Ukraine’s civil society contributes to safeguarding resilient, cohesive and inclusive democracy in Ukraine on the way to EU accession.

To strengthen the role and capacity of civil society to leverage the EU accession process for domestic democracy, rule of law, economic and social policy reforms.

1) to support non-governmental capacity, expertise and inclusive stakeholder dialogues to improve public policy process related to the EU accession negotiations;
- with at least 80 CSOs supported with grants within the Action to ensure their capacity to provide non-governmental expertise for at least 10 acquis chapters/issues (with particular focus on fundamentals cluster, but not only), policy recommendations for Ukrainian and EU sides delivered, stakeholders convened and engaged in cross-sectoral dialogues, relevant messages for balancing national interests in the process of accession negotiations defined and disseminated, international (EU member states’) experts and stakeholders reached out and engaged.
- Altogether, at least 100 000 people directly engaged in the Action’s activities, and 5 mln people reached out by communications activities.

2) to boost the capacity of local actors to understand and engage in the EU accession process, participate in relevant EU programmes and apply European standards with local actors engaged and better aware of accession negotiations progress and implications, know and use opportunities for participation of Ukraine’s communities and other local actors in EU programmes, and apply democratic practices for better integrity and accountability, social
cohesion and environmental sustainability. Overall, at least 50 communities engaged by CSOs supported by the Action.

The Action’s expected immediate results will be the ones of grant-making and of advocacy, capacity building and networking activities.

For the grant-making, it is expected that the Action will provide financial resources to raise capacity of CSOs to implement projects to fulfil their crucial roles in advancing EU accession process and necessary reforms.
Thematically, activities will focus on two sets of deliverables:
1) expert and policy contribution to EU accession negotiations progress, - with the activities of the CSO partners (think tanks, including those based on academic institutions, and various advocacy groups) that may include (but not be limited to) expert analysis of policies, positions, institutions, recommendations, independent monitoring and assessments (shadow reports), stakeholder and cross-sectoral dialogues for balancing interests, support to implementation or reforms, exchange of experience and learning with other candidate states, international communication and advocacy, civic dialogues with experts and stakeholders in EU member states etc.
2) engagement in EU integration at the local and regional level, - with the activities of the CSO partners that may include contributions to shaping national regional policy (accession negotiations chapter 22), including drafting of local development strategies and use of local democracy tools in participatory local public policy process; networking with twin communities in the EU member states and improving capacities to work with international donors and to participate in EU programmes; building awareness of European accession processes and standards and their application (e.g. on integrity and accountability, barrier-free environment, social inclusion of vulnerable, marginalized or disadvantaged groups, human rights protection and anti-discrimination action, community safety, environment protection and climate responsibility etc.).

The grant-making component will be implemented by: at least (1)150 grants awarded and implemented by CSOs, including:
(2) at least 120 grants provided through at least 6 open calls for proposals within the Standard Grant-making scheme;
(3) 7 strategic think tank partners supported with direct awards to contribute to Ukraine-EU policy dialogue and accession negotiations;
(4) and at least 20 as-needed opportunity, emergency grants and referrals from the EU Delegation within the Flexible & Rapid Response mechanism.


For capacity building programme, national and international networking track, it is expected that the Action will provide the following outputs:
(5) at least 24 grantee networking meetings, trainings, workshops and seminars, webinars, peer learning and other capacity building events successfully organised;
(6) at least 80 CSOs benefited from this capacity building programme;
(7) at least 18 policy discussion events, debates, national and international networking events, including conferences with stakeholders in government, local and regional authorities, neighbouring EU member states, other EU candidates etc. successfully organised (including such high-level Accession Exchange Forum, Ukrainian Central European Forum, local and regional level conference, think tank conference on EU accession progress etc., and other national and international discussion and networking events)
(8) with participation of at least 1000 offline participants in those networking and policy discussion events;
(9) 3 annual public opinion surveys on the EU integration/accession negotiations and relevant reforms, showing insights into the actual trends and needs for governmental communication and civil society awareness raising work.