Association for Promoting Self-Organization
The Association was founded in 2005 on the initiative of participants of the First All-Ukrainian Conference on Population Self-Organization. In 2013, the Association created a network of resource centers engaged in local democracy development in Dnipropetrovsk, Kyiv, Lutsk, Lviv, Mykolaiv, Rivne, Kherson, Luhansk and Donetsk regions.
The Association is a member of:
· ALDA - Association of Local Democracy Agencies.
· Brussels Office of Ukrainian Think Tanks Liaison.
· Ukraine-EU Civil Society Platform.
The Association:
· Unites and supports organizations and people who strive to improve quality of life in their community, solve local problems together, try to influence government actions.
· Conducts research and analyzes policies on current issues of society development.
· Provides assistance at all stages of creating and operating population self-organization bodies, provides consultations.
· Develops and seeks adoption of effective legislative and regulatory framework for local self-government at both state and local levels.
· Seeks transparency and openness in activities of state authorities and local self-government, municipal institutions;
· Educates citizens about their opportunities to participate in local affairs management and control local authority activities, promotes their increased activity.
· Increases professionalism and mutual support level among public activists: training events, round tables, conferences, experience exchange.
· Publishes analytical, methodological, educational literature.
Activity Results:
Legislative Changes
The Association develops and lobbies proposals for improving legislation regarding population self-organization bodies and conducting general meetings (conferences) of territorial community residents by place of residence (draft laws №2466 and 2467). Association experts prepared, coordinated with public activists and proposed these draft laws for approval by Ukraine's parliament. Association experts participated in the Constitutional Assembly commission on constitutional-legal regulation of local democracy.
Analytics
Association research results are annually discussed at round tables and All-Ukrainian conferences. Analysis and public expertise data serve as basis for Association proposals to state authorities and local self-government bodies for improving their regulatory framework and policies overall. The Association and Odesa Public Institute of Social Technologies jointly with a coalition of non-governmental organizations from Kyiv, Luhansk, Lviv and Mykolaiv twice conducted monitoring of telephone "hotlines" quality of central executive authorities (CEA). In 2014, the Association conducted public expertise of Odesa regional authority activities regarding their openness and creation of conditions for involving citizens and civil society institutions in governance.
Resource Support for Public Activity
The Association regularly conducts seminars and trainings for activists on various aspects of public participation. Association specialists accompany and coordinate the Resource Centers network for local democracy development, help them analyze local policies, and based on this analysis develop projects of local regulations ensuring network communication, provide methodological assistance.
Creating Conditions for Population Self-Organization Bodies Operation
The Association conducts research on existing policies and practices in Ukraine in population self-organization development, performs public expertise of regulatory framework in citizen participation in solving local issues, in communities' socio-economic development, in using various forms of local democracy.
Education and Mobilization
The Association administers the interactive web portal "Self-Organization in Society". The portal works to support active people in their desire to jointly solve problems of their homes, territories with neighbors, improve and preserve their living environment, create communication space for them. Daily thematic news are updated on the site, methodological, informational, analytical materials on population self-organization development, local democracy, public control are separately placed, useful documents for PSO work can be obtained, visitor consultation occurs.
