policy brief

1. Communication between
the Government and the Public in Ukraine
Yaryna Zhurba
Problem
Communication between
the Government and the Public in Ukraine
Yaryna Zhurba, Victor Andrusiv
Communication between
the Government and the Public in Ukraine
Policy brief

2. Goal
Baseline conditions and problem setting..........................................................................3
Outline of the current situation .............................................................................................4
Problem of low efficiency of government communication: causes and
effects ................................................................................................................................................6
Solution (30 recommendations + 3 conditions).............................................................8
Structure of the full policy paper .......................................................................................17
About the research ...................................................................................................................18
2

3. Baseline conditions and problem setting
Development of Ukrainian state is a common goal of the authorities and the public. It
shall be reached in partnership based on prevailing trust.
Current relations between the government and the public are characterized by
alienation and mutual distrust. Such coexistence is neither efficient, nor safe.
Simultaneous uncoordinated efforts do not lead to success: efforts of public must
create synergy with those of government.
Existing relations framework is a result of both government’s and public’s weaknesses.
However, only the government is able to launch the process of overcoming alienation
and distrust. It does not mean that government shall instantly become perfect and then
public shall trust it. It means that government and public, being aware of their
weaknesses, shall be able to do their best to reach the common goal, therewith
gradually developing and improving.
Development of partnership relations depends primarily on communication between
the government and the public. Efficient communication is extremely important both
to improve the country and to resist the aggressor. Therefore, there is a need to
examine the issue in order to define actual situation as regards communication
between the government and the public, identify problems, their reasons and possible
solutions.
The situation was examined in three ways: collection of data available to the public,
request for public information, which is not publically available, and special individual
interviews. The aim WAS NOT to offer a ideal model of government communication.
Firstly, considering that communication is dynamic in nature, there is no sense to
search a static model. Efficient communication involves constant development.
Secondly, the policy paper was designed as application-oriented, i.e. should have
biggest possible practical effect. Therefore, it’s necessary to start out from the doable
and not from the ideal.
Communication between the government and the public is a wide multi-aspect sphere
involving numerous problems. Therefore, the scope of the research in this large cluster
was limited to search of answer to the question:
What changes shall be done in the government
communication to launch development of partnership
between the government and the public?
It is obvious that something is wrong with government communication and lots of
people keep point it out. Consequences of communication problems are also pretty
obvious.
3

4. However, as to their reasons, there is a great risk to make a mistake. Anyway, the
reasons identified as a result of fundamental study appeared to be substantially
different from those assumed at the beginning of the research.
(erein the term government refers not only to the Cabinet of Ministers . )t covers
policy-making executive authorities, i.e. those to carry out reforms. Theoretically, it
should be the Cabinet of Ministers and Ministries. However, considering that the
government is not reformed yet, the scope of the study covered all the central
executive authorities. Thus, the government herein refers to the Cabinet of Ministers,
Ministries and other central executive authorities.
Outline of the current situation
The situation as regards communication between the government and the public has
the following main features:
The acting government cares about communication with the public and makes efforts
to improve it. From the outside this efforts are almost invisible. They are focused on
the tactical aspects: primarily on tools, partly on coordination. If the government
communicates in the same manner as it does now, seeking to do everything faster,
higher, stronger , it would not help to increase trust and develop partnership with the
public. There is a need of changes at conceptual, strategic and institutional levels;
As regards the conceptual level, there is certain misunderstanding and equivocations.
The government does not see clear relation between communication and decision-
making procedure. As a result, there are lots of hidden problems, which are not
obvious, however crucial in terms of communication: decisions are not made on the
basis of policy analysis, stakeholders are not engaged in policy process, procedures are
often breached. Decision-making process actually is closed.
The government says communication but in most cases it means provision of
information . The European Commission Directorate-General of Communication
defines its mission as follows: Listen. Advise. Engage. )f communication department
of Ukrainian government declared their mission in the same concise manner, at the
moment it would be only )nform.
Distinction between stakeholder participation and grassroots participation is not
clear for the government. )t uses in all cases a term public participation , having on
mind something closer to grassroots participation ;
4

