Current status
Submitted
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After a contribution is submitted to BePART Forum, the initiative is marked as “Submitted”; as other partners involved in the initiative submit information from their side, the initiative is marked as "Under review" and goes through the validation process; twice a year, initiative are validated by the BePART Working Group at the Council of Europe. Successful initiatives are marked as “Validated”. Do you want to learn more - click here
Contributor(s)
First contributor: Social Boost
Summary
Hromadskyi Project is all-in-one IT-solution for participatory budgeting automation. Being a huge trend in democracy, participatory budgeting helps to build a long-lasting dialogue between the officials and the citizens. It allows citizens to have their say on local budget spending.
Administrative level
Local: 105 cities in Ukraine are using the platform
Year of implementation
2017
Policy area(s)
- (Local) Development and Planning
- Public Finances
Further details
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Social Boost
Civil society organisation
Contact info
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Tipology of involvement in the initiative
- Initiating (i.e., advocating for and starting the process)
- Organising
- Participating with a direct involvement
USAID
Civil society organisation
Contact info
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Tipology of involvement in the initiative
- Funding
Ukrainian city councils
Public Authority
Contact info
/
Tipology of involvement in the initiative
- Participating with a direct involvement
Level of Participation
- Information
- Consultation
- Dialogue
- Partnership
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By level of participation we refer to the type of involvement in the decision-making process. The levels are identified by the intensity of participation: going from “information” to “consultation” to ” dialogue” to “partnership”. Do you want to learn more - click here
Developed practice(s)
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Step(s) of the political decision-making process at which the practice was implemented
- Inputs/Incentive ideas for policy
- Agenda Setting of policy
- Drafting of policy
- Decision – making on policy
- Implementation of policy
- Monitoring of policy implementation
Discover more
There are six different steps of the political decision-making process: agenda setting, drafting of policy, decision-making, implementation of policy, monitoring and reformulation of policy. Each step offer opportunities for CSOs and public authorities to interact. Do you want to learn more - click here
How the initiative was implemented
Situation
Funded by USAID in 2016 SocialBoost initiated a pilot of online participatory budgeting system to be developed and implemented in 15 Ukrainian cities as a pilot.
Activities performed
Digital participatory system pb.org.ua was developed, corresponding policy was drafted and signed, city councils dedicated a budget fraction to be controlled by citizens.
Tools and mechanisms applied
Online tool was developed by SocialBoost pb.org.ua
Goals of the civil participation initiative
At community level
To allow citizens to initiate local projects, submit them to the platform, get enough votes, get funded and control implementation
From Civil society organisation's perspective
Develop online platform, draft the policy, ensure fair transparent submissions and voting process
From Public Authority's Perspective
Allocate fraction of the budget, review citizen submissions, fund successful applicants
Results expected prior to the implementation
In 2016 about 100 applications to be received, 10 projects to be funded, UAH 10 million (EUR 0.3 million) of funds to be allocated by local councils.
Immediate results achieved after implementation
In 2016, 750 applications were received, 75 projects were funded, UAH 36.8 million (EUR 1.2 million) of funds were allocated by local councils, 2 million votes were made by citizens.
Long-term impact
In 2021, 3,221 projects were submitted across 105 communities/cities who use the system, UAH 323 million (EUR 10.1 million) allocated for citizen initiatives, 1 million users monthly, 1.6m voters (up to 10% of population in some cities). Hromadskyi Project was awarded by Barcelona Smart City Awards in 2019. SocialBoost presented WEF panel on Civic Tech in Davos.
Practice lessons learnt (obstacles and solutions)
| Agency (i.e., political conditions/power structures) | Obstacles | Cities don't see incentives of sharing budget spending with citizens |
| Solutions | Political incentives were found and clearly communicated to all mayors via Mayor's Summit | |
| Legislative | Obstacles | No legislation for participatory budgeting |
| Solutions | Legislation for participatory budgeting was introduced | |
| Administrative | Obstacles | Participatory budgeting requires very high level of citizen participation in each city/community |
| Solutions | Motivate cities/communities to run local outreach campaign via local press/TV/outdoor and support via national campaign run by Social Boost in social networks | |
| Socio-cultural | Obstacles | Citizens are afraid to vote online and suspect fraud of vote count |
| Solutions | Supervisory board commission was established to control voting and tech aspects of the online platform | |
| Economic | Obstacles | Grant for the system expired in 1 year |
| Solutions | Self-sustainable model of annual membership paid by cities was introduced | |
| Human capital | Obstacles | Local city councils are slow and not tech-savvy |
| Solutions | Education program with TOT and other activities to boost the level of knowledge and system management on the local level | |
| Other | Obstacles | / |
| Solutions | / |
Further information
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Self-assessment
The self-assessment presents the opinion of the contributor about on what extent the following principles for Civil Participation have been reflected in the implementation of the initiative/practice/case-study, ranging from 1 (min) to 4 (max) (N/A: not applicable, do not know)
| Openness | 4 |
| Explanation | / |
| Trust | 4 |
| Explanation | / |
| Independence | 4 |
| Explanation | / |
| Participation | 4 |
| Explanation | / |
| Transparency | 4 |
| Explanation | / |
| Accessibility | 4 |
| Explanation | / |
| Non-discrimination | 4 |
| Explanation | / |
| Inclusiveness | 4 |
| Explanation | / |
| Accountability | 4 |
| Explanation | / |
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