Civil Network
OPORA

One of the leading non-governmental and non-partisan All-Ukrainian organizations for public oversight and advocacy in the field of elections, parliamentarism, education, joint ownership, energy efficiency, local self-government, as well as the comprehensive implementation of the principle of open data. We strive for sustainable development of society, irreversible changes that can be ensured through qualitative institutional reforms, positive social and cultural developments.

Who we are

More than 17 years have passed since Civil Network OPORA became an intersection point and a meeting place for people from across the country who decided to get personally involved in the process of change of socio-political system. Our history began in 2005. At that time, when we were still students, we gained first-hand experience of enthusiasm and disenchantment with the revolution, formed our own principles and core values, and made decisions about what to do next. Our strivings resulted in the establishment of Civil Network OPORA - an organization where we could materialize our ideas of fair and successful country in which we all want to live.

During the period of existence of our organization we managed to do and learn a lot of things. What used to be, in fact, a student organization turned into a credible and authoritative community with competence in matters of governmental and parliamentary activities, control over local self-governing authorities, election observation, external independent testing, advocacy for reforms, energy conservation and open data policy, which operates throughout Ukraine. We grew up - and so did Civil Network OPORA.

Our dream

Citizens are involved in political life, while state and local policies reflect people\'s will. In our dreams, government institutions perform service functions and adhere to the principles of openness, transparency and accountability. Competition between policies is based on common sense, rather than just personal interest. The policy-making process involves intelligence, professionalism, forward-thinking approach and responsibility. We are convinced that if we work hard, our every action will be a step toward fulfilling our dream. So let's dream actively! ;)

Our values

We all work together as a team, because we share common values. Each member of Civil Network OPORA team attaches great importance to human rights, democracy, freedom, common good and the rule of law, which can\'t exist without social, organizational and personal responsibility.

Our Goals

We strive for activation of citizens, so that they would have the desire and ability to influence the improvement of their environment as well as be capable of informed participation in public life.

We want to establish an open, transparent public governance and change its quality in the context of decision-making and policy-making process implemented by state authorities as well as ensuring publicity and openness of data.

Civil Network
OPORA

One of the leading non-governmental and non-partisan All-Ukrainian organizations for public oversight and advocacy in the field of elections, parliamentarism, education, joint ownership, energy efficiency, local self-government, as well as the comprehensive implementation of the principle of open data. We strive for sustainable development of society, irreversible changes that can be ensured through qualitative institutional reforms, positive social and cultural developments.

Who we are

More than 17 years have passed since Civil Network OPORA became an intersection point and a meeting place for people from across the country who decided to get personally involved in the process of change of socio-political system. Our history began in 2005. At that time, when we were still students, we gained first-hand experience of enthusiasm and disenchantment with the revolution, formed our own principles and core values, and made decisions about what to do next. Our strivings resulted in the establishment of Civil Network OPORA - an organization where we could materialize our ideas of fair and successful country in which we all want to live.

During the period of existence of our organization we managed to do and learn a lot of things. What used to be, in fact, a student organization turned into a credible and authoritative community with competence in matters of governmental and parliamentary activities, control over local self-governing authorities, election observation, external independent testing, advocacy for reforms, energy conservation and open data policy, which operates throughout Ukraine. We grew up - and so did Civil Network OPORA.

Our dream

Citizens are involved in political life, while state and local policies reflect people\'s will. In our dreams, government institutions perform service functions and adhere to the principles of openness, transparency and accountability. Competition between policies is based on common sense, rather than just personal interest. The policy-making process involves intelligence, professionalism, forward-thinking approach and responsibility. We are convinced that if we work hard, our every action will be a step toward fulfilling our dream. So let\'s dream actively!

Our values

We all work together as a team, because we share common values. Each member of Civil Network OPORA team attaches great importance to human rights, democracy, freedom, common good and the rule of law, which can\'t exist without social, organizational and personal responsibility.

Our Goals

We strive for activation of citizens, so that they would have the desire and ability to influence the improvement of their environment as well as be capable of informed participation in public life.

We want to establish an open, transparent public governance and change its quality in the context of decision-making and policy-making process implemented by state authorities as well as ensuring publicity and openness of data.

We
01

Monitor

compliance with the law

02

Catalyze

citizens into activity and participation in democratic processes

03

Promote

sustainable democratic culture

04

Share

our knowledge about best and successful practices

05

Generate

public demand for anti-populism in public policy and administration

06

Participate

in policy-making process

ELECTIONS

Since 2007, we have been monitoring and analyzing all stages of electoral process, and we've also been working on improvement of electoral legislation in order to bring it in line with international standards.

