Natalia Amelchenko, the author of the methodological guidelines and the role-playing game “AGORA: Democratic Procedure of Law Adoption in the Parliament of Ukraine”, emphasised that the introduction of new teaching methods, such as brainstorming, open discussions and role playing, helps students absorb better theoretical material as well as acquire practical skills in asserting their rights and active participation in public life.
Colloquium for teachers to present methodological guidelines for the subject of social studies, Chernihiv
Colloquium is organized by the NGO Agency of Legislative Initiatives with the support of USAID RADA Program: Responsible Accountable Democratic Assembly, implemented by East Europe Foundation.
The event involved presentation of methodological guidelines for teachers in upper secondary schools to introduce of civic education in school curricula. The participants tested the role-playing game “AGORA: Democratic Procedure of Law Adoption in the Parliament of Ukraine” and watched the video “How Parliament Works” (made by Internews Ukraine within the framework of the USAID RADA Program: Responsible Accountable Democratic Assembly).
“The crisis of public confidence towards government in Ukraine among other things is due to the lack of feedback between public institutions and citizens. The introduction of civic education and democratic citizenship training aims at establishing communication between the public and their elected representatives”
Trainings for Town Hall Meetings’ facilitators and notetakers
The training was organized by the Agency for Legislative Initiatives in cooperation with the League of Interns within the framework of the USAID RADA Program: Responsible Accountable Democratic Assembly, implemented by East Europe Foundation.
Oleksandr Zaslavskyi, Deputy Chairman of the Board, Agency for Legislative Initiatives, presented the mechanism and experience of holding city meetings, and also stated the purpose of the training:
“The USAID RADA Program aims to make the activities of the parliament and deputies more transparent, predictable, responsible, as well as to establish communication between deputies and voters. Town Hall Meetings, in particular, is one of the innovative tools aimed at achieving this goal. This year, we decided to engage in the training facilitation experts as coaches in order to train future facilitators to properly negotiate with the participants of the discussion. Traines will also teach how to improve the interaction between facilitator and note-taker, which is necessary for receiving informative notes during the discussion. Thease notes can be analyzed after the event and based on these data to work out a solution”
The participants of the training gained the skills of professional facilitation of the discussion and together with the trainers-facilitators of the NGO “Institute for Peace and Common Ground” worked out an algorithm for working with scenarios and a sense return exercise, a powerful tool for conducting constructive dialogue.
The practical part of the training was aimed at mastering and applying the acquired knowledge in practice. During the simulated city meeting each participant had the opportunity to try him- / herself as a facilitator and a note-taker, as well as to participate as an ordinary citizen to discuss the problem of “Parliamentary reform: finding ways to reduce legislative spam and prevent non-personal voting. The scenarios for the probem discussion were deeloped by Oleksandr Zaslavskyi and Volodymyr Khryzhanivskyi, Senior Advisor at USAID RADA Program, Member of the Parliament of Ukraine (I convocation).
60 participants took part in the training and will partiiapte in Town Hall Meetings scheduled for 2017. Volodymyr Khryzhanivskyi noted that mastering of the facilitation method of work in groups can be considered successful:
“The atmosphere of work was lively, all the participants were engaged as much as possible in the discussion. The methodology forcees the active work of all participants, who must keep track of the entire course of events during each scenario discussion. It is great that a day before the participants got general information about the issues to be considered. This approach allowed almost immediately to work in groups, without spending much time examining the problem”
Photos: by Oleksandr Kovalenko
World café on parliamentary ethics
On the margins of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine MPs Sergei Leshchenko, Svetlana Zalishchuk, Ostap Yednak, Oleksiy Ryabchin, Grigory Shverk discussed ethical dilemmas concerning:
- how to prevent MPs’ indecent behavior;
- how to regulate the content and timing of MP’s speech in the voting chamber;
- 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;
- how to prevent non-personal voting;
- how to regulate the MP’s lexicon during his / her speeches in the voting chamber.
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.
