Strengthening Civic Participation in Ukrainian Cities

About this grant

The program goal is to promote participatory and innovative approaches toward local urban development in Ukraine. The Centre for Society Research will focus on issues related to the definition, preservation, and use of public spaces and the role of local inhabitants in these processes. The grantee will work to address four key issues in this sphere — disempowered communities, corruption in urban development, the lack of coordinated efforts among urban campaigners, and the disconnect between grassroots civic activists and experts. The project will include analyses of critical urban issues, training and information support to active citizen groups, and the introduction of the practice of deliberative democracy in selected cases of urban planning and development. While primarily focused on Kyiv, the project will also take place in the cities of Lviv and Kharkiv. Registered in 2010, the Centre for Society Research is a nongovernmental, nonpartisan organization located in Kyiv which seeks to promote democratic governance, civic participation, and knowledge-driven policymaking.