the participants about the increased volume of work in the HR Department and its limited staff capacity; however, he assured the audience that the VR HR Department will play a leading role in the selection of future interns.

The League held a wide-scale advocacy campaign to institutionalize the PIP with the Parliament. The Committee on Rules of Parliamentary Procedure of the VR made recommendations to the VR Budget Committee, and PIP alumni MPs Valeriy Karpuntsov and Pavlo Pynzenyk and VR Program management initiated a VR Resolution that should include the PIP in the Parliament HR Policy with relevant budget expenditures. IL sent a letter to the First Deputy Head of the Committee on Rules of Parliamentary Procedure Pavlo Pynzenyk with a request to recommend allocation of stipends in the VR budget 2018. Representatives


of the USAID RADA Program and of the Interns’ League met with the chief accountant of the Parliament to discuss the procedures for submitting the budget request to allocate stipends at the VR budget for 2018. IL made a list of MPs who showed loyalty towards the internship program and held separate informal meetings with them or their aides to ask for support of PIP in case the financial support issue will to be put to vote in the plenary session.

The interns conducted a flash mob for MPs asking the latter for a yes vote for the Resolution during the VR InfoFair. On June 27, during a press conference for 105 central and regional journalists, intern Oleksandra Telehuzova asked the VR Speaker Parubiy about his opinion on institutionalization of the Internship program with the Parliament. Andriy Parubiy said that the VR will definitely institutionalize the Program using the best approach through a resolution or the Secretariat’s internal decision; at any rate, this will undoubtedly be done.

Finally, at the end of June 2017, MPs Valeriy Karpuntsov and Pavlo Pynzenyk registered VR Draft Resolution No. 6596, which recommends establishing thirty stipends for full-time interns in the Parliament in execution of the Law “On Civil Service” (http://bit.ly/2uqSk1f). IL also conducted a number of events to solicit MPs’ support for resolution No. 6596. On July 13, the draft resolution was considered at a meeting of the Committee on Rules of Parliamentary Procedure and Support to Work of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and was recommended for consideration at the plenary session. The resolution was twice included in the agenda of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine’s session, but it was not put to the vote due to the Parliament's consideration of reform packages. It is expected that the resolution will be supported during the 7th session of the Parliament.

http://bit.ly/2uqSk1f


CROSS-CUTTING USAID COMPONENTS

Cross-Program USAID Components

Anti-Corruption

The USAID cross-cutting component on prevention and fighting corruption is one of the program expected result which described in section Objective 3 / Expected Result 3.1.Activities of this report. The below list of implemented anti-corruption activities is provided additionally to the program effort described in ER 3.1.

League of Interns (LI) organized three meeting of interns with MPs and anti-corruption NGO in Year 4. The meetings had an educational purpose for interns, and simultaneously they identified those interns who would like to apply their professional effort to combat corruption in Ukraine by working in state government bodies or by executive the oversight role in anti-corruption NGOs.

• On December 13, 2016, the USAID RADA Program organized a Working Meeting “Anti-Corruption Policy: a Plan for Tomorrow” on the initiative of the Head of the VR Committee on Preventing and Countering Corruption Yehor Sobolev. Thirty representatives of foreign diplomatic missions in Ukraine and representatives of Ukrainian and international organizations engaged in the fight against corruption took part in the event, including USAID, Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, Embassy of Sweden, Royal Danish Embassy, Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Delegation of the European Union to Ukraine, USAID TAPAS activity, Justice Sector Reform USAID Program (Nove Pravosuddia),East Europe Foundation, Westminster Foundation for Democracy, Transparency International Ukraine, the Coalition “Declarations under Control”, Anti-Corruption Group of the Reanimation Package of Reforms, E-data Project and others. The international community expressed its interest in anti-corruption reforms in Ukraine and in overcoming the challenges related to its implementation. The discussion also touched upon the activities of the National Agency for Corruption Prevention that is responsible for e-declarations, conflicts of interest, informers, launching of electronic declarations, problems and challenges pertaining to the creation of the State Bureau of Investigations, and anti-corruption journalistic investigations. The discussion focused on planning the legal change needed to ensure proper implementation of the long-awaited anti-corruption reform.

• As part of the regular USAID RADA Program activities, RADA Program anti-corruption expert has been monitoring anti-corruption legislation drafted and submitted to the Parliament. In 2017, the Law on Mandatory E-Declarations of civic activists representing anti-corruption CSOs that was approved by the Parliament and signed by the President still, remains in the spotlight of civil society, international organizations, and media. That bill significantly limits opportunities for activities of anti-corruption NGOs in the country, since it requires that every sub-contractor, vendor, and staff member must submit their electronic declarations via a special website. Considering these additional obligations, many sub-contractors and vendors are likely to refuse to cooperate with anti-corruption NGOs. Finally, that farce law ruins the concept of mandatory declaration of assets of civil servants that


became obligatory after a massive public advocacy campaign in 2015-2016 headed by anti-corruption NGOs.

• March 02, 2017 – meeting with MP Serhiy Leshchenko covered activities of the VR Committee on Preventing and Fighting Corruption, educated about the differences in mandates of the national anti-corruption bodies NABU, SAP, NASP. Interns also discussed with Mr. Leshchenko the e-declaration system and procedure on public funding for political parties, and touched the limitations and slow processes in overcoming high-level corruption in Ukraine. MP Serhiy Leshchenko wrote in his FB this day: “I had a meeting with the Parliament interns in empty Committees of Verkhovna Rada. Honest and somewhat ingenuous idealists who were lucky to not meet the cynicism and meanness of Ukrainian politics. We will fight for them!”