At the end of the event MP Grigory Shverk also signed the Declaration of Intent on development of the Parliamentary Code of Conduct.
The activities are carried out within the project of the Agency for Legislative Initiatives “Promoting Democratic Political Culture in Verkhovna Rada through Political Dialogue and Ethical Standards”, carried out with the support of the Embassy of the Netherlands in Ukraine in partnership with the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) “Strengthening Dialogue among Civil Society and with Key Governmental Stakeholders in Ukraine in Human Dimension” and with the assistance of the RADA Program.
Declaration of Intent
Declaration of Intent
Trust in political institutions is a key element of their legitimacy. It is particularly true for the parliament as a representative body. State of trust in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has been at its lowest in the last few years. To a large extent, this is due to public perceptions about the dubious ethical principles of the people’s deputies. The high-profile corruption cases and numerous violations of not only the Rules of Procedures by many MPs but also the order in the session hall once again prove that. It can be noted that attempts to embark on the path of achieving transparency, accountability and professional standards of legislative procedures runs into resistance of politicians for whom the conflict of interest, unacceptable behavior in the voting chamber, gender discrimination, sexism signs, false accusations, lack of dialogue etc. turn up to be a norm. In the same time, in countries of consolidated democracy, the high professional and ethical standards of parliamentarians in fulfilling their mandates serve as a background for building citizen’s trust and support. Thus, there is an increasing need for the development and recording of provisions, which relate to professional ethics in the parliament and the proper fulfillment of parliamentary powers.
Thereby, we who have signed below:
1. Understanding the importance of honest representation of society’s interests in the parliament and of principles of tolerance, trust, pluralism of opinions and mutual respect, we recognize the necessity to regulate issues of parliamentary ethics.
2. In accordance with the recommendations by the Verkhovna Rada Needs Assessment Mission of the European Parliament and the Brussels Declaration of the Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE we believe it is necessary to draft and enact the Code of Conduct in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. This should be done with consideration of the principle of inclusion and according to the best international practices.
3. We agree that in order to be effective the proposed initiative calls for a constantly active dialogue platform to work out the provisions of the Code. Such a platform should be non-partisan and take into account points of view of all interested parties. The process of negotiations can be facilitated by external expert support of the Agency for Legislative Initiatives with the support of the Matra Programme (Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands) and in partnership with OSCE ODIHR and the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy and with assistance from the USAID Program “RADA: Responsible Accountable Democratic Assembly” without influencing the decisions.
4. In our activities as MPs we guarantee enforcement of principles of transparency, accountability, avoidance of conflict of interests, tolerance and respect for human rights.
5. We declare our support to the dialogue on issues of parliamentary ethics.
The activities are held within the project of the Agency for Legislative Initiatives “Promoting Democratic Political Culture in Verkhovna Rada through Political Dialogue and Ethical Standards”, carried out with the support of the Embassy of the Netherlands in Ukraine in partnership with the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) “Strengthening Dialogue among Civil Society and with Key Governmental Stakeholders in Ukraine in Human Dimension” and with the assistance of the USAID RADA Program: Responsible Accountable Democratic Assembly, implemented by East Europe Foundation.
Press-briefing on Signing the Declaration of Intent
#EthicalRada
On February, 9, 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.
