Public Administration and Open Data: Cooperation between the government and civil society in the Ukrainian reform process

20/03/2025

Civil society organisations (CSOs) are key actors in Ukraine’s reform process, playing a crucial role in making the reconstruction transparent, inclusive and aligned with democratic principles. Analysing the cases of two central reform areas—open data and public administration— this paper demonstrates how the work of CSOs helps prevent corruption and ensures the advancement of reforms.

The field of open data is an outstanding example of effective cooperation between civil society organisations, the government, and international donors – the so-called “golden triangle” – which has significantly driven digital transformation and transparency reforms in Ukraine. Therefore, it is important to specifically examine the role of CSOs in these areas.

The public administration reform (PAR) aims to establish digital and service-oriented public services that operate in the interest of Ukrainian citizens, based on democratic principles and European standards of public administration.

In their paper The cooperation of the government and CSOs in reforms – Cases of Public Administration Reform (PAR) and open data, Oleksandra Betliy and Iryna Kosse from the Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting (IER, Kyiv) analyse structural deficits in the implementation and financing of the reforms and conclude with recommendations to strengthen transparent, democratic, and EU-compatible governance structures in Ukraine.