5. Strategic planning of communication is not currently applied. No governmental
document that could be called a full-featured communication strategy was found.
Communication as regards the Ukraine-EU Association Agreement was examined as a
strategic case. It confirmed that strategic planning is not applied and revealed negative
effects of such an approach;
The government speaks in a form or language people cannot understand.
Communication of regulations/draft regulations instead of comprehensive policy is
one of the aspects of the issue;
Frequent inconsistency of words of the Prime Minister and other government officials
with their further actions brings to nothing all the efforts to improve communication
and contradict development of partnership between the government and the public;
There is a lot of dead weight in the government communication, i.e. processes, which
bring no result while consuming considerable resources. For example, dozens of
governmental uncompetitive print media and special enterprises related therewith,
other state-owned mass-media. Resource issues are rather resulting from inefficient
resource management than from unavailability thereof;
Communication is considered rather as a segmental function that is a responsibility
solely of communication units of the government. Chief communication manager is a
head of department and doesn't have tools for pass-through impact. There are few
examples of policy-makers, who has communication as within the main priorities and
carry out this function adequately. Also there is a problem of turning government
communication into personal political PR;
Practices substantially better than those of general government communication are
already appeared. The Ministry of Education applied a range of best practices, such as:
granting public access to e-accounting through the web-site, involving capacities of the
public to accomplish the Ministry’s functions, creating special platforms for discussion
of higher education reform etc. Some other breakthrough practices were launched by
other Ministries;
Potential of communication systematic improvement is substantially limited due to the
lack of the reform of the government. The most substantial limitations are related to
existing decision-making procedure, internal communication and public service.
Only the government is able to launch development of partnership between the
government and the public. However, success of the process depends also on other
civil society actors. Governmental cooperation with business and third sector was
examined. Representatives of these three groups have quite different positions as
regards communication problems (For more details see summary of interviews in
chapter 4 Current situation. Perception by different actors of the full policy paper.
As regards country development objectives, each group (the government, business,
the third sector) has its own constructive and destructive players.
5

6. There are government members, which are committed to work towards necessary
changes and will make huge efforts to get them. However, there are also those, who
due to personal narrow-mindedness, corrupt interests or other reasons, do not launch,
hamper or defile reforms.
There is a business seeking for fair and clear rules, associates its own development
with society improvements and is ready to provide financial support of changes. At the
same time, there is a business, which prefers distorting laws according to own
commercial interests, utilizing short-term corruption benefits and exhausting civil
society through inequality.
Likewise, there are third sector organizations, initiatives and volunteers, which show
passion and professionalism in dealing with challenges. However, there is a
destructive part, which deals with different issues without relevant knowledge, shows
groundless criticism, addresses or rebroadcasts the third Maidan theme, recourses to
radical methods.
The paradox of the current situation is that each group sees primarily the destructive
component of other and judging by it gets an idea of what the relevant group is in
general. Thus, constructive elements of the government, business and the third sector
lack cooperation. Their efforts create no synergy, consequently, overall efficiency of
such efforts is low.
Problem of low efficiency of government
communication: causes and effects
Lots of processes shall be re-built in Ukraine.
Government communication is one of them. Lack of communication policy as relates,
e.g. internally displaced people, decentralization or other issues, for which the
government is broadly criticized, are not specific problems. These are numerous
manifestations of the same problem — low efficiency of communication between the
government and the public.
It is the low efficiency to be acknowledged and not the absence of communication as a
systematic process. Indeed, the system, which creates (should create) government
communication exists. It comprises hundreds public officials, special units, plans,
documents, websites, magazines, TV programs, round tables, press-releases, dozens of
state-owned enterprises and millions of UAH and other elements to make it function) .
In other words, every day this massive institutional system carries out huge number of
various processes, which don't bring to necessary results.
6