Milestones in the development of "Elections"
branch of activity
2007
First ever systematic
observation of elections
in Ukraine.
2010
OPORA successfully conducted parallel vote tabulation (PVT)
based on statistical sampling for the first time ever in Ukraine.

OPORA was the only local organization
which didn't recognize the local elections as democratic.
2012
OPORA became the co-founders of European organization
"European Platform for Democratic Elections" (EPDE).

We created an electronic Map of violations verified by
observers for the first time ever in Ukraine.
OPORA attracted and trained 4,000 observers in the run-up
to parliamentary elections.
2013
During the by-elections in "troubled constituencies" OPORA
organized online broadcasting from the premises of 5 territorial
election commissions as well as Internet marathon which was
viewed by nearly 75,000 citizens.
20142014 рік
OPORA created a mobile app containing several handy tools
for quality monitoring of elections which can be used by
journalists, observers and proactive voters.
2015
OPORA's experts developed a draft law # 2831-2 "On local
elections" in collaboration with people's deputies and other
nongovernmental organizations.

During the local elections, 100% of polling stations were
covered by our observers in Dnipro (450 observers), Odesa
(350 observers) and Kharkiv (598 observers), which is a high
mobilization figure in terms of individual territorial communities.
2016
OPORA joined the European Network of Election
Monitoring Organizations (ENEMO).
We were the only organization which conducted large-scale
and systematic monitoring of first local elections
in united territorial communities.
2017
The draft law on guaranteeing the voting rights of internally
displaced persons and other citizens mobile within the country
(registration # 6240), which was initiated and developed by
OPORA in collaboration with other parties, was successfully
registered in the parliament.

PARLIAMENT

Since 2013, we have been monitoring the activities of Parliament and political parties on a systematic basis, as well as elaborating recommendations on improving the quality of work of MPs and parliamentary committees, creating instruments of public control over activities of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and conducting outreach campaigns aimed at raising political culture of voters and civic activists.

Milestones in the development of "Parliament"
branch of activity
2013
OPORA began monitoring the activities of majoritarian MPs during the inter-election period. We provided support and participated in the launch of TV program "Dear deputies", which was broadcasted on 5 national TV channels ( "TVI", "Channel 24", "Hromadske.tv", "Channel 5", "First National TV channel") and attracted millions of viewers.
2014
Having taken into consideration our best practice in developing standards of transparency and openness, committees created their own websites and significantly improved the level of coverage of their activities.
2015
OPORA developed a unique research methodology for monitoring the legislative work of majoritarian MPs and their activities in electoral districts. 36 MPs were systematic monitoring objects in 2015, 105 MPs - in 2016, 88 MPs - in 2017.
2016
We became one of five Ukrainian NGOs which signed the Declaration on Parliamentary Openness on behalf of civil society. Furthermore, we developed a plan for implementing the Declaration in cooperation with the Apparatus of the Verkhovna Rada and monitor its execution.
2017
Our programmers created a "Visualizer" tool on rada4you.org online service which converts a large array of parliamentary data into a chart or interactive spreadsheet.

LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT

Since 2009, we have been setting standards of transparency, openness and accountability of local authorities, monitoring the activities of public authorities and the quality of municipal services, promoting mechanisms for public participation and application of good governance principles in the work of local government bodies and officials.

Milestones in the development of
"Local self-government" branch of activity
2009
OPORA organized a Watchdog School of public control over local self-government activity based on "David Kolb's learning cycle technology" for the first time ever in Ukraine.
2011-2012 роки
OPORA developed a methodology for measuring the level of publicity municipal governments in Ukraine – Publicity Index of local self-government.
2013
OPORA initiated the launch of annual national campaign for measuring the level of publicity of municipal governments in all regional centers of Ukraine and the city of Simferopol.

HOUSING, PUBLIC UTILITIES AND ENERGY SECTOR

Since 2006, we have been catalyzing citizens into activity and participation in socio-political processes related to energy efficiency, overcoming the negative developments in housing, public utilities and energy sector, ownership relations in condominiums, advocating for reforms aimed at ensuring sustainable energy development in Ukraine, shaping of energy-saving behavior among citizens.