• On April 27, 2017 - the interns had a one-day training delivered by four speakers from state authority bodies - the Head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Preventing and Combating Corruption Yehor Sobolev, member of the National Agency on Corruption Prevention Ruslan Riaboshapka, Chair of the Board of the Public Lustration Committee Oleksandra Dryk, and Director of the Regulatory Department for Government Procurement of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade Oleksandr Starodubtsev. One-day training explained and explained limitations in efforts that each agency pays to prevent and fix corruption cases. Interns asked numerous questions, and tried to compare the process of elimination of corruption in Ukraine with other countries.

• On June 15, 2017 - the interns met with Executive Director of Transparency International Ukraine Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, and Director of the Transparency International Ukraine Innovation Programs Viktor Nestulia. The meeting informed about unique experience of two leading anti-corruption NGOs that advocated major reforms in area of fighting corruption in Ukraine. Due to legislative activities of those two organizations, the obligatory electronic declarations for state authorities and judges and creation of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the National Commission on Preventing Corruption (NAZK) became possible.

RADA Program implementing partner ALI prepared and publicized a Policy Proposal on Conflicts of Interests of MPs of Ukraine in September 2017. The Proposal was covered by lead Ukrainian media, and reminded the citizens and public authorities about the burning issue of adopting the Parliament Ethics Code and Policy on Conflict of Interest among MPs. The document will be further distributed among MPs of Ukraine and will be promoted through joint events of RADA and VRU Committee on Prevention and Fighting Corruption. Previous discussions about the Parliament ethics and the conflict of interests were mostly ignored by majority of the Members of the Parliament. Thus, the ALI decided to partner influential NGOs for new advocacy campaign with involvement of media to create a public pressure on parliamentarians, and push forward from the stage of discussions to the legislative stage.

RADA Program and its partners adhere to the policy on inadmissibility of corruption and conflict of interests in their work. Thus, the RADA Program and its partnering NGOs applied non-discriminatory policies in process of employing staff, selecting participants of all events within the RADA Program, and sub-contracting vendors which were invited through competitions. Besides, all partners are obligated to follow the policy on avoiding conflict of interest while implementing the RADA Program activities.

Gender Equity

RADA Program and its partners respected the provisions Gender Equity Policy as part of their Anti-Discriminatory Policy in decision making process and every activity. Thus, hiring the project staff, sub-contracting vendors and selection participants for the RADA Program events excluded any discrimination on gender basis; assignments of office staff duties, treatment of performance, and the level of remuneration excluded differences between men and women.

Below, specific gender-related activities of RADA Program are described.


• On May 31, 2017 - the USAID RADA Program awarded certificates to the graduates of the four-month course “Analysis of public policies for observance of equal rights and opportunities of men and women.” The course started on January 31, 2017, and was constructed as a series of GE workshops with practical assignments on gender analysis of existing legislation and presentations by participants. The course built a competence in GE issues among 47 employees of VR Committees and other departments of the VR Secretariat with the purpose to achieve a more gender-balanced approach in elaboration of state policies within the Parliament.

• Interns attended an introductory lecture "Basics of gender policy" delivered by RADA Program gender expert Olena Suslova on January 26. After the lecture, several interns who were particularly interested in the theme formed a group to study the course "Analysis of public policies for observance equal opportunities for men and women" by Ms. Suslova.

• On May 16, the RADA Program’s Gender Consultant Olena Suslova delivered a training course "Basics of Gender Policy" for a group of PIP interns. In 2017, the course was completed by 12 interns. Positive dynamics should be mentioned: this year the RADA Program had 5 male graduates (42%). This is the course’s best achievement ever.

• In June 2017, the RADA Program presented the Manual on Gender Analysis of State Policies that included basic information on gender equality principles in policy making and methodology to analyze the draft laws in the Ukrainian Parliament for compliance with GE. The manual was recommended to MPs, executive officials, politicians, scientists, students, NGOs and wide public. The manual contains materials from the Center of Information and Advice for Women www.empedu.org.ua, Parliament Development Program www.pdp.org.ua, RADA Program www.radaprogram.org, and other publications and studies.

• On May 7-12, 2017 - the RADA Program conducted a six-day study tour for two representative of Ukrainian Parliament to Lithuania to learn about Lithuanian practices of ensuring the gender equity in policy making. MP Svitlana Voitsekhovska and Head of the HR Department of the VR Secretariat Vitaliy Maksymiak met with the for Equal Opportunities Ombudswoman Agneta Skardžiuvienė and a group of female Members of the Lithuanian Parliament to learn about the legislative background for gender equity practices in parliamentary work and barriers in keeping the gender equity principle in public policies. Other meetings included a visit to the Parliament, meetings with members of the bilateral Ukrainian-Lithuanian parliamentary group, Ministry of Social Policy, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Human Rights Committee and others, http://bit.ly/2uspWvq.

• On June 20, 2017 - the Interns' League held a professional discussion "Female Decision-Makers." During the discussion. The speakers proposed focusing on "women occupying decision-making positions." MP Iryna Suslova spoke to the group of interns about existing gender quotas, gender expertise of legislation, and the Parliament's steps towards introducing gender equity. The discussion served to empower female young professionals to build their carriers with the Parliament.

