Ukrainian election stakeholders learn about the best practices in Political Financing
7 April 2016
IFES Ukraine in cooperation with Central Election Commission (CEC) of Ukraine and financial support of USAID and Canadian government, held BRIDGE Political Financing workshop for the representatives of CEC, CSOs, political parties and journalists. It has been the second workshop on Political Financing organized during the last three months in Ukraine. The workshop aimed to provide participants with opportunity to learn more about all aspects of regulatory framework of Political Financing. Public Funding was one of the main focuses of the workshop.
The workshop was conducted by Pavel Cabacenco (accrediting BRIDGE Facilitator – Moldova) and semi-accredited facilitators Iuliia Shypilova, Yevheniia Pavlovska during March 28-31, 2016 in Kiev, Ukraine. In total twenty participants (9 female, 11 male) attended the workshop. Denys Kovryzhenko (Senior Legal Advisor, IFES Ukraine) contributed with his expert opinion to the workshop sessions highlighting the context of Ukraine in terms of elements of Political Finance.
The agenda of the workshop focused on components regulating Political Financing and implications of each regulatory element: Donation/Contribution Limits, Spending Limits, Reporting, Public Funding and Enforcement.
Discussion about international experience and practices in public funding constituted important part of the workshop. Participants were interested in challenges in public funding and the ways to overcome them, collaboration of different election stakeholders in bringing more transparency and accountability to political finances in Ukraine.
Participants highly appreciated the workshop and facilitation style. They mentioned that the workshop helped them to build bridges between each other and learn more about different aspects of the Public Funding. Some of the participants mentioned that before the workshop they were skeptical about the necessity to introduce public funding in Ukraine. However, after the workshop they changed their opinion.
The workshop had met its objectives: participants are aware of the main components of the Political Finance and have many ideas how they can improve the situation in this area in Ukraine.