International Development Grant
Building Capacity of Electoral Actors in Ukraine
Project Number: CA-3-D000162001
Status: Closed
Country/Region:
Maximum Contribution: $4,500,000.00
Start Date: March 25, 2014
End Date: February 28, 2018
Duration: 3.9 years
Project Description
The project aims to foster dialogue and reform on key electoral and political issues in Ukraine and help build the capacity of a range of local actors in particular civil society organizations The main activities of this project include: 1. Working with civil society organizations (CSOs) to develop and promote measures for a more inclusive electoral system in Ukraine by addressing women’s under-representation in Ukrainian politics and making local and national elections more accessible to persons with disabilities; 2. Strengthening the capacity of CSOs to improve transparency and oversight of political financing; and 3. Providing technical assistance to the Central Elections Commission (CEC) to establish a new staff training program and to improve CEC’s capacity to track and regulate election financing. While the program benefits all citizens throughout Ukraine the rights and political participation of women and persons with disabilities are a particular focus. The project aims to train an estimated 60 000 of Ukraine’s elections commissioners.
Expected Results
The expected outcomes for this project include: enhanced civil society engagement in the electoral reform process particularly women and persons with disabilities and increased capacity and professionalism of the Central Elections Commission.
Progress & Results Achieved
Results achieved as of March 2016 include: (1) the project promoted greater access to election polling stations for people with disabilities through an evidence-based electoral analysis of all 1 269 polling stations in the Poltava region. The analysis was conducted by 50 monitors including 32 women many of whom with disabilities. An audit revealed that most polling stations are partially (41.6%) or completely (58.2%) inaccessible. The findings will be presented in a report which will be shared with the Poltava regional state administration the Central Electoral Commission and other stakeholders to provide them with recommendations on how to improve access to electoral processes for people with disabilities; (2) the project promoted transparency in political finance by working with Members of Parliament key Parliamentary committees and civil society partners to draft a political finance reform law. The draft received positive feedback from the Parliament's Committee on Preventing and Countering Corruption the Venice Commission and OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights and was adopted into law by Parliament on October 8 2015. The legislation provides Ukraine with a leading political finance framework and the project is reinforcing it with monitoring training to domestic organizations to ensure continued oversight in the future; (3) with local elections held in October 2015 a number of activities were organized to prepare election commissioners local authorities civil society and the voting public for the new electoral system for local elections; (4) the project was able to train over 34 000 commissioners all over the country produced 60 000 copies of its training video for Territorial Election Commissions (TEC) and Precinct Election Commissions (PEC) and 49 000 manuals for PEC members and; (5) a series of public discussions on election law reform were held in collaboration with local civil society organizations and involving poli
Key Information
Executing Agency:
IFES - International Foundation for Electoral Systems
Reporting Organization:
Global Affairs Canada
Program:
EGM Europe Arctic Middle East and Magh
Last Modified:
September 19, 2025
Development Classifications
DAC Sector:
Aid Type: Project-type interventions
Collaboration: Bilateral
Finance Type: Aid grant excluding debt reorganisation
Selection Mechanism:
Unsolicited Proposal