• USAID RADA Program gender expert Olena Suslova presented the Score Gender Equity of Ukrainian Parliament in 2017 at the meeting with MPs and VR Secretariat on July 20. This indicator was measured second time: Mrs. Suslova noted a slight improvement in gender equity of the Parliament work if compared to 2016. The better performance of VR I terms of gender equity was attributed to the recently finished course on gender issues of USAID RADA Program for the staff of the Apparatus of the VR. The indicator was based on Plan of Action for Gender-sensitive Parliaments, which has 7

http://www.empedu.org.ua/

http://www.pdp.org.ua/

http://www.radaprogram.org/

http://bit.ly/2uspWvq

http://www.ipu.org/pdf/publications/action-gender-e.pdf


components corresponding to the achievements of a gender-sensitive Parliament. Participants of the meeting agreed that the key task for the next year is the organization of training sessions for Secretariats of all VR Committees.

People with Disabilities

• RADA program and partner EIRC enabled publication of two Policy Papers “Policy Proposals on Employment of People with Disabilities” and “Policy Proposals on Rehabilitation of People with Health Problems” and their further presentation in the Parliament. The analytical documents targeted MPs of Ukraine, public experts and academics. Both policies present background information, data on observation rights of people with disabilities and/or veterans of Anti-Terroristic Operation in Eastern Ukraine, and are a great source of important information for policy making within the VR Committee on Affairs of Veterans, Combatants, ATO Participants and Disabled People.

• During the public hearings in Lutsk and Uzhhorod, development of youth policy targeted at young people with disabilities was brought up for public discussion. The participants discussed two scenarios: the first one focused on creating a network of centers for work with young people with disabilities in the areas of social protection, education and healthcare; the second involved the launching of programs involving centers for work with young people with special needs. In both cities, participants preferred the second scenario for developing youth policy targeted at young people with disabilities. Due to the Town Hall Meetings decisions, the municipalities will implement relevant policies with the local budget funds.

• RADA Program involved 12 interns of the Parliament Internship Program to contribute into organization of the World Day of a Person with Down Syndrom in the Parliament on March 21, 2017.After the event the Secretariat of the Committee on Veterans, Combatants, ATO Participants and Disabled People sent a letter of appreciation to the League of Interns for the significant contribution.

• On June 8, PIP interns met with Anton Dubishyn, a man with disabilities, one of the most active volunteers, who was awarded the EuroMaydan SOS Volunteer Award in 2016. Anton spoke to interns about the difficulties of adaptation and inclusion of "special people" in public space, shared life stories about intolerance in the modern Ukrainian and the old Soviet society. The young man impressed the participants with his wise and benevolent attitude to the problem, and his will to be active participant of the public life.


Local Capacity Building

USAID RADA played a lead role in strengthening the Parliament institutional capacity in several directions that included effective MPs’ communication with their constituents by supporting MPs’ site visits and public reporting in the Model Districts, promotion better dialog between VRU, executive government agencies and donor community in Ukraine, making a chart of the VRU institutional needs and negotiations with donor community on the possible support to VRU, providing recommendations to the VR Speaker and his Secretariat on update of public information on web-portals of VRU and unifications of web-sites for the VR Committees . RADA delivered numerous training and educational-coordination meetings for the VRU staff on different topics that raised the MPs’ and the VR executive staff’s expertise in such areas a decentralizations and regional development, gender equity, shadow reporting and oversight function of the Parliament, effective communication and PR, digital security and many others. RADA Program enabled bringing a group of young professionals within the Parliament Internship Program that strengthened the daily online and offline communication of VR committees and the Secretariat departments with the public.

At the local level, the RADA Program contributed to capacities of associations of local governors’ to advocate interests of their groups with the Parliament of Ukraine by organizing public events to discuss urgent issues and opportunity to influence the legislative processes in the Parliament of Ukraine.

OPORA contributed to the capability building of local non-government institutions and civil society with provided methodologies for monitoring of MPs and local deputies’ activities. More transparency in the Parliament’s work was achieved through development of geographically oriented Internet portal that https://rada.oporaua.org, which contained a number of tools to monitor the Verkhovna Rada and the members of Parliament’s work; improvement of working procedures, standards of transparency and openness in the work of parliamentary committees. The OPORA monitoring tools and numerous workshops with CSOs strengthened the capability of regional civil society: CSOs and usual citizens has obtained reliable tools and can pursue its own monitoring of MPs and VRU to establish communication with Members of Parliament in order to address pressing problems on both local and national levels. IUA developed practical guide for NGOs on the basics of communication with the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine during advocacy campaigns.



Other Relevant Activities

The Second Forum of Local Development

East Europe Foundation President Viktor Liakh and RADA Program Coordinator Ihor Parasiuk participated in the second Forum of Local Development, which took place in Truskavets, Lviv oblast, on June 23-24, 2017. The event was attended by Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Andriy Parubiy and several Members of the Parliament of Ukraine. The RADA Program was presented in the panel on decentralization processes that discussed inter alia necessary changes to legislation.

Discussion on the Draft Law “On Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine”

The RADA Program supported an open discussion of draft law No. 3593-D “On Temporally Occupied Territories of Ukraine” in the Committee on State Building, Regional Development and Local Self-Government with the participation of civil society organizations and independent experts on April 12. The activity was supported by the RADA Program under cooperation with the above VRU Committee. The draft law failed to be adopted in a plenary session. However, some provisions of the draft law should be used when working on a new draft; it will be presented by the President of Ukraine in the nearest future.