7. EffectsTheproblem
Low efficiency of communication between the government and the public
Causes
Lack of understanding of the government and
its policy: responsibilities, state of things,
cause-and-effect relations, prospects etc.
Low capacity of anti-crisis
management
Lack of trust to the government
Reforms meet no active support. The public
shows internal resistance to reforms,
opposition or indifference thereto
Low quality of governmental
consultation services.
Untapped possibilities
Strong belief that problems arise due to the
government and not due to objective
circumstances. Tension, inclination to protests
Low degree of synergy between
the gov’s and the public’s efforts.
Wasted capacities
Non-participation in state
development, apathy,
demotivation, alienation
Confrontation between authorities
and the public. Involvement of the
latter could take destructive forms
Low resistance of the public to
information war, manipulations
Inappropriate governmental
decision-making process
Lack of political
culture
Lack of strategy
Low proficiency/ “dead weight”
in processes and resources
Decisions are not made on the
basis of policy analysis
Stakeholders are not engaged in
policy process
Draft decisions are published in
rare cases
Procedures are often breached
Bureaucratic absentee reconcilement
and other problems related to
internal com-tion for decision-making
Weak understanding of importance
of public opinion. Imperious attitude
to citizens, interest groups prevails
(while the opposite is declared)
Incompatibility of words and
actions, PR of politicians instead of
communication of the institution
Engagement and dialogue are
simulated. Wilfulness in decision-
making. Lack of openness
Inertia of biased mistrust in the
government as a predominant
social trend
There are no
communication goals.
Communication is
reactive and not result-
oriented. A whole is
substituted by a part
(communication is
substituted by provision
of information)
System planning is not
applied
Government is unable to
get over clear messages
The government produces formal
(weak and invalid) papers as regards
policy analysis and com-tion
Institutional limitations: obsolete
internal communication, lack of
institutional memory etc
Low average performance of public
officials responsible for com-tion
and respective low quality of results
Spending huge amounts on
inefficient tools that beside this
distorts market (media market for
instance)

8. Solution
The task was to define, what changes shall be done in the government communication
to launch development of partnership between the government and the public?
Solution algorithm comprises 30 recommendations and 3 conditions. The majority of
recommendations are addressed to the government, however not all of them. All the
recommendations are aimed to eliminate the problem or mitigate reasons thereof.
Efficiency of implementation of the recommendations depends on three conditions. If
they will be fulfilled, implementation of recommendations will produce the best
results. These three conditions are the following:
1. To understand where the point of launching systematic process is
Answer to the question Where governmental decisions come from? is crucially
important.
If the government makes a decision in a closed manner based on unclear motivation
and reasons, violating procedures, and then inform public about such a decision, there
are low chances to improve communication through some other efforts. Such attitude
of the government shows disrespect to all other parties: they need no understanding of
what happens, can't participate really, the government does not care about their
interests. They have only to accept what is approved by government or that
government has approved nothing.
Currently that is the way the government makes decisions. Furthermore, considering
inconsistency between words and actions of some officials, the public may have all the
reasons to conclude that the government takes it for a fool. So what partnership we are
talking about?
To improve communication, decisions shall be legitimate for the public. If a decision
appears to be taken due to lack of competence, corruption interest, it seems to be hit-
or-miss , someone’s whim or something like this, such a decision is weakly legitimate.
The decisions shall be made in the open manner, based on policy analysis and
consultations with stakeholders.
It is worth mentioning a wide belief existing in the government that the public does
not care about contents of the government decisions, not to mention the decision-
making process. )t’s rather true, however not relevant to our subject. The essence of
communication is not in pop-informing (however does not exclude it). Communication
involves interaction with political stakeholders, opinion-makers, active civil society
and all those, who can participate in country development and influence position of
the others. It may be a small part of the public, however it will be a motive power. And
this part shall have possibility to understand where the governmental decisions come
from.
8

9. To sum up, the point to launch systematic process of development of partnership
between the government and the public is a new approach to governmental decision-
making. Bases of this approach are outlined in the recommendations # 9, 10, 11, 13,
14, 16, 17.
2. To change relationship paradigm at the upper level, where direct contacts
are possible
Currently the subjunctive lines lay as follows:
The government
Business
The third sector
In fact, it is more reasonable to have only one distinction as follows:
Constructive participants
of the government
of business
of the third sector
work towards changes, strengthening rule of
law / are professionals / resist to corruption
/ apply strategic planning / long-term
development-oriented
Destructive participants
of the government
of business
of the third sector
hamper or defile reforms / show non-
professionalism / feed corruption and other
weaknesses of the system / short-term
interest-oriented / aggravate confrontation
Even to implement recommendations provided herein synergy of effort is
indispensable. Alone constructive government members can hardly meet the
challenges related to launching the country development.
3. To gain political will to reform the government
The first condition is To understand where the point of launching systematic process
is . )t would be cool to add there ...and to launch it . (owever, there is a nuance.
Necessary changes are often appears to be elements of government reform or face
barriers, which shall be eliminated thereby. It concerns not only communication.
Situation with sectoral reforms is the similar. Government reform is a kind of starting
point for changes.
9

