Fellowship Programme
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| Country | Ukraine |
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“Civic activism is an opportunity to give back to society, something you often cannot fully do in your professional work”, says Vitalii Razik, 2021 EaP Civil Society Fellow from Lviv, Ukraine, who has been combining a successful legal practice with civic work for the past 23 years.
Civic activism for Vitalii started when he and his fellows at Ivan Franko National University established the Association of Law Students in 1995. Shortly after his graduation, Vitalii started working with Lviv-based Law and Democracy Foundation, first as a pro bono lawyer and since 2010 as director of the Foundation. Soon Vitalii realized that providing legal consultations to citizens was not enough, as most problems stemmed from more systematic faults of the Ukrainian legislation and practice. Thus, the Foundation expanded its activities, adding to its mandate human rights protection, access to justice, legal and court reforms, monitoring of the penitentiary system and its reform, preventing and counteracting corruption.
Had it not been for an event in 2010 that changed everything, the Foundation would have been working today the same way as hundreds of other smaller-scale CSOs in Ukraine. But in 2010 the Foundation’s lawyers helped Ivan Samardak from Lviv to win his case against Ukraine at the European Court of Human Rights. It was a successful story with plenty of lessons learnt, and Vitalii wanted to share their experience with lawyers in other regions, who dealt with similar cases and problems.
“Working with civil society organisations was the most efficient way of sharing this important information”, recollects Vitalii. For the Foundation, it was the first action focused on experience sharing. “We established good communication with the organisations, and realised that acting as a network benefits every organisation, as we can mutually share our best practices, and then apply and further distribute them in our regions, thus acting as catalysts.”
In 2012 the first twelve human rights CSOs – partners of the Foundation – signed a memorandum of cooperation and established a network to coordinate human rights activities and disseminate experience to strengthen Ukrainian civil society and CSOs. Today, the Network of Human Rights NGOs has about 20 active member CSOs from 8 Ukrainian oblasts, “Cooperation between CSOs creates a more effective civil society, opportunities to share experience, helps to solve problems and engage communities to address systematic problems.”
In 2018 the Foundation co-founded another network, Toloka Coalition of Regional Initiatives. Three years later, in 2021 Vitalii received the EaP Civil Society Fellowship award, with a project idea to assist and inspire local CSOs, first of all members of the two Foundation’s networks, in preventing corruption at the grassroots level. He was about to start his fellowship when Russia commenced the full-scale war in Ukraine. Corruption did not disappear, but priorities changed.
Among other numerous challenges, Ukraine had to deal with the refugee crises unprecedented in recent history. People were coming to western Ukraine in the thousands, and needed all kinds of assistance: humanitarian, informational, legal, psychological. “Before the government managed to stabilise the system to make it functional, there was no one except civil society to provide support to internally displaced Ukrainians,” says Vitalii. Many of those CSOs had little or no experience of working with IDPs, and Vitalii saw an immediate need to help these organisations adapt their activities and practices to the realities and needs of war.
Vitalii’s project included several components: training civil society activists in providing legal and psychological support to IDPs, media outreach and advocating for IDPs’ issues at local level, consulting CSOs on legal issues, e.g., related with martial law, and on psychological aspects of CSOs’ work in crisis, running awareness and information campaigns, etc. “Before providing much needed help to others, the organisations needed to be trained in how to do that properly,” says Vitalii. It was inspiring to see that activists who had come to the trainings feeling lost found the focus and started supporting IDPs successfully and tackling other urgent problems.
His approach proved its effectiveness: by the end of the Fellowship project in October 2022, 17 participating CSOs reported they had provided support to over 8,000 IDPs, and the number of beneficiaries was increasing. Vitalii explains, “If I had decided to help IDPs directly, I would have been able to help only very few. This approach allowed me to help thousands.”
The network of CSOs supporting IDPs in Western Ukraine established within the Fellowship project continues working today, with members and individual activists keeping in touch and helping each other when needed.
