PUBLIC ACCOUNTABILITY SEMINAR

On June, 10th till June,15th FES Regional Office "Dialogue Eastern Europe" in cooperation with the Solidarity Center Ukraine and NGO “Working initiatives” have organized a one-week Seminar on Public Accountability.

The Seminar took place in Kharkiv and Kyiv and have hosted 15 progressive activists, academics, journalists, local politicians and emerging experts from Eastern Europe, Germany and the United States - experts in advancing public accountability, transparency, and integrity within their local communities, who came for the Public Accountability Seminar.

The Seminar provided an answer to two very important question for every democratic society:

• How accountable the government should be?
• What instruments can civil society use to increase transparency and improve good governance?

The session in Kyiv has enabled the participants to meet with representatives from civil society, media, government, parliament and partners from international institutions, who had and continue to have an impact on improving accountability and transparency in Ukraine. Among them: Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, Transparency International Ukraine, Ulana Suprun, Acting Minister of Healthcare, Serhiy Leshchenko, Member of Parliament and former investigative journalist, Yulia Marushevska, former Chief of Odesa Regional Customs, David Stulik, Press and Information Officer, Delegation of the European Union to Ukraine and Olena Galushka, , Natalia Sedletska, Journalist-Investigator, Chief Editor and Presenter at “Scams”.

The speakers have provided an overview on the legislative changes and discussed new institutions that were implemented since 2014 in Ukraine in order to fight for public accountability, and against conflicts of interest, nepotism, and abuses of authority (e.g. foundation of the National Anticorruption Bureau of Ukraine.)

In Kharkiv, the participants were able to be involved in a deep case-study work in small groups with the support of a local partner and trainers. They have created case studies on local abuses of power in Kharkiv by using publicly available data and conducting interviews with local stakeholders.

The seminar was organized by FES Regional Office "Dialogue Eastern Europe" in cooperation with the Solidarity Center Ukraine and NGO “Working initiatives.”

More photos of the event are available following the link.