The Transparent Cities program presents an updated version of the methodology for assessing the transparency of the 100 largest cities in Ukraine. The assessment using this methodology will help to understand whether city councils comply with regulatory requirements for publishing data on official resources and whether they are implementing good practices for municipal transparency. Over four years, the average transparency level of the 100 largest cities in Ukraine has increased by 59.5%.

How will cities be ranked in 2021?

The evaluation will cover 84 indicators in 14 spheres of local self-government bodies' activity: “Information of the work of local authorities,” “Access and participation,” “Procurement,” “Housing policy,” “Budgeting process,” “Financial assistance and grants,” “Social Services,” “HR matters,” “Anti-corruption policy and professional ethics,” “Land use and construction policy,” “Municipal enterprises,” “Municipal property,” “Education,” “Investment and economic development.” Each city will be able to get a maximum of 100 points.

City councils will be ranked by level of transparency on the following scale:

What changes have occurred in the transparency methodology compared to 2020?

As part of the update of the transparent analytics methodology of the Transparent Cities program: 

• indicators are updated in accordance with changes in legislation;
• recommendations of representatives of local self-government bodies, specialized public organizations, and active residents have been considered;
• new indicators to the spheres “Investment and economic development” and “Land use and construction policy,” “Budgeting process” have been added.

In particular, the sphere “Land use and construction policy” is supplemented with indicators on the development and publication of registers of green spaces, as well as land lease agreements. In the “Budgeting process” sphere, indicators have been added that relate to the publication of information on construction, reconstruction, major repairs of municipal infrastructure facilities, as well as expenditures on the development budget.

In cooperation with experts of the Lviv Regulatory Hub, indicators have been developed and added to ensure a transparent process for preparing and adopting regulatory acts.

New indicators in the sphere of “Investment and economic development” relate to:

• the publication of lists of regulatory acts and plans for the preparation of such projects;
• the best practices for preparing draft decisions and accompanying calculations;
• the activity of the permanent parliamentary commission responsible for the implementation of state regulatory policy.

The transparency methodology 2021 can be downloaded in Excel format at the link.

The methodology has been developed within the project “Transparent Cities e-platform for cooperation of citizens and local governments for accountability and good governance” implemented with the financial support of the European Union Delegation to Ukraine.