MP: Parliament works on new legislation to assist communities.
According to Olena Shuliak, Chairperson of the VRU Committee on Organization of State Power, Local Self-Government, Regional Development, and Urban Planning, MPs work on the new law to strengthen communities around the county. "We recently passed in the first reading the draft law No. 6319 concerning self-organization of the population. Ukraine currently has relevant legislation in place, but it was adopted in 1993, and its provisions have become outdated and convoluted. Additionally, we want residents of cities to unite and take a more active role in various aspects of urban development. This can range from creating public parks to implementing public spaces. She explained that such associations could receive funding from the local budget to carry out relevant projects that are needed in a specific location, be it a district, neighborhood, or small community," she explained. According to her, there is another significant legislative project on the agenda of the Verkhovna Rada, which pertains to the participation of Ukrainians in voting through the "Diia" application for projects funded by the Regional Development Fund.
Chesno movement: VRU committees announce events retroactively.
According to the Chesno movement, some VRU Committees, including the Committee on Organization of State Power, Local Self-Government, Regional Development and Urban Planning, post the announcement of their events after events themselves. The committee is chaired by Olena Shuliak, Servant of the People’s Party head. At the same time, the editor-in-chief of the Chesno movement, Iryna Fedoriv, mentioned some cases with information about the result of events of the said committee that had been published during the events.
USAID RADA: Next Generation Activity (RANG) facilitated an inter-parliamentary dialogue between Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine (VRU) members and the US Congress to strengthen democracy protection.
On May 7, 2023, RANG facilitated a meeting in Rzeszow, Poland, which brought together members of the US Congress, led by Chairman of the House Democracy Partnership (HDP) Vern Buchanan, and representatives of factions and groups in Ukraine’s Parliament. Ukrainian MPs got a chance to present a case of more support to Ukraine to hold Russia accountable for its crimes in Ukraine. The meeting also helped the Ukrainian MPs strengthen their partnerships and learn from the US experience regarding interactions with voters, particularly town hall meetings arranged by phone. USAID RADA: Next Generation Program enhanced its collaboration with HDP, related to the exchange experience between the research services of Congress and Verkhovna Rada and parliamentary committees to strengthen VRU oversight capacities. The meeting helped RANG arrange important contacts to strengthen VRU Secretariat's capabilities and plan the exchange experience with the Congressional Budget Office and Congressional units responsible for digital innovations in Congress to implement best practices in Parliament’s operation. RANG assisted the VRU Secretariat and Model Committees in enhancing their communication and writing skills. On May 11, 2023, RANG launched the first training session on writing rules and trends of press releases and informational messages for 25 members of Ukraine’s Parliament responsible for SMM and communications activities in VRU structural units and departments. The training included recommendations on how VRU should share information with various stakeholders through information channels and social media in particular. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the training for the participants, they completed a short online survey before and after the event. The questions were directly related to the content covered at the training. 13 participants filled out both surveys and demonstrated a 35% increase in the level of knowledge.
Program helped the Parliamentary Education Center (PEC) present its activities before the UK Parliament’s Education Center as a follow-up of its study visit to the UK.
On May 11, the Head of the PEC, Olena Kostyniuk, presented PEC activities, plans and challenges due to the war to 64 members of the United Kingdom Parliament’s Education Center. The collaboration started during the PEC study visit to London on April 18-19.
RANG helped VRU’s Parliamentary Research Service Training Unit arrange training on the legislative process.
On May 9-11, Program conducted a training on the legislative process in VRU in cooperation with the Parliamentary Research Service Training Unit (PRS TC). 29 VRU Secretariat staffers joined the event. The training is aimed at providing knowledge on the process of law preparation and adoption within the Ukrainian parliament, as well as acquainting the participants with the VRU Rules of Procedure.
RANG assisted the Parliamentary Education Center in facilitating two parliamentary lessons.
On May 12, Parliamentary Education Center (PEC) conducted two online parliamentary lessons for school students of Lviv together with MP Kniazhytsky. Participants learned about the parliament as an institution, its functions, structure and organization of work, MPs' rights and duties, and the legislation process. In addition, participants had an opportunity to communicate with MPs directly and ask questions.
RANG helped VRU draft an action plan as a follow-up after VRU’s study visit to the parliaments of Austria and the Czech Republic. On May 11, RANG conducted a follow-up meeting with the VRU, VRU Research Service, to discuss the results of the study visit to the parliaments of Austria and the Czech Republic. Participants drafted a plan to enhance communication with public councils, increase the Parliament’s openness, and conduct open house events in cooperation with the Parliamentary Education Center. In particular, participants identified the need to enhance training on Ukraine’s legislation approximation to the EU and English language skills.
Program's grantees arranged discussion clubs on parliament-citizens' interaction during the war.
On May 9-10, the Active Community NGO hosted discussion clubs in Ivano-Frankivsk and Kamianets-Podilskyi for students. Participants became aware of MPs-voters interaction tools to use in practice.