Supported by PLEDDG, on November 16-17, 2017, II Forum “Public Budgets from A to Z” took place, which became a platform for knowledge exchange, expert discussions and presentation of best practices in public budgeting sector.
The Forum brought together officials and public activists from over 100 cities of Ukraine, representatives of international technical assistance projects in Ukraine, representatives of municipalities from Georgia, Moldova, and experts from Great Britain and Germany.
Oleksandr Kucherenko, PLEDDG Project Director, took part in the first part of the Forum, which was focused on international support for participatory budgeting in Ukraine. Oleksandr Kucherenko told the participants about PLEDDG Project and financial aid that had been provided by the Canadian government to Ukraine for many years already. In particular, he mentioned that PLEDDG had been supporting the project “Public Budgets from A to Z: Information Sharing, Activization and Civil Society Involvement”, implemented by East Europe Foundation and PAUCI Foundation, within the framework of which the Forum was held. The project “Public Budgets from A to Z: Information Sharing, Activization and Civil Society Involvement” had been providing assistance to cities and local territorial communities in implementation of public budgets, including facilitated workshops, training, study visits, support for carrying out information campaigns on public budget.
Ihor Lepyoshkin, PLEDDG Senior Expert, Head of Experts Group, moderated the panel discussion “Best Practices of Public Budget: Ukrainian and International Experience” (Part II), which was held on the first day of the Forum.
For two consecutive days, participants were discussing a range of issues on participation of a community in decision-making at the administrative level and distribution of the local budget funds, including public budget-related e-services, Ukrainian and foreign public budgeting best practices, citizens’ involvement in the public budgeting process, the secrets of planning a successful public budget, expanding citizens’ opportunities to make changes in the society, etc.