Milestones in the development of "Housing,
public utilities and energy sector" branch of activity
2006
OPORA conducted a nationwide campaign "We want to know what we pay for" with demand of ensuring transparency of information on utility rates.
2008
We established an informal coalition composed of 150 NGOs, condominiums and initiated the signing of the Declaration of "Responsible homeowners in Ukraine."
2009
We created a web site "The country of responsible homeowners" with tips concerning condominiums and instructions regarding the rights of consumers of public utility services, and established a "hotline" for provision of online consultations.
2010
OPORA became the co-founders of the First All-Ukrainian Condominium Forum in Lviv.
2010-2012
We helped in creating Resource centers for condominiums and gave training to 20 trainers in Lviv, Kherson, Kramatorsk, Rubizhne, Yalta, Sevastopol, Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Vinnytsia, Alchevsk, Kamyanets-Podilskyi.
2012
14 experts of Civil Network OPORA acquired membership in the National Council on Condominiums under the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. We developed a methodology for monitoring publicity, openness and transparency of utility tariffs and provided it to local activists.
2015
We launched an information portal "ZHYTLO" (www.zhytlo.in.ua). We participated in the process of development and adoption of five key laws concerning housing and public utilities sector: Law on peculiarities of exercise of ownership rights in an apartment building, Law on assignment of non-profit status to condominiums, Laws concerning the activities of energy service companies (2 laws), Law on transparency of utility tariffs.
2015-2016
Our local coordinators in 15 cities participated in the process of preparation, development, adoption and implementation of Action plans for sustainable energy development. We implemented training programs "Academy of responsible homeowners" and "School of effective condominiums".
2016
We advocated for the establishment of an independent regulatory authority in Ukrainian energy and public utilities market.
2017
The Parliament adopted key laws of the "energy efficiency package", co-drafted by OPORA: on the Energy Efficiency Fund, on Commercial Assessment of Heat and Water Supply, on Energy Efficiency of Buildings.

EDUCATION

Since 2007, we have been monitoring the compliance with the procedure for preparation and conduct of external independent testing, helping undergraduate applicants adapt to constant changes in Terms of admission to higher education institutions, monitoring the progress of the university admissions process, creating educational platforms aimed at informing citizens about educational services provided by educational institutions.

Milestones in the development of
"Education" branch of activity
2008
First public monitoring of compliance with the rules and procedures for external independent testing with the participation of 1,650 observers.
2010
OPORA opened a hotline for entrants.
2011
We started officially working in the Appeal Commission of the Ukrainian Center for Educational Quality Assessment (UCEQA), continuing the efforts in 2015 and 2016.
2013-2014
Prioritization of applications sent to HEIs by entrants was introduced on the basis of OPORA's research findings concerning the results of admission of entrants to state-funded seats.
2015
OPORA acquired the membership in the expert commission of the Ukrainian Center for Educational Quality Assessment, which establishes "pass/fail" grades.
2016
OPORA organized a sociological research on the popularity of private tutor services and attitudes toward EIT among its direct participants.

OPEN DATA

Since 2016, we have been promoting publicity and openness of data and registers kept by government entities and their publication in Open Data formats supported by different services and applications according to the needs of the population.

Milestones in the development of
"Open source data" branch of activity
2016
As a part of "Open Parliament" initiative, OPORA launched the Open Parliament Data Portal, which contains 406 data sets. The organization conducted a large-scale research of the situation with open data in each oblast center of Ukraine.
2016-2017
OPORA's initiative "City Data" in collaboration with the Techsoup (Poland) organized and conducted a contest of ideas for urban services, the best of which were brought to life.
2017
Thanks to the research, OPORA has analyzed the progress in implementation of the open data policy by Ukrainian cities.
2017
The organization prepared a printed and online manual answering the question how to introduce the open data policy in the right way.
Products created by Civil Network OPORA

Civil Network OPORA's website

Map of violations

Mobile app "Local elections"

Website dedicated to parliament

They vote for you

The Rada speaks

Map of reception offices

Visualizer

Publicity Index of local self-government

About condominiums

web portal "ZHYTLO"

Education news

Apps4cities web portal

Online book store
SUPPORT
During the period of it's work, OPORA has been supported or is supported by: USAID, Council of Europe Office, European Commission, Black Sea Trust, Worl Bank Group, International Finance Corporation, NED, C.S. Mott Foundation, Delegation of the European Union to Ukraine, British Embassy.
PARTNERS
OPORA has cooperated with the following organizations during the period of its activities: NDI, IFES, "HRUPA VPLYVU" Civil Holding, Agency for Legislative Initiatives, Interns League, Internews Ukraine, Hromadske.ua, DiXi Group, Ukrainian Crisis Media Center, National Ecological Center of Ukraine, Association on Energy Efficiency and Energy Saving, Association "Energy Efficient Cities of Ukraine", Bioenergy Association of Ukraine, "Ukrainian Center for European Policy Studies", Municipal Development Institute, Institute for Social and Economic Research, Reanimation Package of Reforms, USETI, Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation, Techsoup,Citizens Network Watchdog Poland.
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