15 success stories about the achievements of civil society in the development of democracy and human rights in Ukraine

May 24, 2022

Every day for five years, together with civil society organizations, persistent activists, partner institutions and government agencies, we worked to strengthen civil society in Ukraine. For UNDP it means increasing the civic activism of young people, along with increasing the participation of Ukrainians in decision-making at various levels. All this was made possible by the ‘Civil Society for Enhanced Democracy and Human Rights in Ukraine’ project, which has been implemented since April 2017 with the financial support of the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

We are glad to share the final publication – ‘Success stories and key achievements of civil society organisations in Ukraine’.

What is valuable in the publication?

Step by step we reveal secrets and algorithms: how literally everyone can make effective changes in their communities, successfully implement important initiatives, learn from other people's common mistakes, and what plans should be taken responsibility for today. The publication clearly demonstrates how the synergy of activists and organizations in different regions of Ukraine provides an opportunity to strengthen the voice of civil society and increase its influence on the local change in democratization and human rights. The theme of strengthening youth leadership and initiatives runs through the whole publication because a democratic society can not develop without the increased civic activity of young people.

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Unite to increase the influence and strengthen communities

First of all, you will learn about the growth of the Civil Society Hubs Network - an unprecedented national synergy of regional leadership organizations working to support democratic change in Ukraine and strengthen the voice of communities.

In the publication we share only a few stories of members of the CSO Hubs Network, which we are infinitely proud of:

  • how a regional hub appeared in Khmelnytsky oblast and started to help to grow other organizations and support youth initiatives;
  • how the team of women in Lviv managed to achieve a real breakthrough in the promotion of gender equality at the national level;
  • how civic activists managed to overcome a corruption scheme in the medical sector in Poltava;
  • how the team of the NGO operating in Mykolaiv oblast become the first to apply business planning approaches to developing a strategy of the civil society organization and now provides strategic planning services to other CSOs.

We are also proud to tell about the implementation of the all-Ukrainian ‘Having impact in the regions’ project, which logically continued the work of the CSO Hubs Network and showed how to change the lives of communities using the tools of local democracy.

And what are the criteria for independent experts to evaluate the effectiveness of associations like the CSO Hubs Network? What impact can the consolidation of civic activists actually have on local initiatives and communities? What should you work on first? Look for answers in the publication.

Strengthening youth participation

More than 4200 people were trained under the ‘Youth Worker’ Programme and another 5900 young people gained civic activism skills in a specialized educational course - and this is only a part of the great results of UNDP’s cooperation with the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine.

In addition, we supported young activists in implementing dozens of socially important initiatives and innovative projects aimed at improving the situation with human rights and democracy in Ukraine, held 2 stages of the Youth innovative challenge U-Inn, and developed the State Target Social Programme ‘Youth of Ukraine’ for 2021-2025.

You will find fascinating stories about the development of cycling infrastructure in Zaporizhzhia, patrol assistants in Volyn oblast, the creation of youth centers and gyms in Dnipropetrovsk oblast, creative educational activities in Kyiv oblast and many others. You will also like the stories about great technological solutions that we have supported: what is worth only a Volunteer Portal or a web-checker that helps public authorities to adapt websites for people with visual impairments.

Democracy development and human rights

We have achievements to be proud of in this area as well: more than 20 partner CSO’s initiatives in the field of democracy development and as many in the field of human rights support and promotion have been successfully implemented recently. Also with the support of UNDP 64 new policies and strategies at the national and subnational levels were developed and launched with the active participation of CSOs.

From the publication you will learn how several members of the CSO Hubs Network came together to help vulnerable groups in the realization of their rights and involvement in decision-making at the local level. And finally, you’ll read the stories about people with disabilities from Chernivtsi, who can assure all of us that the limits on professional self-realization are only in our heads.

Enjoy reading, and share with others!