Olena Sotnyk:
“Holding this position, we as MPs have to realize the significance and responsibility of each of our action, word and decision. Ethical conduct is not only about being polite and respectful; it is also about legitimacy and importance of the parliament and parliamentarians for the society”
Svitlana Zalishchuk:
“We believe that these ethical standards must be adopted in one way or another. Why? Firstly, because of the fact that our parliamentary committees are often headed by people who represent business (“Ukrzaliznytsia” – i.e. in the transport committee). This is unacceptable. The Ethical Code can solve it. Secondly, when MPs actually register their laws, in spite of the fact that the alternative one already exists for a year or two… This is such a selective legislation. Why? Because there is a solidarity. Then, some laws are given a green light, and some laws are shown a red flag. The Code of Conduct can solve it. And the last. I believe that the parliament simply has to show that ordinary people work here, the same people of whom the society consists, that has chosen us. Otherwise, I suspend that this parliament, just like the previous one, will simply be withdrawn”
Alyona Shrum:
“Most of the MPs are now talking about European integration and are shouting about European values. But European integration is not only laws, economic norms and some papers. It is, above all, the code of conduct, dignity, kindness, mutual understanding, and mutual respect. These are the rules of freedom”
Yuriy Miroshnychenko:
“It’s for a reason that now we are not talking about the law-making process, which regulates the life of society, but we are talking about an equally important issue of ethics, those rules of behavior that people should accept voluntarily, as no laws, including the Law “On the Rules of Procedures”, can not restrain mutual hostility, mutual offenses, and sometimes even frantic fights”
“If we, the MPs, will not be able to behave with dignity, to eliminate the conflict of interest in our actions, to treat as a matter of principle the rules of procedures violations and other laws, we cannot rely on the help and support of the society and the world to the Parliament and to Ukraine”
Declaration of Intent has fixated the necessity to regulate issues of parliamentary ethics and the initiative of MPs to actively participate in working out the ethical norms. MPs who participated in the briefing signed the Declaration and encouraged their colleagues to join.
The activity takes place in the framework of the Agency for Legislative Initiative Project “Promoting Democratic Political Culture in Verkhovna Rada through Political Dialog and Ethical Standards”, which is being implemented with support from the MATRA Program (Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands) and in partnership with the ODIHR OSCE Project “Strengthening Dialogue among Civil Society and with Key Governmental Stakeholders in Ukraine in Human Dimension”, the Dutch Institute for Multiparty Democracy, and with the assistance of the USAID Program “RADA: Accountability, Responsibility, Democratic Parliamentary Representation”.
Press Conference “Presentation of materials developed for the Parliamentary Code of Conduct”
#EthicalRada
On February 3, the press conference “Presentation of Materials Developed for the Parliamentary Code of Conduct” was held and was attended by Svitlana Matviienko, Chairwoman of Board of the Agency for Legislative Initiatives, Igor Kogut, Director of USAID “RADA” Program, Kateryna Ryabiko, Project Coordinator of OSCE / ODIHR Project “Strengthening Dialogue among Civil Society and with Key Governmental Stakeholders in Ukraine in Human Dimension”, Ostap Yednak, Member of the Parliament of Ukraine, and Serhiy Leshchenko, Member of the Parliament of Ukraine.
At the press conference, the first developments were presented based on operation of the dialog platform, which was established to discuss ethical dilemmas and ensure an inclusive process of developing the Parliamentary Code of Conduct, the “owners” of which are Members of the Parliament themselves. During the press conference, the MPs also presented a declaration of intent on development of the Parliamentary Code of Conduct.
Svitlana Matviienko noticed:
“Trust in political institutions is a key element of their legitimacy. This is especially true about the Parliament as a representative body. The confidence in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine in recent years is unprecedentedly low. To a large extent this is due to public perceptions of questionable ethical principles of the people’s representatives”
Igor Kogut emphasized that the process of dialogs on the parliamentary ethics should focus on consideration of ethical dilemmas, which will result in common, clear, and acceptable to all parliamentary standards of professional ethics. MPs themselves should agree on parliamentary ethics principles, within which they will be able to fulfill their mandate and be accountable to voters.