“In my opinion, civic and charity organisations are the basis of civil society, and we must keep working on enabling them to mature as after our victory [in the war] civil society will become the driver of Ukraine’s reconstruction and development processes on its road to further European integration.”
| Country | Ukraine |
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| Country | Ukraine |
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Yuliya’s Fellowship project was aimed at peacebuilding and integration, both in Ukraine and EU countries. The project encompassed field research, the development of youth-friendly methods for involving young IDPs (internally displaced persons) and refugees, and the creation of a Facilitation kit for conducting dialogue in peaceful communities.
The Fellowship project allowed Yulia to study institutions working on peacebuilding and youth involvement in Finland, Sweden, and Denmark. She analyzed practices from 20 institutions and was involved in stakeholder talks with 28 youth workers and local stakeholders from Ukraine and Finland, sharing their experiences and ideas on youth involvement in peacebuilding and integration. Methodologies for inclusive youth participation were designed based on user experiences and good practices and piloted through dialogue events with over 115 young people in Ukraine and Finland.
As a final product, Yulia and her colleagues from the Youth Organization STAN network published a Facilitation Kit for Peace Dialogue with Youth. This publication, available in paper and PDF format in English and Ukrainian, serves as a practical tool for youth workers (facilitation kit free to print and use is available on STAN website here in English and here in Ukrainian). It has already been presented in four countries, with participants from 11 different CSOs representing at least seven countries.
Direct beneficiaries of the project include young people of Ukrainian origin, young refugees, and IDPs, as well as youth workers in Ukraine who organized various activities for over 2,000 young IDPs in Volyn, Zakarpatia, and Ivano-Frankivsk regions.
| Country | Ukraine |
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Imagine having to travel to another city or country, wasting precious time – sometime days, and spending your own money just to be able to vote. Unfortunately, this is the reality of many Moldovans living abroad who want to have a say in elections. For Mihai Mogildea, EU-funded Eastern Partnership Civil Society Fellow, it was clear that given the generally low participation rates in Moldova, enabling those living abroad to vote will significantly improve the representativeness of results. Now those living abroad have to make significant efforts in order to be able to vote. They often must travel long distances at their own expenses to reach a voting poll which will most likely not be in their city of residence or even country of residence. They spend time and resources to make their voices heard.
Nevertheless, an encouraging number of 260,000 citizens from the diaspora voted in summer 2021 for the parliamentary elections, twice more than in 2016. The high turnout surprised everyone, including experienced electoral observers. This showed there is a huge participation potential in the diaspora that was not really understood and tapped into until recently. The elected Parliament promised they would do everything they can to improve the voting conditions for the diaspora – for which alternative voting methods are crucial. With the experience of the last elections in mind, Mihai believes now is a good moment to advocate for internet voting in the country. If the window of opportunity is missed and internet voting is not introduced within the next months, in 2024 and 2025 there will be no alternative methods for voting and the diaspora will again have to queue and travel hundreds of km just to vote.
In the summer of 2022, Mihai participated in a public consultation of the Parliament in which amendments to the electoral code proposed by Central Commission were being discussed. But alternative voting methods were missing. Mihai was quite disappointed to see these changes hadn’t been proposed, having participated in the Working Group of the Electoral Commission which developed the concept on internet voting in Moldova and which covered all the aspects of internet voting.
Nevertheless, his EaP Civil Society Fellowship project brought very concrete results. Among his recent achievements, Mihai counts the fact that, through his fellowship project, he was able to increase awareness and interest in the mass media, civil society, and the political class regarding internet voting. With the many threats of 2022 (the war in Ukraine, the cost-of-living crisis, the energy crisis) there was no interest to even discuss this publicly. In order to make the topic more prominent in public discourse, Mihai and his mentor, Victor Guzun – former Ambassador of the Republic of Moldova to Estonia, approached TV and radio channels to cover the topic during five talk shows. They also approached different journalists who in turn approached different ministers and MPs to ask about any plans for internet voting.
During his fellowship, Mihai also worked closely with the Coalition for Free and Fair Elections (bringing together 35 NGOs) as it was important to gain their support for internet voting as an alternative method. Within his fellowship project, he developed the only materials dedicated to internet voting in Moldova and managed to keep this issue on the agenda. The Central Electoral Commission is now working on piloting and testing internet voting which hopefully will lead to something more concrete soon. The legitimacy of the next Parliament in the diaspora depends on the successful organisation of the next elections. After having obtained the EU candidate status, Moldova needs to fulfil several conditions, one of them being the amendment of the electoral code and the reform of the electoral and legislative system.
