TI Ukraine announces a competitive selection of regional civil society organizations to evaluate the accountability of cities within the framework of the Project “Transparent Cities: e-platform for cooperation of citizens and local governments for accountability and good governance,” which is implemented with the financial support of the European Union Delegation to Ukraine.

The purpose of the competitive selection is to engage 20 civil society organizations to independently evaluate the accountability of city councils, which will allow to conclude the Accountability Ranking of 50 cities of Ukraine. The measurement of accountability will be carried out according to the special methodology, developed by the team of the Transparent Cities program together with the teams of civil society organizations Civic Control Platform and Center for Public Monitoring and Research.

Objectives:

1. To evaluate the accountability of 3 cities according to 48 indicators, based on the methodology for ranking the accountability of Ukrainian cities.
2. To enter a city's score in a specially designed and provided form, explain the score for each indicator with links to materials confirming the correctness of the decision.
3. To prepare a final report on the services provided in accordance with the established forms. If selected, each civil society organization will receive a detailed description of the methodology with explanations on its application, a list of cities to be evaluated, and a form to fill out.

Requirements for competitive selection participants:

• A civil society organization that intends to take part in the competition must be registered in accordance with the requirements of the legislation of Ukraine and entered in the Register of Non-Profit Organizations. If an initiative group that is not registered as a civil society organization does take part, then such a group must register before the agreement is concluded.
• A civil society organization is registered and operates in one of the 50 cities participating in the Accountability Ranking (list of cities is at the link).
• A civil society organization has a valid current account with a Ukrainian bank.
• Previous experience in anti-corruption events or activity (advocacy of democratic or anti-corruption initiatives; introduction of e-democracy tools; working with open data; monitoring public procurement; monitoring the activity of local governments, etc.) will be an advantage.

Package of documents for participation in the selection process:

• A filled-out application form, certified by the seal and signature of the head of the organization (attached);
• Project manager's resume; • A scanned copy of the registration certificate/extract from the Unified State Register;
• A scanned copy of the non-profit certificate;
• A scanned copy of the charter.

Documents for participation in the competitive selection must be submitted electronically in PDF format to transparent-cities@ti-ukraine.org. Each file must be enclosed in the email separately. Archive files (ZIP, RAR, etc.) are not accepted for consideration. Subject of the email: “Application for the competition — [name of the SCO].” If it is necessary to clarify the details of the selection, representatives of TI Ukraine can contact the applicant at any stage of consideration of the application by phone and email address from which the package of documents was received or indicated in the application form as a contact.

Individual consultation of potential applicants is possible before the deadline for submitting a package of documents. Please note that consultations are not provided by phone. For any clarifications about participating in the competition, please send them to the transparent-cities@ti-ukraine.org email address by specifying “Questions regarding the competition” in the subject line, and, in the email, — your first and last name and the organization you represent.

Deadline for submitting documents — until 11:59 pm on August 15, 2021.

Results announcement — until 11:59 pm on September 1, 2021.

The selection of civil society organizations will be based on the principles of collegiality and transparency. The selection decision will be made by representatives of a special commission. The winning SCO will be selected based on a fair geographical distribution and balance of city positions (i.e., among the winners will be SCOs from cities that occupy both high and low positions in the current Accountability Ranking).

Attention! Documents for participation in the competitive selection that are received after the specified deadline will not be considered. Proposals submitted by for-profit organizations, private individuals, political parties, or religious communities are not eligible. The date and time of submission of documents for participation in the competitive selection is considered to be the date and time of actual receipt of the email. Documents submitted for the competition are not returned or reviewed. All participants in the competitive selection process will be notified of the results by email.

For reference

Transparency International Ukraine is an accredited chapter of the global movement Transparency International with a comprehensive approach to development and implementation of changes for reduction of the corruption levels. TI Ukraine launched the Transparent Cities program in 2017. It aims at overcoming corruption at the local level and promoting the best practices of transparency and accountability. The program annually compiles the Transparency Ranking of 100 Largest Ukrainian Cities. Experts analyze the openness of city councils based on indicators in 14 spheres. Based on the findings, they provide advice and support to city councils on the implementation of the best transparency and accountability practices. Over four years, the average city transparency level has increased by 59.5%.

In 2020, the work began on creating the Accountability Ranking of 50 Ukrainian Cities, which reflects the actual situation with local authorities’ accountability. The evaluation was based on 47 indicators in 14 spheres of activity of city councils. According to the results of the first research, the average score of city accountability constitutes 12.5 points. In 2020, the Transparent Cities program launched an online local government transparency and accountability platform. *When submitting documents, you consent to Transparency International Ukraine's processing and storing your personal data.