An intern made English tours of the Verkhovna RADA possible

The Information Department started English language tours around the Verkhovna Rada for the first time ever. This became possible due to Olha Petruk, an intern of the Parliament Internship Program, who translated and delivered these English-language tours in spring and summer of 2017. She conducted her first English language tour for a group of visitors from Israel who came to the Parliament of Ukraine on April 20. Earlier, tours in English were possible with simultaneous or consequent translations, and depended on presence of a translator among the visitors’ groups, http://rada.gov.ua/news/Novyny/143939.html.

IL used a new public speaking format “Interns speaking” in its events

As part of the Internship Program, the Interns’ League tested a new format for events called "Interns Speaking." The format is similar to TED Talks13 format which is used for short powerful talks on any topic. Interns have prepared six 15-minute presentation speeches on topics related to their internship to be delivered to external audiences. It is planned to implant the format to PIP graduates and loyal MPs. Training on TED speeches will be provided.

The public hearings in Lutsk were taken into account in the Draft Law

The results of the public hearings on the draft law "On the Rehabilitation of Victims of Political Repressions of the Soviet Era in Ukraine" that were organized by the RADA Program and took place on July 21, 2015, in Lutsk were taken into account in the Law “On Amending Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine to Improve the Procedure of Rehabilitation of Victims of Repressions of the Communist Totalitarian Regime of 1917–1991.” The Parliament registered the draft on June 09, 2017. The Draft Law took into account the results of the public voting regarding the term “persons affected” and definition of “victim” either as a person affected or as an actual victim of repressions. The Draft Law is available at http://w1.c1.rada.gov.ua/pls/zweb2/webproc4_1?id=&pf3511=61997.

Draft Resolution on the stipends for Interns was registered in the Parliament

MPs Valeriy Karpuntsov and Pavlo Pynzenyk, graduates of the Internship Program, registered a draft Verkhovna Rada Resolution “On certain issues concerning the implementation of Article 48 of the Law of Ukraine ‘On Civil Service’” at the Secretariat of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine as draft No. 6596. This resolution provides 30 full-time interns of the Parliamentary Internship Program (PIP) with stipends from the VRU budget. That was the first time in the 22 years of the Parliament Internship Program that an agreement

13 TED began in 1984 as a conference where Technology, Entertainment and Design converged.

http://rada.gov.ua/news/Novyny/143939.html

http://w1.c1.rada.gov.ua/pls/zweb2/webproc4_1?id=&pf3511=61997


was reached between the initiators of the bill, the VR Committee on Rules and Procedures, and the Main Legal Department of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. The registration of the draft resolution was preceded by 2 years of intensive advocacy work by the Interns’ League (IL) that included meetings, negotiations, presentations on the PIP efficiency for the Parliament, flash-mobs, and training for MPs and their aides. Currently, IL is looking forward to the consideration of the draft at the autumn plenary session of the Parliament.


Lessons Learned

• The major topics of Y4 activities of the RADA Program were decentralization and local development. Over 15 public gatherings discussed the issues of local governance and searched for the best solutions via advocacy with the Members of the Parliament, which attended the events owing to RADA Program’s support.

• RADA Program activities went broader than it was prescribed by the Program description, due to emergence of urgent issues that required the project’s expertise and/or participation in experts’ discussions. In particular, that included the range of topics that the program dealt with: road safety, decentralization, regulation of military administrations’ work in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, political repressions and rehabilitation of veterans of national movements, and economic models for local development. RADA experts demonstrated a responsive approach to meeting the needs of the parliamentary Committees, staff, and local authorities in developing their competences and expert capacity.

• The promotion campaign and the launching of the model petition have been postponed to the autumn of 2017 (to the beginning of the new political season in the Parliament), as the topic for model petition and informational materials require a more thorough preparation and discussions with partner NGOs.

• In the second quarter of 2017, the Committees of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine have not registered any bill for public commentaries. Therefore, the webinars on the use of the platform that were planned by IL are currently irrelevant.

• Digital Security training is vital for public officials and the Parliament staff in particular. A series of IUA digital security training attested to the need to increase the length of the training, namely, of its practical part; two training blocks – saving secret information and dealing with Firewall configuration – demanded more time that was allocated; building groups in accordance to participants’ level of digital literacy and awareness on digital security would positively influence the training efficiency. Thus, it is recommended to repeat these studies in three-day format instead of two days. The implementation of this task is also correlated with the Pat Cox Mission’s Recommendation

No. 27, which mentions cyber security studies among other types of possible assistance (from the

section "Openness, Transparency and Citizenship Accountability," Report and Roadmap for Internal

Reform and Capacity-Building of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, https://goo.gl/o3LCMR).

• The RADA Program practices in empowering the youth to participate in decision-making and parliamentary work, along with the monitoring of the Parliament and local officials, showed a high level of activism and efficiency of such tools as Town Halls Meetings, cooperation with universities, and webinars for youth. RADA will continue to apply these ways of communication with young leaders.

• The RADA Program’s efforts to strengthen the institutional capacity of the Parliament are successful whenever the training, study tours, or common events are conducted with the employees of the VR Secretariat, or at least with MPs’ aides. The positive influence of the training program, site visits and study tours on MPs is still limited; single mandate MPs participating in the Model District initiative benefit the most from participation in the RADA Program. RADA should plan extending its capacity-building efforts to the rest of the single mandate MPs and factions of the Parliament.


