On April 8, the Public Control Platform SCO and the Transparent Cities program team held an online meeting with representatives of city councils. The main purpose of the event was to familiarize representatives of local authorities with the results of city's 2020 Transparency and Accountability Rankings, as well as to present the capabilities of the Transparent Cities online platform as a unique platform for dialogue between the authorities and the public sector.

The event was attended by representatives of 11 city councils, in particular, Bakhmut, Kramatorsk, Kostiantynivka, Mariupol, Nikopol, Kremenchuk, Odesa, Melitopol, Berdiansk, Sloviansk, and also Pokrov.

The organizers described the main approaches to assessing transparency and accountability of cities, as well as elaborated on the most problematic indicators for municipalities on accountability, for example, the sphere “Access and participation,” which measures the actual accessibility of local authorities to residents of communities.

A separate talk was devoted to the advantages that the Transparent Cities platform provides for local authorities to respond to requests and feedback from civil society organizations and residents.

Representatives of city councils can create profiles on the platform and quickly communicate with residents about urgent problems of the city. The actions of municipalities on the platform also affects the overall score of cities in the Accountability Ranking.

Let us remind you that the Accountability Ranking of 50 cities in Ukraine has been presented this year for the first time. The assessment took place within 14 spheres according to 47 indicators. Learn more about the results of the Rankings here. The average city accountability rate is only 12.5 points out of 100, which means that the openness of local authorities in many aspects remains showcase, and the city council's reporting to society is minimal.

Analysis of the shortcomings of city councils' work in accordance with the accountability methodology, consideration by local authorities of the recommendations of the Transparent Cities program, as well as active use of the online platform will help to increase the level of accountability of Ukrainian cities.