The Programme "Democratising Ukraine Small Project Scheme" (the DU Programme) was implemented from August 2003 to February 2007 by a consortium of Ukrainian NGOs:

• Committee of Voters of Ukraine,

• Ukrainian Centre for Independent Political Research and

• Counterpart Creative Centre (till August 2005)

in partnership with the British Council in Ukraine

and by the financial support of the UK Government’s Department for International Development (DFID).

The DU Programme enabled people in communities – particularly poor and vulnerable people – to have more influence over policies and services delivery which affect their lives.

The main efforts of the Programme were focused on testing innovative models of participatory democracy and community development in Ukraine; these were the models that could be successfully used by other communities.

The Programme aimed at making the voice of vulnerable groups and individuals incapable to participate in the public life heard in the communities, in which it was carried out and to bring the communities’ representatives closer to the state administration and democracy. The Programme has encouraged the active participation of citizens in processes and activities that connect them with each other, and through the projects in which they have been involved, to improve the lives of the poorest and most vulnerable in the communities.

The Programme has used a variety of community development processes to build coalitions between NGOs; to build partnerships between the NGOs and other CSOs, local administrations and the private sector; to increase local media awareness of a range of social and community issues; and to enable these coalitions and partnerships to find new ways of working together, to achieve solutions to community problems through community development methodologies and democratic processes.

Why community development? Such approach was chosen to enable sustainable links between civic participation and democratic processes. The Programme has focussed on enabling groups and individuals to learn processes which are transferable to a wide range of different issues, and through these processes to affect policy change at the local level, which is informed by the expressed views of those groups and individuals most affected by these policies. The Programme has encouraged good governance – transparency, accountability, and responsibility – both by working with civil society organisations to encourage good governance practice and by encouraging them to expect good governance from the public institutions with which they interface.

The key principles of the DU Programme can be summarised as follows:

Innovation: The DU Programme provided capacity building within the communities, increasing opportunities for experience sharing between the two oblasts and assisting in developing learning environments within and between the communities where new and creative approaches to community problem solving can be explored and developed. The Programme used a non-competitive approach to support micro-projects which were implemented by coalitions of local NGOs.

Model making: The DU Programme has created new models which are being developed both by the Programme overall and within the communities; analysed and examined the way in which models can be adapted to a range of circumstances and environments in Ukraine; disseminated more widely the results of the Programme and the models; and identified replicable elements of the Programme, particularly in relation to processes and concepts. Deepening activities enabled innovation and the development of better practice, and enabled new initiatives to be developed by the communities which will build on their work. New and extensive community learning programmes also involved a wider stakeholder group and encouraged innovation.

Involvement: The DU Programme increased the engagement of the target groups in active participation within the projects; increased the involvement of the local mass media in the projects; assisted projects in reaching out effectively to local administrations and local business communities; and emphasised the importance of local coalitions and developed the capacity of both the coalitions and the partner organisations, by widening participation in learning and experience exchange events beyond the core team in each community.