Similar events will be arranged in Ternopil, Cherkasy and Donetsk to discuss the problems related to development and adoption of relevant oblast programmes.

 

The round table fostered by the UNDP "Democratization, Human Rights and Civil Society Development" Project was attended by representatives of the Oblast State Administration, members and heads of oblast council party factions and civil society representatives of Ivano-Frankivsk oblast.

 

Development and adoption of oblast-level programmes to promote civil society development is envisaged by the Presidential Strategy for Fostering Civil Society Development in Ukraine as of March 2012. According to the Strategy, oblast-level programmes are to create favourable conditions for registration and operations of non-government organizations and charitable foundations, self-organization groups and civic councils at the oblast and local levels.

 

Important components of the programmes are focused on training civic activists and representatives of public authorities and providing resources for competition-based implementation of NGO projects. Despite the requirements of the Strategy, such oblast-level programmes are still lacking in four administrative entities – Donetsk, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil and Cherkasy in particular.

 

In Ivano-Frankivsk, the draft programme was submitted for review of the oblast council session twice, but has not been approved yet. It is planned to submit it to the review of members of the oblast council for the third time on 15 November.

 

The Head of Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast State Administration, Mykhailo Vyshyvanyuk, expressed hope that this programme would be approved at the next session of the oblast council. Yet, as it came out during the discussion, the secretariat of the oblast council had developed an alternative programme draft upon the instruction of its presidium. The secretariat committed itself to share their version with general public shortly.

 

After lively discussions, it was decided to create an internal coordination committee for programme draft approval. This ad-hoc body should operate based on the relevant sectoral commission of the oblast council, and should be composed of representatives of factions, Oblast State Administration and civil society organizations.

 

The event in IvanoFrankivsk was organized by the national civic monitoring network on implementation of oblast-level programmes to promote civil society development with support from UNDP and Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The coordinator of network in Ivano-Frankivsk region is Taras Sluchyk, Institute for Political Education.