“Ukraine's task is to develop a new model of open contracting and open government for the whole world. International partners should see how their funds are spent on the construction of Ukraine”, the Co-founder of the RISE Ukraine Coalition, Viktor Nestulia, stated on the first day of the Open GovernmentPartnership European Regional Meeting.

The OGP meeting is organized by the governments of Italy and Estonia. The key topics were the fight against corruption, digital innovations, the participation of civil society, and the restoration of Ukraine.

Co-founders of the RISEUkraine Coalition, Viktor Nestulia, head of Ukraine support in the OpenContracting Partnership, and Andrii Borovyk, executive director of Transparency International Ukraine, took part in the discussion "Open Government for reconstruction and Recovery in Ukraine."  Among the speakers were Oleksandr Yarema, State Secretary of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, Oleksandr Slobozhan, Executive Director of the Association of Cities of Ukraine, and Julia Kielyte, Support Group for Ukraine of the European Commission.

The panelists discussed the role of civil society in the reconstruction process, the help of international partners, and the implementation of digital tools for transparent recovery.

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"Civil society is Ukraine's secret weapon. It used to focus more on monitoring and criticism, but now its role has changed. We have become partners with the government. My subjective feeling is that most successful reforms have been carried out because the government and civil society have been partners, not enemies. This should also apply to the restoration," Andrii Borovyk claimed.

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"Over the next few years, all of us together will pay for the reconstruction of Ukraine. Our funds will help rebuild Ukraine. There should be maximum accountability, transparency, and integrity in distributing and using these funds, as well as international aid. Another role of our Coalition is to create digital reconstruction tools so that all costs can be followed in a unified system," Viktor Nestulia emphasized.

As was reported before, the Rebuild UkraineDigital Management system is being developed in partnership with the RISEUkraine Coalition. It should ensure monitoring and control over the use of partner funds for the reconstruction of Ukraine.

In addition, the Ministry of Infrastructure will soon publish essential information about restoring critical reconstruction facilities, including contractors, funding, and construction progress. The website with dashboards was presented during the"Recovery Forum. Zhytomyr Region"; work is ongoing to ensure open data publication.