List of Sub-Grants

Organization name Contacts

Project Manager

Project Period Project Description

Grant amount in

Y4, USD

Agency for Legislative Initiatives NGO

15, office 303, Nyzhniy Val St., Kyiv, 04070 Tel: (044) 531 3768; fax: (044) 425 2533 [email protected]іev.ua; www.parliament.org.ua

Oleksandr Zaslavskyi

10 months The project objectives are:

• Support to MPs to build constituent relations and improve their representation function;

• Expand citizen education and monitoring of Parliament and MPs in order to increase their accountability;

• Promote parliamentary independence to counterbalance the Government by reinforcing the rules and procedures that govern the body. Major activities under the project: 1. Prepare and publish analytical materials (Policy Paper, Policy Research) 2. Conduct trainings, colloquia, Town Hall Meetings with MPs’ participation 3. Develop a Guide on communication with the VRU during lobbying and

advocacy campaigns for CSOs

225,336.27

Civil Network OPORA, NGO

34A, office 93, Hrushevskoho St., Kyiv, 29013 [email protected] +38 044 591 44 44

Olena Rybiy / Anatoliy Bondarchuk

9 months The project will facilitate public education and improved information of citizens on working mechanisms of the Parliament and MPs by systematically publishing high-quality materials on the operation of the Parliament in formats intelligible to a wide audience (infographics, video clips, educational and analytical materials). It also envisages further development of the www.rada.oporaua.org web portal and as well as production of TV programs focusing on parliamentary issues. The project will ensure regular production and distribution of monitoring reports on activities of the Parliament and MPs based on a number of criteria.

119,727.49

Internews-Ukraine NGO

International NGO “Internews Ukraine” 15 Ryzka Street, Kyiv, Ukraine, 04112. Tel: (044) 458-44-40, 501-92-03 email: [email protected] http://internews.ua/about/

Kostiantyn Kvurt

10 months The main purpose of the project is to assist the RADA Program in providing support to MPs to build effective constituent relations, and to improve their representative function via increased and more efficient use of information and communication technologies (ICT), among other activities.

120,000.00

Interns` League NGO

11, office 511, Velyka Zhytomyrska St., Kyiv, 01021 Tel/fax (044) 255-92-44 Tel: (066) 764-68-08 [email protected]; [email protected] www.interns.org.ua

Maria Savina 10 months The main purpose of the project is to strengthen the institutional and organizational capacity-building of the Interns` League, as well as to support it in administrating the Parliamentary Internship Program in 2017. The project objectives are as follows:

• Promotion campaign for using E-Petitions, Citizens Rada Legislative Discussion E-Platform (Citizen E-Platform);

• Strengthen the capacity-building of the NGO “Interns` League”;

• Implement Parliamentary Internship Program in 2017;

• Develop new areas of activities for the Interns` League.

38,267.85

http://www.parliament.org.ua/

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.rada.oporaua.org/

mailto:[email protected]?subject=%D0%B7%D0%B0%D0%BF%D0%B8%D1%82%20%D0%B4%D0%BE%20%D0%86%D0%BD%D1%82%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%BD%D1%8C%D1%8E%D0%B7-%D0%A3%D0%BA%D1%80%D0%B0%D1%97%D0%BD%D0%B0



http://www.interns.org.ua/


ANNEXES

Annex I. 18 of 27 VRU Committees requested and obtained access to the NGO Register 1. Committee on Preventing and Countering Corruption 2. Committee on Rules of Parliamentary Procedure and Support to Work of The Verkhovna

Rada of Ukraine 3. Committee on Legal Policy and Justice 4. Committee on State Building, Regional Policy and Local Self-Government 5. Committee on Affairs of Veterans, Combatants, ATO Participants and Disabled People 6. Committee on Industrial Policy and Entrepreneurship 7. Committee on National Security and Defense 8. Committee on Family Matters, Youth Policy, Sports and Tourism 9. Committee on European Integration 10. Committee for Informatization and Communications 11. Committee on Human Rights, National Minorities and Interethnic Relations 12. Committee on Social Policy, Employment and Pension Provision 13. Committee on Foreign Affairs 14. Committee on Construction, Urban Development, Housing and Communal Services 15. Committee on Legislative Support of Law Enforcement 16. Committee on Culture and Spirituality 17. Committee on Science and Education 18. Committee on Agrarian Policy and Land Relations

Annex II. Table 1.1. List of MPs that participate in Pilot Model District Program

Name MP Status/Faction District

1 Oleksandr Chernenko PR/Petro Poroshenko Bloc Chernihiv oblast 2 Ihor Huz SMD/People’s Front Volyn oblast, No. 19 3 Ivan Krulko PR/Batkivshchyna Transcarpathian oblast 4 Pavlo Rizanenko SMD/Petro Poroshenko Bloc Kyiv oblast, No. 97 5 Yehor Sobolev PR/Samopomich Kyiv city 6 Olena Sotnyk PR/Samopomich Dnipropetrovsk oblast 7 Svitlana Zalishchuk PR/Petro Poroshenko Bloc Luhansk oblast


