In 2013, 8 civil society organizations (hubs) across Ukraine successfully applied for assistance in elaborating a 2-year capacity development plan in order to strengthen their democratic governance procedures, financial stability, membership and volunteer management, as well as advocacy practices with a view to better serve those segments of Ukrainian society they work for.

 

In 2016, the hubs have completed the organizational development programme with a very positive assessment of the progress made, as highlighted in the analytical report, also commending the instrumental contribution and effectiveness of the UNDP' Democratisation, Human Rights and Civil Society Development Programme in Ukraine (DHRP) in the process.

The assessment shows that the UNDP-supported programme led to significant results in the formation and development of regional CSO leaders (hubs), which all demonstrated positive dynamics as regional CSO leaders, managed to improve their systems of democratic governance, and translated management innovations into practice.

 

To eliminate conflicts of interest, new policies were adopted and implemented by all hubs, while annual reports we were made publicly available. Five hubs even managed to increase their annual budgets by 30% and became more financially sustainable. Each organization managed to increase the number of volunteers – by up to 20 per organization. In total, 16 advocacy campaigns were successfully implemented by all 8 hubs.

 

"Thanks to UNDP support, we grew from an organization serving just its own constituency into a regional CSO helping a network of other organisations working on the democratization and human rights agenda in Ukraine. Over the past two years, we focused on achieving better results in our own governance, financial and volunteer management. We've established new areas of activities, e.g. social entrepreneurship. Due to increased efficiency of our organisation, we are proud to see that we doubled our budget, which definitely makes us stronger and more sustainable financially", said Lyubov Masksymovych, executive director of CSO "Women's Perspectives".

Remaining challenges to be addressed by hubs include to further enhance their financial sustainability, develop advocacy activities, expand their membership base and strengthen cooperation and joint activities as a network, which required nurturing and further development as UNDP is still plays today a major coordinating role in maintaining communications between the hubs.

 

The eight regional organizations (hubs) which graduated from the UNDP Capacity Building Programme are:
• NGO MART (Chernihiv Oblast)
• NGO Tamarisk (Dnipropetrovsk Oblast)
• Donetsk and Rivne Regional Organizations of All-Ukrainian NGO Committee of Voters of Ukraine
• NGO Women's Perspectives (Lviv Oblast)
• NGO Territory of Success (Kirovohrad Oblast)
• Charitable Fund Centre for Civic Initiatives (Zakarpattia Oblast)
• Charitable Organization Kherson Community Fund Zakhyst (Kherson Oblast).

 

The programme was organized by the Democratization, Human Rights and Civil Society Development Programme in Ukraine, implemented by UNDP and funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark.

 

The eight organizations were selected on a competitive basis, and passed the initial assessment of organizational development based on the methodology proposed by INTRAC (UK), which has been adapted to the conditions and objectives of the programme.