Ukraine Results Report 2021–2022

Russia’s full-scale military invasion of Ukraine shifted the priorities of the government and civil society during its fifth OGP action planAction plans are at the core of a government’s participation in OGP. They are the product of a co-creation process in which government and civil society jointly develop commitments to open governmen... cycle. Despite challenges brought by the invasion, the action plan laid the groundwork for transparencyAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, transparency occurs when “government-held information (including on activities and decisions) is open, comprehensive, timely, freely available to the pub... More in beneficial ownershipDisclosing beneficial owners — those who ultimately control or profit from a business — is essential for combating corruption, stemming illicit financial flows, and fighting tax evasion. Technical... More, extractive industriesApplying open government values of transparency, participation, and accountability to extractive industries can decrease corruption, safeguard community interests and needs, and support environmental ..., and open dataBy opening up data and making it sharable and reusable, governments can enable informed debate, better decision making, and the development of innovative new services. Technical specifications: Polici.... The Coordination Council—Ukraine’s multistakeholder forum—continued to meet during the implementation period, although the invasion also impacted stakeholder engagement.

Early resultsEarly results refer to concrete changes in government practice related to transparency, citizen participation, and/or public accountability as a result of a commitment’s implementation. OGP’s Inde... More

Ukraine’s fifth action plan covered diverse topics such as budget transparency, public asset accounting, beneficial ownership, extractive industries, roads and infrastructure, persons with disabilities, and gender-disaggregated data.

Half of the commitments showed early results. These commitments improved local budget transparency (Commitment 1), beneficial ownership verification (Commitment 3), distance learning in education (Commitment 6), extractives sector reporting (Commitment 8), open data competencies in public administration (Commitment 9), digital accessibility for persons with disabilities (Commitment 10), and participation of young people (Commitment 11). Following the introduction of martial law, prompted by the start of Russia’s full-scale military invasion on 24 February 2022, the government restricted public access to some online platforms featured in the action plan due to security concerns.[1] The IRM was unable to assess the full extent of the results of some commitments due to these ongoing restrictions.

CompletionImplementers must follow through on their commitments for them to achieve impact. For each commitment, OGP’s Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM) evaluates the degree to which the activities outlin... More

Eight of 14 commitments (57%) achieved substantial or full implementation. This was slightly lower than the 11 of 17 commitments (64%) that achieved substantial or full implementation in the 2018–2020 action plan.

The level of completion was linked with the timing of activities, engagement with civil society organizations (CSOs), and support of international partners. Activities carried out before the full-scale invasion generally achieved higher completion. CommitmentOGP commitments are promises for reform co-created by governments and civil society and submitted as part of an action plan. Commitments typically include a description of the problem, concrete action... 2 on public asset accounting, Commitment 7 on e-democracy, as well as the e-contracting component of Commitment 1 saw limited implementation due to changes in the approaches of the responsible agencies and stakeholders and further challenges linked with the invasion. For some commitments, the necessary technologies for disclosing information were created but no or limited results were reported due to lack of publicly available information.

Participation and co-creation

The Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers continued to oversee the OGP process in Ukraine. The Coordination Council—Ukraine’s multistakeholder forum—met five times during implementation to discuss the status of the commitments and the next action plan.[2] The selection of new members to the Coordination Council in May 2021 improved civil society oversight.[3]

Despite challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s full-scale invasion, a number of events to engage civil society took place—mostly in the first year of implementation. The government and civil society organized online and offline events during Open Government Weeks in 2021 and 2022. Moreover, some commitments had dialogue built into their design, including discussions with academics on open science policy (Commitment 4), engaging businesses in the creation of a platform for patents and innovation (Commitment 5), and trainings for young people (Commitment 11). Commitment 8 was linked to Ukraine’s activities under the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), engaging the EITI Multistakeholder Group in the operations of the new EITI portal.

Implementation in context

Following Russia’s full-scale military invasion, the government and civil society shifted their attention towards security and humanitarian priorities during the second year of implementation in 2022. The number of active civil servants decreased after the start of the invasion, adding to the workload of public agencies.[4] The invasion generally did not affect donor funding that was already earmarked for OGP commitments, although the government and civil society redirected funding to humanitarian and recovery efforts in some cases. Ongoing military operations and occupation made it impossible to implement activities or collect information in some territories. In addition, shifting priorities of the Ministry of Infrastructure limited the implementation of activities related to local governments and state infrastructure.[5]

On 23 June 2022, the European Council endorsed Ukraine’s candidacy for membership of the European Union (EU) and provided Ukraine with recommendations to fulfill around transparency and anti-corruption.[6] The EU recommendations also informed the co-creation of Ukraine’s next OGP action plan and served as an incentive towards improving transparency and accountability.

[1] Martial law was introduced on 24 February 2022 and then extended until at least 15 November 2023. See: Anna Pruchnicka, “Ukraine extends martial law, ruling out October parliament vote,” Reuters, 27 July 2023, https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukraine-extends-martial-law-ruling-out-october-parliament-vote-2023-07-27.

[2] “Ukraine End-of-Term Self-Assessment 2020–2022,” Cabinet of Ministers, 22 May 2023, https://www.opengovpartnership.org/documents/ukraine-end-of-term-self-assessment-2020-2022.

[3] “Composition of the Coordination Council on implementation of the Open Government Partnership initiative in Ukraine,” Cabinet of Ministers, 3 July 2023, https://www.kmu.gov.ua/storage/app/sites/1/17-civik-2018/partnerstvo/kr5-20230703.pdf.

[4] According to official information, more than 7,400 civil servants left the country or were mobilized to army forces, which is about 5% of the current workforce of civil servants. See: “Statistical data on civil servants,” National Agency of Ukraine Civil Service, 31 March 2023, https://nads.gov.ua/storage/app/sites/5/DIYALNIST/KSDS/1%D0%BA%D0%B2.23.pdf, 7.

[5] Based on the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine dated 2 December 2022, the Ministry of Infrastructure was merged with the Ministry for Community and Territorial Development to reorganize into the Ministry for Communities, Territories, and Infrastructure Development of Ukraine. See: “Government adopted a decision to optimize the system of central executive bodies,” Service of Minister of the Cabinet of Ministers, 2 December 2022, https://www.kmu.gov.ua/en/news/uriad-pryiniav-rishennia-pro-optymizatsiiu-systemy-tsentralnykh-orhaniv-vykonavchoi-vlady.

[6] “Recommendations of the European Commission regarding the status of Ukraine for EU membership,” Delegation of the European Union to Ukraine, 17 June 2022, https://www.eeas.europa.eu/node/415005_en?s=232.