Recently, we have found out that not everyone understands how our Urban Transparency Ranking is actually formed. Some people think we compile it just by browsing the city council websites or that it is based on city council responses. But the Ranking process is much more serious and takes at least 2.5 months. How does it work?

1. Firstly, TI Ukraine conducts competitive selection of analysts. We look for experts with knowledge of the law and the work of the local government. In addition, they should not have any conflict of interest. Experience in conducting research on corruption, open data, and municipal government is a must.
2. We form and send requests for information to each of the 100 city councils. Officials have a month to respond but for some of them, even this much time is not enough.
3. Having received answers from city councils, each of the four experts starts to analyze 25 cities. They carefully examine the city council based on 86 indicators and give their recommendations and comments to each indicator
4. After the cities’ evaluation is completed, the numbers are verified, and from the verified data, the City Transparency Ranking is formed.
5. The final stage is preparation for the presentation: data visualization, event preparation and invitation of interesting speakers.
6. Ranking Presentation. This day, someone will rejoice over a victory, someone will be upset over dropping lower in the ranking, and someone will get a boost and will work more on their city council transparency next year.
7. It may seem like that is where it stops, but we continue to work with city councils, provide them with transparency recommendations, advice and support. We hold presentations in different cities where we discuss strengths and weaknesses of the city council and tell residents about their levels of influence.
8. Preparation for a new study: we conduct an interim assessment of the city councils’ transparency, review the methodology and discuss prospects, then again, announce a competition for analysts.