IAA at the Open Government Partnership Summit

The Eighth Global Summit of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) is taking place in Tallinn this year from 5 to 8 September. The event brings together representatives of governments and non-governmental organisations from OGP member countries, as well as supporters of the open government approach.

The summit is mainly dedicated to open government in the digital age. Participants share successful cases and learn from each other’s experience in increasing transparency and accountability in governance and political decision-making.

The Institute for Analytics and Advocacy together with International IDEA organised the panel “The Role of Open Government for Ukraine’s Democratic Resilience and Recovery“. At the panel, our Executive Director Yuriy Romashko spoke about the activities of civil society during different periods of Ukraine’s history, the role it played in the reconstruction and recovery processes, and the role it will play in ensuring their sustainability and accountability of the authorities.

In his speech, Yuriy emphasised that civil society in Ukraine is mature, dynamic, active and energetic:

“If we start counting from the Revolution of Dignity in 2014, when we defended our European future and choice, it was a period of nine years when we had to do our ‘homework’. When we were building state institutions and anti-corruption bodies, we worked with European values and principles that we still stand by. We created a completely different level of interaction between the government and civil society. In addition, we have developed the capacity of civil society. Now we have a common challenge of the enemy and the future reconstruction of Ukraine, and the role of civil society in it is critical.

If we are talking about transparency at the national level in the selection of suppliers and contractors, then civil society plays a significant role here. We are talking about reconstruction, but before that, we need to take care of resilience to current and future challenges. When we win the war, we should not remain isolated from other processes.”

Among other things, the speakers discussed:

• how Ukraine is promoting reform and reconstruction as a model of transparency in times of war and why open government is important for democratic development and the restoration of our country;
• the importance of Ukraine’s democratic resilience for survival during the full-scale Russian invasion and successful major reconstruction after the victory;
• how democracy in Ukraine survived the full-scale Russian invasion, what were its particularly resilient features and weaknesses, and what were the crucial factors that helped our country to mobilise and resist;
• the reform process in the light of the implementation of the recommendations related to Ukraine’s EU membership candidacy.

We would like to thank the panelists:

• Yulia Shipilova, Eastern Europe Programme Officer, moderated the panel.
• Maryna Honda, Deputy Head of Kyiv City State Administration;
• Viktor Nestulia, Head of the DREAM Project Office;
• Oleksandr Yarema, State Secretary of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.

and express our gratitude to international partners and organisations for the opportunity to highlight and discuss the challenges and opportunities of reconstruction, as well as to unite to bring victory closer.