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LESSON

Lesson Learned: Your Local Representative, Strengthening Citizen Participation in Ukraine

Project implementation followed the outputs listed in the project document but the aspects related to citizen participation and the lobbying of parties were missing. These activities had not been included in the request for proposals (RFPs) issued by the grantee. Conceptually, the project seemed to think these elements would emanate from website use but without a critical mass of users, this did not occur.
Project Partner
East Europe Foundation
Project Description
The project sought to enhance the capacities of Ukrainian NGOs and citizens to influence political processes by providing citizens with tools to monitor and evaluate the work of their elected officials and to advocate for needed change. Its intended outcomes were to: increase NGO activism in engaging citizens to undertake citizen monitoring and advocacy activities; increase access to information for citizens about their local representatives and electoral officials; and increase civil society demand for more accountability from their local representatives and elected officials in eight targeted regions. The main tool used by the project to achieve these outcomes was a dedicated website. However this was under-developed in the design and during implementation. The assumption that these websites alone could result in more responsive party lists or more accountable deputies was unrealistic .The impact of this project is difficult to assess as it did not collect outcome information.. The limited use of the site and its lack of links to activities in the sector reduced its potential for impact but from the anecdotal information gathered, it seems that on a limited scale, this project resulted in an increased awareness among some deputies that their activities were being watched and that information on their work could get out to the public through NGOs and websites such as these.
Evaluation Date
October 2013
Country