World Movement for Democracy in
Central and Eastern Europe and Eurasia
Spotlight on NGO Work in Central and Eastern Europe and Eurasia
Interview with Inna Pidluska, of Europe XXI Foundation in Ukraine, and a participant in the World Movement for Democracy
Q: Please tell us when and how your organization was established, and what its mission is? What are some of its main activities?
The Europe XXI Foundation is a non-profit, non-partisan, non-governmental Ukrainian think-tank, founded in December 1998. Its mission is to promote a democratic transformation of Ukraine's society and politics through intellectual support to the processes of Ukraine's integration into the European and Euro-Atlantic community, encouraging public participation and assisting civil society organizations (CSOs) in gaining a more prominent role in the policy process as a means of securing the country's development as a European democracy. Although the initial focus was primarily on issues of foreign policy and international affairs, after the 1999 presidential election and the increased authoritarian trends in Ukrainian politics, we became convinced that a stronger and more vibrant civil society would be the strongest driving force for Ukraine's "Europeanization."
Considering European and Euro-Atlantic integration as issues of primarily a domestic transformation for Ukraine, the Europe XXI Foundation focuses on the study of political processes and the development of civil society in Ukraine and seeks to contribute to public debate on the issues by means of organizing conferences and other public events; creating information resources and taking part in the development and implementation of collaborative projects, including capacity-building seminars for NGOs and political parties; running a European integration awareness program for journalists; holding roundtables with Ukrainian and foreign policy makers, officials, NGOs, and the media; and creating a network of NGO-NGO and NGO-business exchange. The key projects implemented by the Europe XXI Foundation include "A Civil Society Agenda for Ukraine," "Promoting Engagement of Civil Society Organizations in Policy Making," "Democracy League," a national coalition of NGOs and think tanks monitoring the state of democracy and fairness of election processes, and the "New Choice - 2004" coalition.
Q: How do you set the priorities for your organization, especially in connection with what you see as the leading challenges facing Ukraine today?
The priorities for the Europe XXI Foundation are based on our understanding of its mission and our analysis of political and societal developments in Ukraine. Today, these priorities are strengthening capacity, impact, and credibility of civil society organizations; monitoring and analyzing the state of democracy in Ukraine; alerting the society about democracy deficits; and facilitating the search for policy solutions.
Q: Civil society can play an important role in monitoring democratic processes, developing and implementing policies, and ensuring government accountability and transparency. In your opinion how involved is Ukrainian civil society in such efforts, and what can be done to strengthen civil society in the country generally?
Within the recent couple of years we have seen a substantial increase in both capacity and readiness of civil society organizations to take a more visible role in pro-democracy monitoring and policy work. Generally, civil society organizations in Ukraine, with the exception of a few leading institutions in Kyiv and Lviv, still lack resources of all kinds, but mainly human, financial, and institutional, to make a sustainable impact. However, the progress being made by CSOs and the pace of the development of their capacity and activities is very promising. The efforts of CSOs are becoming more consistent, professional and focused, and more coalitions and partnerships have emerged to address common challenges and promote the shared democratization goal. In that respect, the role of the international donor community is hard to overestimate. What I think needs to be done to strengthen civil society is to encourage more communication, cooperation, and transparency within the third sector and help CSOs develop a strategic approach in their activities. CSOs should improve the standards of their performance and services in order to become welcome and credible counterparts for a broader societal dialogue and policy work.
Q: What are some of the challenges that Europe XXI has faced during its development, and how have you addressed them?
I think the challenges we face are not different from those faced by other rather new entities in transitional society. The most difficult to counter are the challenges of the mismatch between the resources available and the need for institutional growth. Working on systemic and rather standardized procedures yet remaining creative, fast and flexible is also a challenge. As always, time pressure is a challenge, as well as the need to prioritize and stick to priorities even if some very rapid developments in the state's volatile politics demand our involvement. Working in coalitions and campaigns is always full of challenges for all participating bodies. We are trying to address the challenges by foreseeing them, understanding them, planning strategically, doing a lot of self-monitoring and self-assessment, and talking openly with our partners as often as possible.
em>Q: How do you see the work of your organization developing in the future?
We are optimistic about Ukraine's prospects as a whole and the prospects of its civil society. Our experience of working in coalitions, sharing resources, and joining efforts with our partner organizations allows us to claim that we've managed to come up with cooperation models that allow each of the participating organizations to become stronger and more effective. We hope to proceed on collaborative research, monitoring, and advocacy projects through expanding a network of able and reliable partners in all regions of Ukraine and the neighboring states.
Q: How did you first develop an interest in the issues of democracy and civil society?
I think it was back in 1991, during the August coup d'etat in Moscow. Then, having no information about what was going on and seeing only the things like "The Swan Lake" ballet on all TV channels, we realized how serious the challenge we were all facing was and how important it was to exercise the rights to know and to participate. From then on, helping people in society to exercise their rights to know and make their choices consciously has been a principle we follow. Our interest in issues of democracy and civil society is not an academic one: we live in this country, we can see it change rapidly, and we feel we can contribute to making a positive change.
Thank you very much for telling us about Europe XXI in Ukraine. We wish you continual success in your work.
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