10. However, the reform is still not commenced. There is no good reason for this since the
reform was developed by Strategic Advisory Group on Public Administration Reform
already in summer 2014. The issue is about approval thereof, i.e. about personal
decisions. According to existing distribution of powers and decision of the National
Council of Reforms, the Minister of the Cabinet of Ministers, the Vice-Prime Minister
the Minister of Regional Development, Construction and Housing and Communal
Services of Ukraine and, of course, the Prime-Minister are responsible for public
administration reforming.
The failure to carry out the reform affects mainly the members of the government, who
are committed to changes most of all. They prefer not to disclose the problem, caring
about image of the government. Such an approach deserves respect, especially,
regarding that the above-mentioned members will be to respond for all the failures
made.
This approach would be reasonable if the reform were just about to start. However, if
political will is to conserve the current situation and simulate changes through
populist decisions like cutting salaries of public officials or reckless reduction of their
jobs without reengineering governmental functions and processes, it will be better to
point out all the above now, than later, when it may be too late. The process of the
country development will not be launched properly without government reform.
Therefore, currently the main priority for constructive participants of the
government, business and the third sector is to consolidate their efforts to make the
real government reform launched. The deadlock in this starting point shall be
broken.
The absence of above-listed conditions do not provide for delaying implementation of
recommendations that may be already implemented. It is necessary to implement
every recommendation as fast as possible, at the same time working towards fulfilling
the above-stated requirements. Fulfilment of the requirements will influence efficiency
both of separate recommendations and of all them as a whole.
10

11. Recommendations
Causes of the problem Peculiarities
of implementation *
Low
proficiency /
dead weight
in processes
and resources
Inventory check and audit of efficiency of all communication functions and resources of the government shall be
carried out. As a result, functions and resources shall be grouped into three categories: 1) those that are dead
weight and shall be eliminated; 2) those that may be outsourced; 3) those that shall remain within the competence
of/ be managed by the government. This task shall be assigned to a small team comprising government and non-
government experts in management, communication, policy analysis etc. Such a team may be established by the
Department of Information and Public Communication of the Cabinet of Ministers Secretariat.
Q
The government shall widely practice outsourcing of services related to all the functions, which allow it. This is a
key tool to ensure efficiency and modernization of the government. Within the scope of this study, these are
primarily some functions relating to policy analysis, information and communication technologies, monitoring
(including media monitoring).
M
Synergy of financing model shall be put in place. As long as Ukraine is in war, increased costs saving may be
achieved in terms of outsourcing through using resources of Ukrainian civil society and international partners to
pay for services needed by the government. Such a model allow the government to contract a service with a winner
of tender and cover a small part of its cost, while the rest is covered by donors (in wide sense it may be a special
fund accumulating money from different sources or contribution from international partners, Ukrainian business
or even individuals).
)n other words, this recommendation may be described by words of one respondent, who said, The government
shall allow helping it .
Q
Everyday briefings, similar to those related to the ATO, shall be held by government representative to communicate
progress in reforms, i.e. actual situation, daily progress, existing barriers, necessary assistance etc. Q
* Implementation and
effect of recom-tion
are quick
Recommendation may be
implemented quickly,
however its effect will be
perceivable with time
Long time is needed to implement
recommendation (more than half a
year)
Implementation of
recommendation is a
continuous processСLMQ
11