Mihai perfectly understands that internet voting will not become a reality tomorrow, but the process is advancing. With a system that will hopefully soon be tested, piloted, and confirmed as a working alternative, the political actors opposing the change will have few arguments left.
As for the near future, Mihai plans to continue working on internet voting and the electoral process considering there will be local, presidential, and parliamentary elections in 2024 and 2025. He plans to be involved in the monitoring process and raising awareness, as well as promoting digital services in the country. Together with his mentor, he is planning to promote digital services at the regional level, making people aware of how important it is to have electronic signatures and hoping to increase the number of users of existing governmental platforms for digital services and digital transformation in Moldova. With more people using digital services and having e-signatures (around 3% of citizens have an e-signature), voting easily from any location in the world could become a reality.
| Country | Moldova |
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Fellowship Summary: The Fellowship project aims to increase the capacity of local CSOs to successfully identify, understand, and better tailor activities to address youth and women’s challenges, including mentoring on leadership skills. The project was designed to empower local Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in identifying and addressing the challenges faced by youth and women at the grassroots level. Implemented through a series of workshops, webinars, and mentoring sessions, the project aimed to equip CSOs with the necessary skills and knowledge to conduct effective needs assessments and develop tailored interventions.
The project began with a public call inviting CSOs to participate in workshops focused on needs assessment methodologies. Three workshops were conducted, bringing together a total of 45 participants, including CSO directors, project managers, volunteers, young people, and women from rural areas. These workshops provided a platform for participants to enhance their understanding of the challenges faced by youth and women and to learn best practices for needs assessment.
Additionally, the project selected 15 local NGOs from different regions of the country to receive mentoring support. These organizations were guided in conducting their own needs assessments, with a focus on identifying the specific needs of youth and women in their communities. The project also developed and distributed a supporting toolkit to assist these NGOs in their assessment process. To further extend the project’s reach, a webinar was organized, attracting 75 participants from various CSOs, youth centers, and women’s associations.
As a result of the project, CSOs have increased their confidence in assessing community needs and have become more engaged in communication with local public administrations. The project has also contributed to a more active approach in working with young people and women beneficiaries, ultimately enhancing the impact of CSOs in addressing the needs of these vulnerable groups.
Moving forward, the project’s impact is expected to be sustained through the dissemination of knowledge and skills gained by trained CSOs to their partners, as well as the continued use of the supporting toolkit for conducting effective needs assessments. The project has laid a foundation for CSOs to play a more proactive role in addressing the needs of youth and women, contributing to the overall development and well-being of their communities.
| Country | Moldova |
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Denys Andrushchenko’s City Dream Platform is a crowdsourcing initiative in Ukraine, serving as an effective communication tool between businesses, local government, and community residents. Launched in April 2023, the platform empowers active residents to highlight critical community issues through social projects, fostering collaboration among stakeholders to address these challenges by inviting them to join the project and contribute their resources. This approach has already yielded tangible results, with success stories inspiring greater civic engagement and citizenship.
The City Dream Platform has not only initiated impactful campaigns but has also received acclaim from volunteers and activists in Cherkasy. The platform’s success lies in its ability to bridge gaps and stimulate solidarity among diverse groups.
Through the City Dream Platform, Denys has sparked a seed of change, inspiring active citizens to persist in working with public servants and holding them accountable. Despite challenges, including the impact of war on Ukraine and its people, Denys remains committed to promoting the City Dream platform and the crowdsourcing approach.
| Country | Ukraine |
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The action: Transparent Budget is not a Lux aimed to engage the citizens of Nikopol (a city in the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast of Ukraine) in monitoring the municipal budget and increase their participation on the local level. The action was implemented in three phases. First, Maria researched the municipal budget from the perspectives of education, healthcare, public expenditures and infrastructure (construction of roads and bridges). Following this, the project team organized awareness-raising campaigns and discussions; through the social media posts, publications and creative infographics, young people actively engaged in the discourse. At the last stage of the project, Maria organized awareness-raising training for the young leaders to advocate transparent budgeting tools and held a roundtable discussion engaging the project participants, local authorities, and representatives from the business & non-governmental sectors. The latter event served as a platform to collaborate with the decision-makers and share recommendations.
