Forum “Public Participation: A New Reality”
Last week, the forum “Public Participation: A New Reality” discussed ways to strengthen residents’ influence in the development of their communities, including the tools needed to achieve this.
Public participation must always remain a priority, it cannot be paused. There are always issues worth discussing with residents. Therefore, it is important to use various channels of communication with citizens. One of the main channels is e-democracy tools, which can be used in any conditions or adapted to new realities.
At the forum, Lutsk City Council shared its experience in using e-democracy tools, particularly participatory budgeting, and how it changed during the period of martial law.
The forum format allowed participants to interact with representatives from local self-government bodies and public organizations, learn about digital tools for participation, and explore how to establish cooperation between local authorities and civil society organizations. Discussions focused on key values and priorities, namely: effective communication with authorities; engaging residents in decision-making; accessibility and clarity of participation tools; transparency of processes; and building trust.
An online course on the “School Participatory Budget” was also presented at the forum, available on the educational platform “Zrozumilo”. Participants learned about the implementation of the school budget in the Zviahel City Territorial Community. The school participatory budget has already been introduced in 367 educational institutions across more than 40 communities. It helps involve students in decision-making processes that affect the development of their schools and enables them to implement their own initiatives. This is very important for our future, as the tool fosters the development of active citizens.
The forum “Public Participation: A New Reality” was organized by Association For Communities Participatory Development together with the Union of Public Initiatives of Ukraine, with support from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, the UNDP in Ukraine, funding from the Government of Denmark, the EMPOWER program funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) together with the European Union and implemented by GIZ Ukraine; the Swiss-Ukrainian EGAP program implemented by the East Europe Foundation; the European Association for Local Democracy (ALDA); the NGO “Center for Development and Cooperation of the Community”; and the IAC “Hromadskyi Prostir”.
Lutsk City Council was represented at the forum by Nataliia Khmel, Deputy Head of the Information and Communication Technologies Department and Head of the Information Technologies Division.
Department of Information and Communication Technologies,
Department of International Cooperation and Project Activities