12. Continuous and extensive work shall be carried out towards introducing e-government in Ukraine using synergy
of financing model to the maximum extent. Introduction of e-government on the systematic basis requires
substantial expenses, which the government currently cannot cover by the budget means. However, the far more
important thing that the government cannot do is to delay e-government introduction or introduce it in
factionary random manner.
C
Strategic
planning of
com-tion is not
applied
Complex strategy of communication as regards the Ukraine-EU Association Agreement shall be developed. It shall
define objectives and messages to be systematically delivered by the government officials responsible for
implementation, tools, resources, efficiency monitoring system etc. The best experts representing government
communication, business and European partners shall be engaged in development of the strategy. This strategy
shall become a benchmark for the further government communication strategies.
Not only governmental resources, but also capacities of various other civil society actors shall be used to
implement the strategy.
M
By analogy to the foregoing recommendation, communication strategies of at least two field policies shall be
developed. It is necessary to focus on reforms, implementation of which needs the public support most of all. For
example, it may be decentralization and health sector reform.
M
Real-life strategical planning of communication shall be constantly practiced by the Cabinet of Ministers and
Ministries. This practice shall constantly improve through training, best foreign practices benchmarking,
efficiency audit, experiments etc.
L
Decisions are
not made on
the basis of
policy analysis
Stakeholders
are not
involved in
policy process
Policy analysis shall be set out as a pre-condition for decision-making. It shall involve analysis of a problem,
impact assessment, stakeholders’ analysis, modeling reasonable policy alternative, cost-benefit analysis etc. It is
about real policy analysis and not about drawing up formal documents. To make it real, it is necessary to begin
with pilot to outsource the analytics in few Ministries, and then to extend such practice on whole the government
(see recommendation # 2).
M
Stakeholders shall be proactively engaged at all the stages, starting from definition of governmental policy
agenda. Participation mechanisms shall be developed. First of all, it involves public consultations with
stakeholders. Furthermore, mechanisms of initiating draft decisions, receiving feedback on policy
implementation etc. shall exist. Draft Law of Ukraine On Public Consultations shall be drawn up and filed to the
Parliament.
M
12

13. The
government
produces
formal (weak
and invalid)
papers as
regards policy
analysis and
com-tion
Draft decisions
of the
government
are published
in rare cases
Engagement
and dialogue
are simulated.
Wilfulness in
decision-
making
The function of government communication shall be transformed from applicative and segmental component to
indispensable element of policy-making. Today, communication begins when governmental decision or draft
decision is already exists and relevant department must inform the public thereon. However, communication
shall appear in political part of a body once the policy issue processing is started. The above-mentioned function
is pass-through in nature. It shall belong to the competence of both communication experts and policy-makers
and analysts.
M
Provision on communication plans to draft decisions, contained in the Cabinet of Ministers' Rules of Procedure,
shall be eliminated. Practice of communicating draft decisions shall be changed to practice of communicating of
policy. Training as regards communication support of state policy shall be arranged (not only for communication
experts, but also for policy-makers). Instrumental guidelines for strategic and operative planning of
communication shall be developed.
Q
New instruments of white papers and green papers or other consultation documents shall be introduced in
the government to ensure discussion of policy issues and possible solutions.
Governmental policy decisions shall be accompanied by description of its path. In particular, it shall clarify what
problem a decision addresses, who were consulted, what alternatives were proposed and for what reasons the
decision were made, whether implementation of decision is economically feasible etc. In other words, it shall
answer the following question: Where a governmental decision came from?
Q
A section within the governmental portal shall be created to publish all governmental draft decisions, by analogy
to draft laws on the Parliament web-site. Compulsory publication of draft decisions on the portal shall be set out
in the Law On Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the Cabinet of Ministers’ of Ukraine Rules of Procedure.
Q
Possibilities for improving grassroots participation shall be created through on-line petition tool, public hearings,
reform supporting campaigns involving active participation of citizens and other means.
Phenomena of stakeholder participation and grassroots participation shall be distinguished. Both they relate
to civil society, but have different value for public policy. Stakeholder engagement is required to make reasonable
and legitimate decisions. It is one of the basic elements of good governance. As to the grassroots participation , it
primarily involves civil education, i.e. responsibility, initiativity and solidarity of citizens. Little citizens do not
build big states c . Grassroots participation will also promote stakeholder formation. Therewith, the more real
(not simulated) possibilities for citizens participation the government creates, the more public capacities it turns
into constructive direction.
C

