News & Insights
Press Release: The Consultation Institute announces partnership with the National Democratic Institute to support the growth of a healthy ‘consultation culture’ in Ukraine
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The Consultation Institute (tCI), a global leader in consultation best practice, and the National Democratic Institute (NDI), a non-governmental organisation that works in partnership around the world to strengthen and safeguard democratic institutions, today announced an eighteen-month partnership project aimed at raising public engagement standards in Ukraine.
This is the fourth international assistance project for tCI following similar missions in Morocco, Tunisia and China, but a first in terms of collaboration with NDI. The project is timed to correspond with the passing of a new Ukrainian law on public consultation, which is currently at an advanced drafting stage.
In the coming days, tCI and NDI will start planning the support packages which are primarily aimed at Ukrainian civil servants but also target the empowerment of non-governmental organisations. The partnership builds on prior capacity-building work by NDI, which has already established a community of practice for public consultation practitioners, delivered various training courses and developed guides on the topic.
Quintin Oliver, chair of tCI said “The Institute has decades of experience helping public bodies ensure that public consultations are conducted lawfully in a way which is meaningful to consultees. We fully embrace opportunities to assist democracies looking to raise their public consultation standards. In many ways this is made easier when countries are fertile, at the outset of a journey, rather than at home in the UK where progress can be stagnated by complacency.”
TCI and NDI are excited by the prospect of working to enrich democratic freedoms and to learn from each other’s cultural and practical differences concerning implementation.
Nino Vardosanidze, Senior Program Manager at NDI Ukraine adds “NDI Ukraine is looking forward to joining forces with tCI as we strive to make public consultation an integral part of policy-making in Ukraine. We have exciting months ahead designing and implementing programs to advance public consultation practices with our Ukrainian counterparts from the government and civil society.”
Disclaimer: The partnership is in the framework of the project “Improving policy through Public Consultation” implemented by NDI with the support of the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO)