What we do

Background
Although many scholars now describe Ukrainian civil society as “vibrant and dynamic”, the sector remains fragmented and its impact is limited.  Interactions with other sectors both hinder and are a result of its current level of effectiveness.  Ukraine’s civil society is facing a very complex and long-term challenges including lack of focus on people and constituencies needs, while dysfunctional political environment and adversarial relationships with the government, private sector and civil society continue to pursue zero-sum strategies towards one another. Civil society remains largely funded by private sector and foreign donors, but not the government, while the private sector (despite is large financial contribution), remains distanced from the needs of the citizens and citizens’ organizations.

Sustainable Approach
UNITER is designed to combine carefully targeted technical assistance and grants support in order to nudge the developmental trajectory of Ukrainian civil society in subtle yet important ways.  The result at the conclusion of UNITER will be a third sector better equipped to represent citizens’ interest, promote reform and resist politicization, and to do so without dependence on continuous infusions of foreign donor funding.

The sustainability of the project results is found upon its integrated efforts to strengthen the technical and organizational capacity of civil society, while improving the legal and economic enabling environment.  Additionally, the strategy weaves in the cross-cutting themes of transforming civil society relationships with government and the private sector, gaining reach and unification of initiatives through thematic networks, utilizing existing Ukrainian expertise, and building sustainable mechanisms to support the continued growth and development of the sector.

Support to networks and networking – Given the remaining fragmentation and fragility of civil society at this point in Ukraine, formal and informal networks can help build common platforms for generating ideas and transforming them into action.  UNITER utilizes and strengthens the existence of Ukrainian thematic networks and coalitions as a vehicle for both supporting advocacy initiatives at the local level as well as drawing those local issues up into a national agenda.

Reinvigorating the Ukrainian Reform Process – In order to ensure long-term support for reforms, greater civic engagement and focus as well as more effective communication to bolster the reform drive by the Ukrainian public, Pact with local NGOs and other donors develop an “umbrella” as a unique mechanism for collating resources from a variety of donors, and distributies them effectively to support Ukrainian civil society’s post-UNITER advocacy mission.

Strengthening Government /Civil Society Cooperation through Public Councils at the Local Level –  Pact believes the institution of the Public Council has the potential to transform the relationships between government and civil society from one characterized by opposition to one of development partners.  Starting this process at the local level with identification of common interests and agendas, Public Councils can provide an opening for governments and NGOs to learn constructive engagement.  This could potentially lead to a significant shift in their relationships and open the door for sustainable policy mainstreaming.

Creating a capacity building “marketplace” - Important to the sustained sectoral capacity growth of Ukrainian civil society is the presence of a cadre of quality service providers to meet identified needs.  Pact helps transform Ukraine’s “loosely organized” market of civil society training providers by strengthening the direct connections between them and the NGOs in need of their services.  This is crucial to creating a sustainable network of relationships that does not depend on donor support and direction.  Service providers are additionally able to render expertise on a fee-for-service basis, decreasing their own donor dependence.  Pricing services directly toward peer organizations introduces market incentives for intermediary organizing to lower cost through competition, rather than presenting donors with project budgets.

Strategic Coordination/Partnership with Key Stakeholders - As the main USAID civil society project, UNITER develops mechanisms to keep partner NGOs, other implementers, USAID, other donors and government stakeholders abreast of general civil society developments.  Pact accomplishes this through a simple bi-monthly coordination meetings and its engagement of other donors toward the UNITER local mechanisms and cross cutting themes.