14. Institutional
limitations:
obsolete internal
communication,
lack of
institutional
memory in the
government etc.
Bureaucratic
absentee
reconcilement
and other
problems
related to
internal
communication
for decision-
making
Absentee reconcilement procedure for draft decision agreement by all the interested parties shall be eliminated.
Governmental committees shall become the main platform to agree governmental draft decisions. Activities of
governmental committees shall be set out in the Law On Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine .
Q
Internal e-communication system shall be created for development of draft decisions. It shall create possibilities
for horizontal communication, where all the government members and other parties participating in elaboration
of a draft decision may see proposals of others, discuss and agree them in electronic format (currently only
originator of a project may see full lay-out of comments, i.e. agreement is carried out through paper documents
re-sending).
Q
Positions of Ministry Secretary and Secretary of the Cabinet of Ministers (instead of existing position of Ministry
of the Cabinet of Ministers) shall be introduced. Officers holding the aforesaid positions shall be public officials,
but not politicians. Government crews change, but State Secretaries remain. It is an essential element of keeping
institutional memory. One of the main functions of State Secretaries shall be communication management, which
currently is not a centralized pass-through process, but a segmental function of separate departments.
L
Low average
performance of
public officials
responsible for
com-tion and
respective low
quality results
of their work
Comprehensive reform of public service shall be carried out and result in changing procedure of public service
officers selection, motivation system, substantial increase of salaries to a level, which will allow the public service
to employ competitive specialists.
L
Systematic training, knowledge-sharing and other means of professional development shall be accessible to
specialists responsible for government communication. Periodical external evaluation of the government
communication specialists’ performance shall be carried out.
L
Jobs responsible for communication functions, which may be outsourced, shall be cancelled. E.g., media-
monitoring function. Q
14

15. Spending huge
amounts on
inefficient tools
Everything that resulting from inventory check and audit of communication resources efficiency appears to be a
dead weight see recommendation #1) shall be eliminated. At least, the phenomena of state-owned TV and
radio media shall cease to exist. A part of them shall be transformed into social broadcasters (the process is
already initiated), while other part shall be sold (privatized) or liquidated.
As regards print media, only one (instead of existing four) official media is needed to publish laws and
regulations. The sole print media to remain is Ofitsiynyi Visnyk Ukrayiny (Official Gazette of Ukraine), which
publishes laws and regulation to the maximum extend, while the rest replicate fragments thereof. All other print
media and public enterprises, which manage them, shall be sold or liquidated. As a result of privatization only the
media that are really requested by public will continue to exist. Operation in market conditions will promote
modernization thereof. Released funds shall be invested into e-government.
Q
Innovative and low-cost communication channels, engineering instruments and programs (social networks,
google instruments, cloud technologies, visual tools etc.) shall be used to the maximum extent. Special e-systems/
software shall not be developed if not reasonably needed.
C
Preference to
keep processes
closed
Maximum possible volume of public information shall be disclosed on the websites. This volume may not be
lower than those prescribed by law. In all the relevant cases information shall be published in an open format (i.e.
available for downloading and computer processing). Trainings as regards open data shall be arranged for
responsible officers.
M
The Ministry of Education Open accounts practice, i.e. practice to publish the Ministry’s accounting data on the
website, shall be extended to all the government. It would be really strong demonstration of difference between
the acting government and its predecessors, as well as of commitment to ensure openness and establish
partnership with the public.
Q
Multiplication of various user-unfriendly official websites shall be stopped; opposite direction shall be taken —
towards integration of web resources. Single web-portal gov.ua shall be created by analogy to gov.uk. The overall
aim shall be to create unified well-known user-oriented resource, which allows citizens to receive governmental
administrative services, get an idea of what the government is, what policy it promotes in one or another sector
etc. Such a portal will become an important step towards e-government and will allow for substantial reduction
of web recourses costs.
L
Goal-oriented work towards changing the language of communication from officialese to normal something
similar to Norwegian government Plain Language Project) shall commence. Such work shall involve training,
participation of specialists, introduction of new document formats, wide use of presentations, visual means etc.
L
15