Kateryna Riabiko said:
“Many people when referring to parliamentary ethics limit that to regulation of behavior in the session hall. This issue is certainly important for the image of the Parliament as a whole, but the definition and regulation of parliamentary ethics include a much wider range of issues, including conflict of interest and hidden lobbing, as well as transparency of parliamentary privileges and benefits, asset declaration, etc”
MP Ostap Yednak, who participated in all workshops in the framework of the project, noted that the key to this process is the dialog:
“Parliamentary ethics is the MP’s political responsibility. We have to learn the culture of the political dialog in order to have trust and support from citizens. The level of culture and ethics in the Parliament are determined by the level of the institution’s respect for each other. I think that a law will not solve the problem, and therefore it should be an in-house parliamentary manifesto”
When presenting the declaration of intent on development of the Parliamentary Code of Conduct, MP Serhiy Leshchenko said:
“In our work as MPs we guarantee compliance with the principles of transparency, accountability, avoiding conflicts of interest, tolerance, and respect for human rights”
Serhiy also urged MPs to join the initiative and sign the declaration of intent to participate in the process of adopting the Parliamentary Code of Conduct.
The activity takes place in the framework of the Agency for Legislative Initiative Project “Promoting Democratic Political Culture in Verkhovna Rada through Political Dialog and Ethical Standards”, which is being implemented with support from the MATRA Program (Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands) and in partnership with the ODIHR OSCE Project “Strengthening Dialogue among Civil Society and with Key Governmental Stakeholders in Ukraine in Human Dimension”, the Dutch Institute for Multiparty Democracy, and with the assistance of the USAID Program “RADA: Accountability, Responsibility, Democratic Parliamentary Representation”.
Conference “The Rise of “Left” and “Right” Forces: the Collapse of Democracy?”
On December 20, 2016, the Opera Hotel (Kyiv, 53, Bohdan Khmelnytsky Str.) hosted the conference “Rise of the ‘Left’ and ‘Right’ Forces: Curtailment of Democracy?”. During the event, directors and graduates of the Schools of Political Studies from Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Armenia, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine, representatives of civil society and international organizations discussed the results of recent elections in Western Europe and the Eastern Partnership countries.
The conference was organized with the support of the Division of Electoral Assistance and Census of the Directorate General II – Democracy of the Council of Europe. It was aimed at improving the quality of democracy via the dialogue between the Eastern Partnership countries and at discussing the processes that contribute to the decline of democracy.
The panel discussion of the conference “Rise of the ‘Left’ and ‘Right’ Forces: Curtailment of Democracy?” was dedicated to global trends in consolidated democracies. It invited guests and participants to reflect on the crisis of ideologies and parties, causes of the rise of the “right” and “viability” of right-wing ideologies among Ukrainian voters. The conference was opened by the Honorary Director of the Ukrainian School of Political Studies Ihor Kohut, who urged the participants to reflect on the challenges facing Ukraine, EU and Eastern Partnership countries after the elections in Moldova and Bulgaria and the risks that the upcoming election in France might be fraught with.
Yevhen BYSTRYTSKY, PhD, Head of the Department of Philosophy of Culture, Ethics and Aesthetics of the Institute of Philosophy of the NAS of Ukraine, who started the first panel, voiced the opinion that there are representatives of leftist ideas in Ukraine, but at the moment they are not an organized political force. They insist that there is no freedom of speech in Ukraine. In addition, such representatives argue that there is no space in the media where one could express their thoughts. He also noted: “There are certain things that have contributed to the revival of the neoconservative wave. I’m talking about the elections in Hungary and Poland, where nationally-driven right forces have consolidated, and the election of Trump. In fact, the conservative wave has captured voters in America”. He added that one of the factors contributing to this was the conflict of worldview and ideological interests. “In Europe, it is a response to the dangers that have arisen: refugees, Russia’s pressure, and the imposition of sanctions. It is also important to mention the wave of resistance to financial and industrial globalization. For instance, at the beginning of the XXI century the European world is full of local conflicts that are cruel and devoid of respect for human rights. They involve confrontation aimed at destruction of another culture”.
Natalia AMELCHENKO, PhD, associate professor, lecturer of the Department of Political Science, National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, started her speech by pointing out to problems with identifying the ideologies of political parties, particularly in Ukraine, because we use old terms and try to impose them onto new phenomena. She argued, “Today, classical ideologies are in crisis. The neoconservative wave has existed before and exits now. Today the challenge is to survive it.” The speaker went on to say that few of voters, in fact, read the statutes of the parties. The statutes are read only by students who are studying these issues. They exist only for the purpose of registration and contain no clear ideology. The program of the political party Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) contains the notion of subsidiarity, but the media and talk shows are not aimed at explaining significant problems to the public, rather they exist to create an image of the politician”.