The project delivered the budget monitoring research document with a creative infographic on the municipal budget priorities of Nikopol City. Also, the action engaged 40 active young leaders and raised their awareness in participatory budgeting. As an outcome of the training, the participants developed 7 seed project initiatives on the topics of sports and rehabilitation centers, shelter for victims of domestic violence, workshops and education, etc. Also, through the visibility campaign, action reached nearly 161,452 people via social media channels; 60,000 local citizens via the outdoor advertisements, and 8,020 readers via the newspaper publications and informed them about the Nikopol budget expenditures. On top of that, the roundtable meeting facilitated dialogue among the stakeholders from the public, private and non-governmental sectors. All in all, the action contributed to increasing the transparency of the local government and the budget of Nikopol City due to the high public control.
Project leaflet:
Project infographics:
| Country | Ukraine |
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Leila’s action aimed to enhance the engagement of civil society in monitoring the implementation of the United Nations Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (UN CEDAW) and recommendations of the Committee on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). To ensure the holistic approach to the CSO involvement in CEDAW implementation, the project covered the following aspects: Alternative reporting and individual complaints procedures (elaboration on the joint alternative report to CEDAW in collaboration with the UN Women and the NGO Monitoring Group) & educational and community outreach activities. To deliver high-quality online training on gender and human rights, Leila engaged international experts and field-professionals. Also, to inform the larger audience about the application procedure and criteria of the individual complaints to the UN Women’s Rights Committee, she developed a short educational video in Ukrainian and disseminated it throughout the country.
The project delivered 6 webinars and raised awareness and advocacy capacity of more than 130 non-governmental representatives from Ukraine, Eastern Partnership and other Eastern European and Central Asian Countries on Women’s Rights and UN CEDAW. Also, the action engaged civil society activists and international experts from Denmark, Romania, Moldova, Russia and Kyrgyzstan contributing to the development of the recommendations. In the long term, the project beneficiaries are equipped with the necessary skills to strengthen their advocacy for women’s rights by applying the UN human rights instruments, more precisely the UN CEDAW Optional Protocol. The project delivered the Joint Alternative Report to CEDAW, educational video and informational package that serves as the instrument and direction for better protection of women who are victims of gender-based discrimination.
Video on how to apply with individual complaints to UN CEDAW (in Ukrainian – “Як звернутися в Комітет CEDAW”):
| Country | Ukraine |
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The action aimed to encourage the first-time voters (18 years old) from Moldova to vote at the Presidential Elections (October-November 2020) through the national advocacy campaign: Voting Is not only our right but also, Our Power! To enhance the young people’s political knowledge about the electoral process and transform their general anti-system attitude into constructive criticism, Ludmila conducted research, educational, community outreach and large-scale communication campaigns. To identify key messages, Ludmila conducted desk research and drafted a policy brief on youth voter participation in the Republic of Moldova. Following this, she developed educational videos and the e-learning course: Learn Elections with the Online Election Courses explaining the specifics of the Presidential, Parliamentary and Local elections. Then, Ludmila launched a social media campaign: My First Vote and encouraged electoral participation through the Facebook and Instagram platforms. In the last stage of the project, she engaged the members of the National Network for Legal Education comprised of the Judges, Prosecutors, Lawyers, Anti-Corruption Officers and Civil Society Leaders to create the concept of the Democracy Classes containing 8 thematic webinars on the political engagement targeted on the high school students aged 17-18.
The Action produced a policy brief: Why You Should Vote along with 10 visual designs, promoting electoral participation among the young people in Moldova. Through the e-learning course and its 5 educational videos, the project engaged 200 users and raised their awareness of the national electoral systems. Also, the extensive advocacy campaign: My First Vote generated 32 Facebook/Instagram posts reaching and encouraging more than 76,000 young people to vote. On top of that, the Democracy Classes involved the field experts and educated 277 participants via the 5 live streams on the CIPM Facebook page.
Online Course: Learn Elections with the Online Election Courses
Atributiile presedintelui / Duties of the President:
7 motive pentru care sa votezi / 7 reasons to vote:
Publication “My first vote”
| Country | Moldova |
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