Annex III. List of NGOs in the NGO Register for cooperation with the Parliament’s Committees 1. Association "Information Technologies of Ukraine" 2. Association "Telecommunications Chamber of Ukraine" (TELPU) 3. Association "Ukrainian Nuclear Forum" 4. Association of graduates of the internship program in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and central executive authorities – NGO "League of Interns" 5. Association of local self-government "Euroregion Carpathians – Ukraine" 6. Association of Information Technology Enterprises of Ukraine 7. Charitable organization "Center of Commercial Law" 8. Charity Fund "Maidan of Foreign Affairs" 9. The Patients of Ukraine Charitable Foundation 10. Charitable Foundation "CCC Creative Center" 11. Bureau of Social and Political Development 12. All-Ukrainian Charitable Organization "Point of Support" 13. All-Ukrainian Charitable Foundation "The Right to Protection" 14. All-Ukrainian NGO "Energy Association of Ukraine" 15. All-Ukrainian NGO "Committee of Voters of Ukraine" 16. All-Ukrainian public organization "Union of Women of Ukraine ‘For the Future of Children’" 17. All-Ukrainian NGO "Ukrainian Library Association" 18. All-Ukrainian public organization of the disabled "Center for Tourism of the Disabled of Ukraine" 19. All-Ukrainian public association "National Assembly of Persons with Disabilities of Ukraine" 20. Public initiative "Europe without Barriers" 21. NGO "Automobile Federation of Ukraine" 22. Public organization "Autism. Alternative" 23. NGO "Bureau of Truth" 24. Public organization "Ecumenical Values" 25. Public organization "All-Ukrainian Association ‘Platform of Civil Initiatives’" 26. Dixie Group public organization 27. NGO "Rights to Life of the Disabled" 28. NGO "European Generation" 29. Public organization "Transcarpathian Association of Territorial Communities" 30. NGO "Institute of Religious Freedom" 31. Internews-Ukraine NGO 32. Public organization "La Strada-Ukraine" 33. NGO "Agency (Laboratory) for Legislative Initiatives" 34. NGO "International Human Rights Alliance" 35. New Europe NGO 36. Public Organization "The First Ukrainian Independent Media Platform" 37. NGO "Podillia Agency for Regional Development" 38. Public organization "Transparent Procurement" 39. Public organization "Conscious Society of Melitopol" 40. Transparency International Ukraine NGO 41. NGO "Ukrainian Law Society" 42. Public organization "Federation of Track and Field of Kirovograd Oblast" 43. NGO "Foundation for Professional Development of Kharkiv" 44. Publisher Forum Public Organization 45. The Center for Democracy and the Rule of Law NGO (CEDEM) 46. Public organization “Business Center ‘Initiative’” 47. Public platform "Reanimation Package of Reforms" 48. Public Union "Open Dialogue Foundation" 49. Public Association "Ukrainians of the East" 50. Public movement "Faith, Hope, Love" 51. Civic Platform "New Country" 52. Institute of Civil Society 53. Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting 54. Institute of World Policy


55. Institute of Social Initiatives 56. Institute of Social and Economic Research 57. Institute for the Transformation of Society 58. Internet Association of Ukraine (InAU) 59. Kyiv City Department of the Vasyl Stus “Memorial” organization 60. Mykolaiv Regional Youth NGO "Green Movement" 61. International Non-Governmental Organization "European Media Platform" 62. International NGO "International Union" 63. International Renaissance Foundation 64. Ostroh Municipal Non-Governmental Organization "School of Political Analysis ‘Polis’" 65. Poltava Regional Public Organization "Analytical Center ‘Bureau of Economic and Social Research’" 66. Human Rights Development Foundation 67. Representation of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Ukraine 68. Rivne Oblast NGO "Center for Agrarian Development" 69. Ukrainian World Congress (UWC) 70. Ukrainian Association of Publishers and Book Distributors 71. Ukrainian Marketing Association 72. Ukrainian Association of Telecom Operators "Telas" 73. Ukrainian Institute of International Policy 74. Ukrainian Independent Center for Political Studies 75. Ukrainian Philanthropic Forum 76. Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation 77. Kharkiv Regional Public Organization "People's Initiative" 78. Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group 79. Center for Civil Liberties 80. Center for the Study of the Liberation Movement 81. Center for Research on Civil Society Problems 82. Center for Human Rights 83. Center for Political and Legal Reforms 84. Center for Political Studies and Analysis "Eidos"


Annex IV. The RADA Program and the VRU Secretariat drafted 16 topics for future debates in 2018:

1. Parliamentary coalition and opposition vs. parliamentary majority and minority.

2. From individual legislative initiatives to collective law drafting.

3. Constitutional dimension of parliamentary reform.

4. Cooperation between the Parliament and the Government at the level of Committees.

5. Why are parliamentary research centers important?

6. Conflict of interest declaration as a way to legitimacy and trust.

7. Program documents of governments in different countries.

8. Program documents of parliaments in different countries.

9. Educational function of parliamentary libraries.

10. Executive support services of parliamentarians: international experience.

11. Types of expert assessment of legislative acts in parliaments of the world.

12. International experience in regulating the procedure for registration of legislative acts.

13. Mechanisms of political coordination of the agenda in parliaments of the world (concerning the Conciliation Board of deputy factions)

14. Mechanisms of communication between Parliament and executive authorities in the process of legislative work planning.

