Developing cooperation with the public sector. On June 11, the SCO Public Control Platform together with the team of the Transparent Cities program held a practical training for representatives of civil society organizations in Kremenchuk, as well as for active residents who are interested in developing their city. The main purpose of the meeting was to discuss indicators of transparency and accountability in Kremenchuk, as well as to engage civil society organizations in assessing the city's accountability through the Transparent Cities online platform.
As Olena Ohorodnik, head of the Transparent cities program states, during the preparation of rankings, the team of analysts is in constant contact with both representatives of city councils and the public sector. “Transparency and Accountability Rankings do not just allow to assess the current situation with the openness and availability of data in cities. Their results help determine the further direction of the city's development. The role of the public in this process is vital. After all, without a constructive dialogue between the authorities and society, it is extremely difficult to talk about real changes in cities,” Olena says. Program analyst Victoriia Onyshchenko spoke about the dynamics of Kremenchuk's indicators in the Transparency Ranking and the first results in the Accountability Ranking.
In the Transparency Ranking, according to the results of 2020, Kremenchuk ranked the 20th (+15 positions compared to last year). In terms of accountability, the city ranks the 18th out of 50. The results of the Rankings can be found at the link.
Victoriia paid attention to the important role of active residents in assessing accountability because every confirmed public response on the Transparent Cities platform affects the performance of cities in the Ranking.
“We offer practical tools that active citizens can use to improve the situation in their city. By leaving a comment on the platform, the public signals problems in the city, and the authorities can quickly respond and correct the situation. Such cooperation benefits everyone because it helps to identify exactly those spheres where changes are a priority for society,” says Victoria.
How exactly an online platform can be useful to the public in practice was demonstrated by Kseniia Nezhyva, project coordinator of the SCO Public Control Platform. Kseniia also spoke about updating the methodology for assessing the accountability of cities in 2021. You can read more about the new methodology here.
During the training, activists evaluated the work of the Kremenchuk City Council in such spheres as “Education,” “Information of the work of local self-government bodies,” “HR matters,” etc. Another part of the training was the participants' discussion of pressing problems that they face when interacting with local authorities, in particular, restrictions on participation in meetings of the city council and the executive committee. Follow the program page on Facebook so as not to miss the announcement of the meeting with the public in your city.
The training was held within the project “Transparent Cities: an electronic platform for interaction of citizens and local governments to ensure accountability and good governance,” which is implemented by Transparency International Ukraine within the Transparent Cities program with the financial support of the European Union.