On Tuesday, February 21, a general meeting of members of the RISE Ukraine Coalition was held. Representatives of organizations that are part of the Coalition discussed the results of work as of February and plans for three key areas of activity, and also elected the Coalition Board.
The meeting focused on the following topics: the institutional architecture of reconstruction, the Electronic Reconstruction Management System (ERMS), as well as monitoring and open data.
Regarding the results of the first strand, last year the RISE Coalition offered its Discussion paper on the institutional architecture of recovery. RISE representatives also covered this issue at the International Anti-Corruption Conference in Washington and in meetings with international partners (WB, IMF, US Department, USAID, NED, OSF, GMF, think tanks).
Currently, one of the directions of the Coalition’s work is coordination with the newly created Recovery Agency. Recently, the Coalition held a meeting with representatives of the Agency, during which they discussed the directions and principles of the institution’s activities, as well as the Agency’s cooperation with civil society. The participants of the meeting emphasised that the task of standardisation and use of transparent procedures and best practices in reconstruction is largely solved by the Electronic Recovery Management System (ERMS).
Achievements and plans in the direction of the ERMS also became one of the key topics at the meetings of the Coalition members. In particular, the following updates were discussed:
- Representatives of the Coalition developed, agreed with key government stakeholders and published the concept of the ERMS.
- Developed and agreed with the main stakeholders the technical concept of the ERMS.
- The development of a branch system for an experimental project of the Ministry of Reconstruction has begun, which will later turn into a branch system in the field of development of not only transport, but also other infrastructure of the regions. The MVP of the industry system is expected to be launched in March-April.
- The MVP of the first-level system of the ERMS (an umbrella system that will combine industry systems and registers into a single cycle and ensure data exchange according to a single standard) is scheduled for September.
Monitoring and open data is another important area of the Coalition’s work. The participants of the event emphasized that the monitoring of reconstruction should cover not only the monitoring of purchases. In addition, this process should be standardized and not take place in a “paper request – paper response” format. Therefore, the standard of monitoring activities and frameworks, as well as public engagement tools, should be adopted. The experience of DOZORRO can help with these tasks, and individual teams of the Coalition are already working on similar tools, including the Big Recovery Portal and others.
In addition, during the meeting, the policies and procedures of the Coalition were approved, and the Board was elected.
Martyna Bohuslavets, Institute of Legislative Ideas
Viktor Nestulia, co-founder of the Coalition, head of the direction of supporting Ukraine in the Open Contracting Partnership, was elected as the Chairman of the Board. Viktor emphasized: “We are moving in the right direction, in half a year the Coalition managed to achieve significant progress in specific tasks. However, this is only the beginning and there are still many challenges ahead. Therefore, it is very important that the members of the Coalition are actively involved in the work and everyone makes their contribution to the successful reconstruction. A clear definition of procedures and policies will allow the Coalition to work more effectively and fulfill its tasks.”
Composition of the Board of the RISE Ukraine Coalition:
- Viktor Nestulia, Open Contracting Partnership
- Andrii Borovyk, Transparency International Ukraine
- Oleksii Dorogan, BRDO
- Oleksandra Betlii, Institute of Economic Research and Political Consultations
- Martyna Bohuslavets, Institute of Legislative Ideas
- Yurii Romashko, Institute of Analysis and Advocacy
- Serhii Mytkalyk, Anti-Corruption Headquarters