Oleksiy HARAN, Research Director of the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation, pointed out that in the world there was a global tendency of populism, including left-wing populism. In Ukraine, the niche of the Left is vacant and there is a need for a normal left-wing Ukrainian party. “We live in the period after the collapse of the USSR and the end of the Cold War. What we now see as the total slippage of democracy has already happened in history. Europe and its capitalism have manifested great adaptability. The PACE, which adopted our position in the European Parliament, gave an example how to establish relations with socialists. Yes, there is a crisis, but we should not underestimate the potential of Europe, which we can also develop here,” Mr. Haran said.
Angela SEDELL, Senior Researcher at Oxford University, reminded that on June 24, 2016, Britain announced its withdrawal from the EU based on the results of the referendum. “Britain was divided into 2 camps – those who campaigned for and against Brexit. Proponents of remaining in the EU appealed to expert opinions and economic arguments. Everything suggested inflation, uncertainty in doing business, and a decline in economic growth. Their opponents said that if we left the EU, 350 million euros (EU contributions) would be transferred to the public health care. Surveys say that this message was decisive,” commented Ms. Sedell. She added that populist messages such as the restriction of migration to Britain had proved to be very effective. Consequences include the decline of the national currency and trust in the law, British Constitution and European treaties. According to Ms. Sedell, the referendum put the authority of judges and parliament in question. Another result is the mistrust of voters.
Alexandra DANCASIU, political analyst at Go-Governance (Austria), began her speech as follows: “We see many politicians talk about fear, hatred, threats, appealing to emotions rather than objective facts. We heard Trump emotional speeches during his campaign and things he appeals to now during his winner tour. Now he tells his voters things that run contrary to what he promised.” According to Alexandra, today many people can vote, but we do not have real political debates and not all voters can join them, as it used to be before. True debates do not take place because many people do not even vote. Are those who vote well-informed? Is it legitimate for them to elect politicians? Is this still the choice of the majority? Alexandra emphasized that democracy tries to gather all points of view and work out a long-term strategy. Only before elections politicians think what they should do to remain in position.
“Democracy still guarantees equality, the right for everyone to express their opinion, freedom, human rights. But if we do not make an effort to find ways to reach out to the people who are not involved in the political debate, we will lose them and populists will be able to come to power”
“It’s very difficult to understand what people want, but they are not happy. So they are protesting, and populists take advantage of it. Today’s politicians need to think in a contemporary way, using technologies (Facebook, Instagram), generating a political dialogue, and engaging the public in the discussion”
Panel II was dedicated to the “rollback” of democracy based on the results of elections in the Eastern Partnership countries and close neighbors of Ukraine. The moderator of the session, Alexander Dabravolski, urged the speakers to share their views on the popularity of “left” ideas as a result of the Soviet legacy or demand for a fair social distribution.
Olga MANOLE, coordinator of the Human Rights Program, coordinator of civic and electoral education of Promo-LEX Association (Moldova), as a member of an organization that monitors elections in Moldova, began her speech by saying that the last presidential election in Moldova in November 2016 differed from all previous elections as soon as politicians relied heavily on false and populist arguments broadcasted through the media. Candidates appealed to traditions used propaganda and backing of the church to receive support from voters. In this election they did not rely on administrative resources and bribes as heavily as before. In comparison with the parliamentary election of 2014, the electoral process in Moldova has improved a lot. Ironically, however, the methods which were used to achieve the improvement still involved an influence on voters. In this respect, the intervention of the church was especially aggressive. Olga said, “There is a probability of canceling the results of the presidential election because the gap between the candidates is very small.”
