Citizens in Action Program

The aim of the program launched in 2003 thanks to the Ford Foundation grant, is to increase public participation in Ukraine and Belarus by fostering various forms of civic self-organisation at the local, regional and national level. We wish to help build new civic initiatives, cross-sector co-operation programs and to engage in public policy advocacy.

In co-operation with Ukrainian and Belarusian partner organisations, we will support local civic initiatives in such areas as legal education and information for citizens, enforcement and protection of individuals rights, civic education for youth, creation of local civic activity centers, transpa-rency of local government, and access to information.

In an open competition, 29 organisations from three Belarusian (Brest, Mogilev, Vitebsk) and seven Ukrainian (Tchernihov, Lugansk, Rovnensk, Vinnica, Zaporozhe, Zhitomer and Donetsk) districts were selected to serve as our program partners. They will receive technical assistance grants aimed to help them build local grant-making capability: enhance competencies, improve skills and strengthen their institutional capacity. A group of Polish assistants will visit every organisation involved several times by mid-2004 to assist the needs analysis, strengths and weaknesses identification and the provision of custom training programs.

The program is funded by the Ford Foundation.

Program costs: PLN 86,882.02