15. Tools for ensuring political consensus at the legislative proposal stage (“zero reading”).

16. From a legislative proposal to a draft law: international experience of regulation.


Exhibit 2. PMP Data Table: Responsible Accountable Democratic Assembly RADA

Performance Indicator Indicator level

(Input/Output/Outcome) Indicator Definition Data

Source Data Collection

Method Baseline Data Targets and Actuals

Target justification

Year Value FY2016 FY2017 FY2018

Actual Target Actual Target Actual

Project Purpose: To strengthen the legislature to become more accountable, representative and independent and to improve civic engagement in the legislative process

Objective 1: Public representation in the legislative process improved

1.1 Indicator Name Level of public representation in the legislative process

Outcome Measures of the level of public representation by the expert panel composed of MPs, legislative staff, Ukrainian and foreign experts, CSO representatives

Semi-annual surveys of assembled expert panel

survey of expert panel who assess the public representation on a 10-point scale: from the lowest (1) to the highest (10)

2014 N/A 6,00 5,50 4,64 6.0 RADA Program conducts the survey since 2014

Expected Result 1.1: Effective communication, outreach and constituent services developed

1.1.1 Indicator Name New tools introduced by MPs for citizen communication, outreach and constituent services in their districts

output Number of new constituency outreach tools introduced by MPs

Ukrainian partner reports from model constituency districts (Aliona Hurkivska)

Observation and reports on new introduced practices and tools

2014 0 12 5 5 5 RADA expects the % level of public representation will steadily grow with continued support of public involvement in the legislative process on part of USG

Expected Result 1.2: Inclusive legislative drafting practices established


1.1.2 Indicator Name Effectiveness of VR policy-making

outcome Measures the level of effectiveness of VR in policymaking processes as assessed by relevant outside experts

MP Survey MP surveys (will be conducted in 2015 and 2018)

2013 58.4% n/a NA NA 65% RADA expects increased effectiveness of the VR policymaking as it institutionally strengthens and adopts other legislatures' best practices, including involvement of citizens in the legislative process

1.1.3 Indicator Name Number of public forums resulting from USG assistance in which national legislators and public interact

output Measures the number of public events where the public has the opportunity to interact with MPs

RADA Program and its partners program reports

Analysis of program monitoring reports

2012 75 67 75 104 75 In recent years VR has reached its capacity of the quantity of public forums it supports; now it needs to improve their quality and sustain the quantity at the current level.

1.1.4 Indicator Name Number of national legislators and national legislative staff attending USG sponsored training or educational events (disaggregated by sex)

output Measures the number of MPs and VR staff that attend USG sponsored events

MP Survey Trainers/consultants’ reports; program evaluation report; staff and consultants’ time sheets and payroll

2012 808 196 men 76 women

120

800 257 men 108

women 149

800 In recent years VR has reached its capacity of the number of MPs and staff attending USG sponsored events; now it needs to improve their quality of their participation while sustaining the current level of attendance.

Expected Result 1.3: Cooperation between MPs and local governments strengthened


1.1.5 Indicator Name Number of educational and capacity-building tools for MPs created

output Measures the number of educational instruments for MPs and MP aides

Implementing Partner

Program evaluation report; staff and consultants’ time sheets and payroll

2014 3 11 20 33 events, 6 tools

20 These tools will be developed in the course of improving model MP districts and communication between constituencies and their elected representatives.

Objective 2: Role of citizens in monitoring the work of Parliament expanded

2.1 Indicator Name: Effectiveness of citizens in monitoring the work of the Parliament

outcome Effectiveness of citizen monitoring of parliamentary activities as measured by % of new tools and practices learned by CSOs in specialized trainings that have been adopted by CSOs

Post-training surveys of trainings CSO representatives Aliona Hurkivska)

Trainers/consultants’ reports, Ukrainian CSO parters reports

2013 0 60% 70% 55% 75% This indicator will be measured by the survey of participating organizations on the use of the new tools and practices they will have adopted

Expected Result 2.1: Civic education initiatives promoted to foster greater citizen engagement in the legislative process

2.1.1 Indicator Name: Number of CSOs attending USG sponsored training or educational events

output Measures the number of Ukrainian CSOs attending USG sponsored events

Implementing Partner (Aliona Hurkivska

Trainers/consultants’ reports; program evaluation report; staff and consultants’ time sheets and payroll

2013 75 140 75 85 75 RADA will focus on greater efficiency of CSO involvement in USG sponsored trainings and other educational events while keeping their number at a steady level.

2.1.2 Indicator Name: Number of educational and capacity-building tools for CSOs created

output Measures the number of educational instruments for CSOs developed within the project's framework


Trainers/consultants’ reports; program evaluation report; staff and consultants’ time

2013 2 9 5 6 5 Educational tools will be developed by RADA Ukrainian implementing


sheets and payroll

partners in the course of their work in model districts.

Expected Result 2.2: Civil society monitoring of the VR fostered, including strengthening lobbying groups

2.2.1 Indicator Name Level of public’s efficiency in monitoring the Ukrainian legislature’s work

outcome Measures of the level of public representation by the expert panel composed of MPs, legislative staff, Ukrainian and foreign experts, CSO representatives

semi-annual surveys of assembled expert panel conducted by Implementing partner (Aliona Hurkivska)

survey of expert panel

2013 35% 60 62% 44% 65% With greater public awareness of tools and instruments of control over elected officials the RADA expects a steady growth in this control's efficiency.

2.2.2 Indicator Name Number of public policies introduced, repealed, changed or implemented consistent with citizen input

input Measures the number of public policies introduced, adopted, repealed, changed or implemented consistent with citizen input supported by USAID programs


Disaggregation by:

2013 0 3 2 9 2 RADA will provide assistance to VR in drafting legislative amendments based on citizen input

input a) Introduced (submitted for consideration of the Parliament)

2 3

input b) adopted (approved by the Parliament)

3

input c) repealed policies

input d) changed policies

1 3

input e) implemented policies


2.2.3 Indicator Name Effectiveness of CSO testimony to VR

outcome Percent of positive responses to survey on effectiveness of CSO testimony and reports provided to VR committees. Only entry-exit surveys will be conducted.

MP Survey MP survey 2013 25% n/a NA n/a 40% Data will be a part of sur vey to be conducted by KIIs in 2015 and 2018

2.2.4 Indicator Name: Number of civil society organizations (CSOs) receiving USG assistance engaged in advocacy interventions (FAF Indicator)

input Measures the number of Ukrainian CSOs engaged in advocacy interventions with MPs/VR

Program monitoring reports

Implementing partners list of participants will be verified, cleaned data reported to USAID

2013 10 21 25 85 25 Through increasing access to MPs/VR and VR committees we will engage CSO to more active advocacy interventions. We also plan to engage CSOs in regions through Program implementing partners

2.2.5 Indicator Name: Number of USG-funded organizations representing marginalized constituencies trying to affect government policy or conducting government oversight

input Measures the number of CSOs that represent marginalized constituencies and are involved in policy making


Implementing partners list of participants will be verified, cleaned data reported to USAID

2013 20 17 30 9 30 Particular attention during planning and development of workplans will be given to marginalized constituencies

Expected Result 2.3: Reform legislation passed by partnering with other USAID programs

2.3.1 Indicator Name: Number of USAID assisted legislation, policies and regulations that are favorably assessed to meet EU legislation standards

output Measures number of policies positively assessed by EU or other defined international sources. (standards for EU body of policies)

Database of adopted legislation

RADA will track adopted legislation to know how much its suggestions were incorporated; adoption of EU institutions recommendations in the passed

2013 2 8 5 5 5 RADA will work with committees in cooperation with European donor organizations to bring existing Ukrainian legislation in compliance with EU standards


legislation will be checked

Objective 3: Role of legislature in providing independent oversight of the Executive branch strengthened

3.1 Indicator Name Level of effectiveness of various independent parliamentary oversight tools

outcome Percent that reflects % of positive MP responses on effective use of parliamentary oversight tools during MP survey

MP survey KIIS survey results of MPs

2012 67% n/a NA NA 75%

Expected Result 3.1: Anti-corruption efforts strengthened, including Parliamentary budgetary oversight

3.1.1 Indicator Name Level of independence of parliamentary oversight over executive branch

outcome Measures percent of positive responses about strong public representation, during expert panel composed of MPs, legislative staff, Ukrainian and foreign experts, CSO representatives

semi-annual surveys of assembled expert panel conducted by Implementing partner

survey of expert panel

2013 50% 60% 70% 40% 75% Since early 2000s, the level of effective parliamentary oversight has increased; the RADA expects this trend to continue in the future.

3.1.2 Indicator Name Public perception of government efforts to combat corruption

outcome Index that measures the level of public perception of corruption

Transparency International data

Annual Survey by Transparency International Question: To what extent do you perceive the Parliament/Legislature in Ukraine

to be corrupt?

2013 25 27 33 29 37 USG assistance and new GOU commitment to fighting corruption should be reflected in overcoming the negative tendency of declining trust to the Government efforts.


3.1.3 Indicator Name: Number of anti-corruption mechanisms developed

output Counts mechanisms that include but not limited to: e-governance mechanisms, legislative and normative measures

Implementing Partner (VR Committee on Figthing Organized Crime and Corruption, Volodymyr Kryzhanivskyi)

2013 2 3 2 3 2 Anti-corruption mechanisms include tools and instruments prescribed by legislation as well as elaborated in by-legislation

Expected Result 3.2: Parliamentary oversight function strengthened through improved structural effectiveness

3.2.1 Indicator Name Number of national executive oversight actions taken by legislature receiving USG assistance

outcome Measures the number of national executive oversight actions taken by VR

Implementing Partner (Aliona Hurkivska)


2012 89 90 95

100 The capacity of VR to conduct oversight actions has not been fully used but there is also a need to shift the focus from the quantity of these events to quality.

3.2.2 Indicator Name Number of shadow reports submitted to VR and discussed in VR committees

input Measures the number of shadow reports prepared by Ukrainian CSOs and discussed by VR committees

Implementing Partner ALI


2013 0 1 4 4 5 RADA partner ALI will work with other Ukrainian CSOs to submit shadow reports to committees 2-3 times during a plenary session.

Expected Result 3.3: Internship program institutionalized


3.3.1 Indicator Name Level of institutionalization of the parliamentary internship program

outcome Measures the level of the internship program’s institutionalization by milestone stages: 1. League of Interns’ has vision of development for mid-term (3-5 years) 2. League of Interns’ Strategic Plan developed 3. League of Interns’ Sustainability Plan developed and approved by the Board 4. Long-term agreement between the League of Interns and VR Secretariat on implementation of the internship program endorsed

Interns League and RADA Program documents

Program monitoring reports, results of OCA of the Interns League? IL’s institutional development and sustainability plan, agreement with VR Secretariat

2013 Stage 1 achieved

Stage 4 achieved

NA stage 4

NA RADA partner ALI will work with other Ukrainian CSOs to submit shadow reports to committees 2-3 times during a plenary session.

GENERAL PROGRAM INDICATOR

3.2 Indicator Name Index of the Quality of the Legislative Process (PMP indicator)

outcome Measures different aspects of the quality of the legislative process in VR

Implementing Partner (Aliona Hurkivska)

Semi-annual index from surveys of MPs, VR staff,Ukrainian and international experts

2013 2,77 2,71 3,10 2,64 3,20 This index is a comprehensive mechanism to measure the quality of the legislative processes in VR.

RADA PROGRAM - USAID

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