Yevhen RADCHENKO, Development Director of the NGO Internews-Ukraine, said that based on statistics there was a major shake-up among those elected to Parliament in Belarus, among old politicians in particular. It indicates a certain trend. He also suggested focusing on the situation in Armenia and the referendum of 2015, when Armenia became a parliamentary republic. “The parliamentary election of 2017 will take place on a proportional basis, and in 2018 the president will be elected in three rounds by the parliamentary assembly,” said Mr. Radchenko. He further argued that the referendum, which was held in Azerbaijan on September 26, made the power of Ilham Aliyev absolute and gave him the right to appoint the first vice president and two vice-presidents, who are essentially his economic advisers. According to Yevhen, these actions undermine the importance of Parliament. Mr. Radchenko concluded his presentation with the thesis that Europe and the Eastern countries were immersing in authoritarianism and the crisis of democracy.
Anastasia DARAFIEIEVA, Chairwoman of the Belarusian Green Party, alumnus of the East European School of Political Studies (Belarus) said that the results of this election campaign were new to Belarus. Two opposition candidates entered the parliament. “Europe is interested in maintaining stability in Belarus and taking steps to simulate democracy. This is an alarming signal that attests to the depreciation of European values,” said Ms. Darafyeyeva. Civil society is the only thing that can change the current political situation; the only way out for these representatives is to become actors and go to the level of decision-making. In Ukraine, the left-wing party niche is vacant, but there are people who could unite into such a party. “There is a lack of vision. What parties can do is to give a vision. In the situation with the EU, we are witnessing a crisis of values and vision in part because it has been implemented. Similarly, in the post-Soviet countries, there is a demand for an ideology. This should be a vision of the future based on the processes of the present.”
Hennadii MAKSAK, Chairman of the Board, Head of the Foreign Policy Council “Ukrainian Prism”, USPS alumnus, started with the fact that the Eastern Partnership countries had 2 systems: corrupt and authoritarian-oligarchic. “In Belarus, there are appointments rather than elections, there is no decent control over local elections, and OSCE commissions keep telling about that. In Moldova, there was a vote, socialists won, but sometimes they used pro-Russian methods again. In Armenia, before the parliamentary election it was clear which 2 parties would be in power. Under such conditions, the president said he would rather be the head of a party than president”, he added. According to Mr. Maksak, it would be better to without disguise about the lack of democracy or substitution of concepts. In Armenia, there is a platform for public initiatives they want to close. Unfortunately, in Azerbaijan civil society activists are behind bars.
Panel III actualized the concept of gender in politics as an indicator of democratization and the role of women in the democratic process.
Olha VESNIANKA, human rights activist, journalist, USPS alumnus, said that it was very difficult to talk about gender equality and its legal implementation in European countries. There is a large number of human rights organizations operating in the field of discrimination in Ukraine. Talking about Ukraine, we need to remember the sexist statements of former President Yanukovich and Prime Minister Azarov, whose Cabinet was known as the “Cabinet without women”. Instead of ratifying the Istanbul Convention, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine initiated meaningless discussions on the topic of “What is gender?” The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine believes that it is not important to talk about a camp for those who suffer from violence. Ukraine’s goal was to reach the indicator of 30% of women in politics, but at the moment the percentage of women in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine is only 12%.
Olha AIVAZOVSKA, Chairwoman of the Board and Coordinator of Electoral and Political Programs at the Civil Network OPORA, representative of Ukraine in the political subgroup of the Trilateral Contact Group on Donbas, USPS alumnus, said that after the decentralization most of the money would stay in regions enabling women to take seats in local councils. Women in Parliament work more, preparing initiatives and providing feedback.