16. Problems in communication between the government and the public arising of lack of political culture can be hardly eliminated by some direct
reactive measures. They also cannot be eliminated at once. It is a gradual process, which depends on numerous factors. Implementation of the above-
mentioned recommendations may indirectly promote improvement of political communication culture. Although solutions that will eliminate the
above reasons fully do not exist, it appears possible to take actions which will have partial effect.
The following recommendations are addressed to non-governmental civic society actors.
Lack of
political
culture
Public shall constantly monitor the governmental decision-making process in terms of compliance thereof with
established procedure. Compliance with procedure is a goal in itself. C
Best practices and behaviours of the government showing political ethics shall be disseminated. There is no more
bad government , it is different. There are already government members, who bring political activity on a brand
new level. Their examples shall not be ignored by the public. They shall be made well-known to become a
benchmark for all the government.
C
Citizens shall focus more attention, efforts and energy on the government activities and join them. Reforms face
internal resistance of the system, which without active support of media, NGOs, opinion-makers may become a
deadlock.
As regards inaction or undue action of the government, it also worth attention. However, measure of practicable
and not of perfect shall be used while evaluating them. Groundless criticism is inadmissible. If used, criticism
shall be well-grounded and clearly addressed to action/inaction of specific officials and not to the government as
an institution.
C
16

17. Structure of the full policy paper
1. About the research
2. Task and methodology
3. Current situation. Objective data
3.1. General outline of the situation
3.2. Communication planning
3.2.1. Strategic planning level
3.2.2. Case of the Ukraine-EU Association Agreement
3.2.3. Analysis of communication plans
3.3. Communication in the policy-making process
3.4. Language and formats of communication
3.5. Institutional aspect
3.5.1. System of communication structural units
3.5.2. Limits of space for communication improvement due to unreformed
government
3.5.3. Comparative data on remuneration paid to communication specialists in
government and generally in labour market
3.6. Analysis of selected communication tools and resources
3.6.1. Overview of governmental websites
3.6.2. Summary of data on print media
4. Current situation. Perception by different actors (summary of interviews)
4.1. Key communication problems
4.2. Participation in the policy-making process
4.3. Providing information about government activities
4.4. Interactions
4.4.1. Government — Business
4.4.2. The Third Sector — Government
4.4.3. Business — the Third Sector
4.5. Case of the Ukraine-EU Association Agreement communication
5. Problem of low efficiency of government communication: causes and effects
6. Action plan to improve communication and launch development of
partnership between the government and the public
7. Useful links
GO TO FULL POLICY PAPER →
17

18. About the research
The research on communication between the government and the public was carries out by
the “21th of November” Analytic Platform fully on volunteer basis.
The research was carried out in February-June 2015.
Results of the research are presented in two documents: policy paper with detailed outline of
data analysis and its brief, which resumes the full document with the focus on
recommendations. Both documents may be freely disseminated.
Authors would like to express their appreciation to experts, who devoted their time to
interviews carried out within the framework of the research; to the Cabinet of Ministers
Secretariat and 72 central executive bodies, who responded into requests for public
information; to “Robota International” Company, which provided data as regards market level
of remuneration of communication specialists.
Special thanks are given to Roman Kobets for his help in development of analysis
methodology, Roman Lampeka for cartoons, Anna Saliy for the help in text editing, Vitaliy
Sharlay for the contribution in development of the subject of the research and help in
interviewing and data collection and Viktor Tymoshchuk for peer-review.
Also big thanks to the World Bank Country Office in Ukraine for the English translation of the
policy paper and policy brief.
The hard copies of the policy paper are published by Ukrainian Crisis Media Centre in the
framework of the project on raising communications standards of Ukrainian public
authorities Gov.Comms.Ua.
We hope that results of the research will facilitate discussions and efforts for launching
development of partnership between the government and the public.
Ukraine Crisis Media Center
uacrisis.org
press@uacrisis.org
+38 050 157 81 59, +38 097 41 22 622
Ukrainian house, European Square
2 Khreshchatyk Street, Kyiv, 01001, Ukraine
“21th of November” Analytic Platform
analytic.org.ua
21November@analytic.org.ua
+38 093 333 21 11
63-D Kyrylivska Str., Kyiv 04080