December 14-15, 2001: within the framework of cooperation with the Association of Netherlandish municipalities the Association of Ukrainian Cities has held in Kyiv the international conference “Towards open and accessible government at the local level in Ukraine”. The manual “From Authorities to People, from People to Authorities” has been presented at the conference.!!!

December 14, 2001
AUC Press-service
227 01 11; 227 55 27

Towards open and accessible government at the local level in Ukraine

The undisguised government is necessary both for the population and for the government itself. The more citizens are aware of their executive body’s work, the more understanding they are of its problems and more confident of it.

In the countries with the developed democracy, provision of community with the information has the status of a service alongside with the education, health service, public well-fare and transportation.

The Association of Ukrainian Cities together with the Association of Netherlandish Municipalities began to master this new for us local self-government service – the information provision of the population.

One of the kinds of the municipal information policy – functioning of information and consultation centers at the city council executive committees – was discussed at the conference “Towards open and accessible government at the local level in Ukraine”, which was held on December 14-15. This very form of information services – ICC – is adapted and realized in the municipalities of Zhytomyr oblast: Berdychiv, Korosten’, Novohrad-Volynsky, Baranivka and Zhytomyr itself.

1. Receiving the population, providing them with consultations on social issues.
2. Producing and disseminating the information materials, explaining the urgent issues of the social policy in the local mass media, holding the information campaigns.
3. Analysis of the appeals, preparation of the analytical materials.

The services, provided by the centers may be grouped into consultative and information ones. The main aspect of the consultative services consists in the following: the population may address to the center and receive a consultation and explanation of the urgent questions on the standing legislation (namely in the social sphere), as well as the municipal problems (lack of water, irregularity of gas supply, etc.). The information services of the center consist in information preconception. First of all, this is cooperation with the local mass media, attracting them to the information campaigns and stimulating the regular and consistent explanation of the social issues. The information process is also carried out via thematic booklets, leaflets and brochures.

• The changes in the standing legislation;
• Pension provision;
• The order of granting subsidies;
• Serving the lonely and disabled citizens;
• The order of registration into boarding schools;
• Job placement and assistance in receiving the unemployment benefit;
• Resolving the youth and family problems, etc.

The Association of Ukrainian Cities and the Association of Netherlandish Municipalities consider the information and consultation centers to be the only professional places in the municipalities for a complex informing of the population on many problems. They closely cooperate with the executive committee departments, state structures and non-government public organizations that participate in resolving the urgent present questions – namely, social security, municipal service, decision-making on the local level. The municipal executive committees and the citizens have already sensed the advantages of the centers, thanks to them the municipal executive committees “got rid” of the lines of visitors, and the citizens could save their time and are provided with the necessary information service.

Thematic booklets, leaflets and brochures are very helpful for the citizens.

The topics for the information materials are selected according to the results of the applies’ analysis. The centers have produced and disseminated among the population information booklets on various topics: “State support for the families with children”, “Featuring the social picture of the municipal youth”, “For those who have lost and are looking for a job”, “Social serving the pensioners, invalids and the lonely disabled citizens”, “Housing subsidies”, “Who is considered a war veteran”, etc.

The centers are located in a convenient place – on the ground floors of the municipal executive committee premises. Few telephone lines equipped with the inner telephone stations are working there. This, undoubtedly, helps citizens to quicker get a consultation or to find out “where to address to?”. The centers are working every day.

Taking into consideration the growing importance of the local self-government, the local authorities’ representatives (municipal, settlement and village heads, local council’s deputies and the executive committees’ employees) are more and more aware of their responsibility for resolving their citizens’ problems; they try to improve the citizens’ confidence in their justness.

The Association of Ukrainian Cities considers that the professional sub-divisions like information and consultation centers have proved in practice their ability to coordinate the Zhytomyr local autonomous bodies’ efforts to organize the information connections with the public.

The experience of the municipalities that have participated in the conference can be helpful for other Ukrainian municipalities as well.