Parliament or any council should represent people, but this is impossible without gender and ethnic equality. In any negotiation, 25% must be women protecting the rights of women. Woman can work effectively also in military affairs. Pregnancy or gender are only pretexts for paternalistic attitudes. Talking about quotas, there are many different stances. Germans believe that “the quota principle creates quota women”. However, only the countries that have no problems can afford to say that. There are stupid women and men in Parliament. I do not agree that men are smarter than women. But it is certainly true that women do not have the same access to resources as men. If a party goes to politics to increase resources rather than champion voters’ interests, it is sure to be interested in players who have more resources, and usually these are not women. The question of the openness of political funding directly concerns the quality of staff and the gender issue. If the party receives money from citizens and the country, it will not be interested in whether a candidate has a million or not. Many parties take into account the issue of gender. I’m not a fan of the topic of womankind, but I’m a fan of the issue of quality of people. In fact, this is the same as with people with disabilities – if we do not see them on the streets, it does not mean that they do not exist.
Valentina POLIEVIKOVA, Manager of the East European School of Political Studies, founder and Chairwoman of the Belarusian Women’s Party Nadzieja (1994-2002), stated that a lot of stereotypes and patriarchal attitudes still persist in Belarus. Women need help not only in fighting discrimination but also in engaging in the decision-making process. Belarus has only 2 female mayors. Some people do not believe in the effectiveness of gender quotas; unfortunately, we do not have even this in Belarus. However, having studied the experience of the implementation of territorial quotas, we can see that the more women work, the more they vote for women because they understand their problems.
Participants of Discussion platform IV debated on the role of media in the shaping and consumption of populist messages in Western Europe, Eastern Partnership countries, and Ukraine.
The platform was moderated by Vitaly Portnikov, observer of the Radio Liberty, who stressed that the real danger wasn’t Trump’s words but rather his failure to act on them. Therefore, in the next election greater promises and populism will prevail. This is a question of the direction of movement – to new responsibility or to a triumph of irresponsibility.
Serhiy HAIDAI, Strategic Planning Director at the social engineering agency Haidai.Com, believes that we live in a new world and don’t have to struggle with it. The only thing we need to do is to improve the culture of information consumption. Why have we begun to separate form and content? If you are not a populist, you should create a new influential form. I would rather stop pushing the panic button and get down to developing new technologies.
Andriy ANDRUSHKIV, Coordinator of the project “Reform of Public Finance Control Use” at the NGO Center UA, USPS alumnus, spoke about the PR strategies of NGOs whose messages always appealed to emotions. He noted that in order to avoid this, we should improve the level of media culture among citizens.
Ivan HODARSKI, media and legal issues consultant at MEMO 98 (Slovakia), pointed out that fake news did not emerge yesterday. The main reason for their appearance is a lack of critical thinking, which is the main skill to counteract propaganda.
Vitaliy MOROZ, Head of the New Media Department at Internews-Ukraine, stressed that journalism today is not as exclusive as it used to be several years ago. This has both advantages and disadvantages. The former include the fact that journalists can use many new media.
Andriy PROKOPENKO, Managing Partner at Prokopenko and Partners, political Management, USPS alumnus, summed up all the speeches and emphasized the importance of promoting a higher level of media culture not only among journalists but also among the public.
Conference photo gallery can be accessed on the USPS Facebook page. Photographer – Oleksandr Kovalenko.
Presentation of the Shadow Report in the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Education and Science
An extended meeting of the Committee on Science and Education dedicated to topical education issues took place at 18/2, M. Hrushevsky Str. on December 21, 2016.
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.
To implement the supervision functions of the Committee on Science and Education, the following issues were addressed:
• the status of implementation of the Law of Ukraine On Higher Education,
• the status of implementation of the Law of Ukraine On Academic and Scientific Research Activities
• the implementation of the Decision of the Committee on Science and Education of April 12, 2016 On the Activities of the State Enterprise Inforesurs.
ALI experts and authors of the studies, Yevhen Nikolayev, PhD, Assistant Professor of Political Economy at KNEU named after V. Hetman, and Oleksandr Dluhopolskyi, PhD., Professor of Economics at the Ternopil National Economic University, presented the Shadow Report “Reform of Higher Education in Ukraine: Implementation of the Specialized Law in 2014–2016”
The study examines the issues of developing a new quality assurance system for higher education, developing academic and financial autonomy of higher educational institutions, ensuring fair conditions for admission to higher educational institutions, and integrating Ukraine’s higher education into the European educational and scientific environment. The report also contains some suggestions concerning further necessary steps in this area.
