Goal:
To ensure the quality and effectiveness of the Ukraine Confidence Building Initiative in its next steps.
Activities:
SI conducted a midterm evaluation to assess the strategic approach, relevance, and impact of UCBI’s efforts in Ukraine. SI focused on UCBI’s programming effectiveness in three areas.
- Increasing support for and participation in a Ukrainian identity.
- Improving levels of confidence and engagement in the reform process.
- Effective use of the media to amplify the programs’ effects.
Successes and lessons learned were used by USAID/OTI staff as they planned for the next phase of the program.
The SI evaluation process included;
- A desk review of OTI/UCBI- and Chemonics-provided documentation
- 71 Informant interviews, including 11 grantees in Kyiv and 23 in the East
- An online survey, all past and current grant recipients were invited to take the survey.
Results:
Support and Participation in Modern Ukrainian Identity
- Support for a modern civic Ukrainian identity is growing. Overwhelmingly, UCBI grantees recognized civic identity as an important part of the modern Ukrainian identity.
- Still, the level of engagement is not enough to support a functional democracy. The SCORE Index demonstrates that “contrary to popular belief,” civic engagement is low across the country (average score of 0.8 on a 0-10 scale).
- UCBI contributed to community cohesion by providing opportunities to work toward common goals, common public space, and pride about local identity.
Confidence and Engagement in the Local Level Reform Process
- By providing financial resources, project development assistance, trainings, and new tools, UCBI enabled active citizens to seize opportunities created by the new national-level, legislative frame of transparency.
- Eleven out of 23 UCBI partners from the East believed UCBI enabled local activists to provide action-based solutions, in some cases in cooperation with local government, to address local issues of high concern to citizens.
- Kyiv-based groups and activists from the East mentioned the following most common ways for citizens to engage in reform process at the local level: public councils, participatory budgeting, public hearings, monitoring of public procurement (Prozorro), e-petitions, strategic planning for cities. Participatory budgeting received overwhelming support among the respondents as an effective tool of engagement.
Effective Use of Media and Information Tools
- A general lack of independent quality media news in Ukraine prevented the media from contributing to achieving the intended program goals.
- Some grantees believed UCBI helped them achieve their media goals.
- Grantees predominantly used their own channels of communication (such as their own websites or social media pages) to distribute information about their activities.
Access the full report here for more insights.