Shadow reports are a method whereby NGOs present alternative information to the periodic government reports concerning the implementation of government programs.
Based on the results of the presentation, the committee members initiated a roundtable discussion of the results of the submitted report pre-scheduled for January 2017.
Presentation of the shadow reports to the Committees of Parliament is part of the project implemented by the Agency for Legislative Initiatives with the support of USAID RADA Program: Responsible, Accountable, Democratic Assembly implemented by the East Europe Foundation.
Gender-Based Training on Women-Owned Business
On December 7, 2016, a business on specifics and benefits of doing business by women was held at the office of the USAID RADA Program: Responsible Accountable Democratic Assembly (7a, Shovkovychna Str., Kyiv).
The training was organized with the support of the Embassy of the State of Israel and the IFU Equal Opportunities.
At the training, the following issues were raised:
- personality and psychological characteristics of the business initiator;
- gender traits in doing business and business benefits for women;
- development and expansion of business;
- examples of successful business initiatives (Israeli experience of supporting business ladies).
The training was conducted by experienced Israeli business coaches, Yan Zusman and Yacov Gorokhovsky.
Yan Zusman is a psychologist of the highest category in the field of social, organizational and occupational psychology. He is leading psychologist at the Center for Testing and Employment (Haifa, Israel), specialist in group and individual career counseling and career advancement. As a business trainer, he conducts seminars and lectures in the field of business initiatives and organization development. Yan Zusman collaborates with various public and private organizations as an independent expert and lecturer.
Yacov Gorokhovsky has been the owner of Segment Y.G. Business Development Ltd since 1990. The company provides services in the field of financial and business consulting, marketing, and strategy management as well as conducting business seminars and courses in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel, the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption of Israel, the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Israel, private individuals, and organizations.
“As testified by the experience of developed countries, women’s access to decision-making process and occupation of key positions in business can improve the economic performance. Unfortunately, we have long-lasting stereotypes not only in men’s heads, but also in women’s. Women work a lot but mostly in the lower and middle-level positions or in the public sector, without actually having access to real decision-making and any influence. Thanks to such projects, I hope we will be able give a boost and inspiration to such women”
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Presentation of the Shadow Report “Experience with Local Referendums in Ukraine as an Element of Local Democracy”
On November 24 the shadow report “Experience with Local Referendums in Ukraine as an Element of Local Democracy” was presented in Chernihiv. The presentation took place within the framework of a working group meeting at the Subcommittee on Elections and Referendums of the Committee of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on Legal Policy and Justice.
The meeting was organized by the Agency for Legislative Initiatives in cooperation with MP Oleksandr Chernenko, co-chair of the Subcommittee on Elections and Referendums, within USAID RADA Program: Responsible Accountable Democratic Assembly implemented by the East Europe Foundation.
An opening speech was delivered by Valerii Kulich, Head of Chernihiv Oblast State Administration.
Tetiana Chernukha, project coordinator of the Agency for Legislative Initiatives, presented the results of a study on the practice of initiating and conducting local referendums in Ukraine from 1991 to 2012 (i.e. during the period when law No. 1286-12 On National and Local Referendums dated 1991 was in force).
Another speaker Maksym Latsyba, Ukrainian Center for Independent Political Research, Director of USAID “Citizens in Action Project”, made a presentation on “Legal Framework for Mechanisms of Local Democracy”.
Shadow reports are a method, new to Ukraine, to communicate information and policy alternatives regarding the implementation of government programs to the public.
Presentation of Shadow Reports in committees of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine is part of the project carried out by the Agency for Legislative Initiatives within the USAID RADA Program: Responsible Accountable Democratic Assembly implemented by the East Europe Foundation.