Over 260 participants representing 180 non-governmental organizations from western Ukraine attended the Lev Association’s Second Forum of Public Initiatives in Lvov on  September 24-26. The Forum was an opportunity to resolve the issue of the third sector, exchange experience, and analyze changes that have taken place over the two years that passed since the first forum. The 1999 forum was part of the program for "Development of Public Organizations in Western Ukraine" supported by the European Commission’s Phare-Tacis Democracy Program.
 
The presenters at the forum spoke about the need to build up public society in Ukraine, the legislative foundation for activities of Ukrainian non-governmental organizations, and the development of the "third sector" in post-totalitarian states.

Representatives of Polish non-governmental organizations were invited to take part in the Second Forum since the "third sector" in this country is flourishing and is an active force that is consulted with by both state management authorities and the business community. The rich experience of Poland is beneficial for Ukrainian non-governmental organizations, and a network was established between the organizations of these two countries to enhance cooperation. For example, during the first day of the forum, the participants had the opportunity to speak with Jakub Wygnanski, the president of the Polish Forum of Non-Governmental Initiatives; Pyotr Macijaszek, director of the Initiative for Cooperation: Poland-America-Ukraine; and Monika Agopsowicz, director of the Centers of Pluralism program of the Institute of Democracy in Eastern Europe (IDEE).

The forum also included an exhibition-fair of social programs and literature about public organizations. The Lev Association, the West Ukrainian Center of Resources (Lvov), the Center of Innovations and Developments (Kiev), the Center of Philanthropy (Kiev), the Fund for Education for Democracy (Poland), the Institute of Democracy in East Europe -- IDEE (Poland), the Crimean-Tatar Initiative (Simferopol), the Freedom House (Kiev), the "Hurt" Resource Center, the Ekoprognosis (Kiev), the ISAR (Kiev), the Institute of Civic Society (Kiev), the Institute of Statehood and Democracy (Kiev), and many other Ukrainian and foreign public organizations presented their printed materials here. Terry Lerry, the general director of Counterpart Alliance, familiarized the representatives of non-governmental organizations with the directions of its activities in Ukraine. Jack McDonald from the Calgary University delivered a report on the "third sector of Canada."

The second day of the forum was devoted to work in sections on: cooperation among non-governmental organizations, local government institutions, and the mass media, and business; legal aspects of activities of non-governmental organizations; environmental aspects of activities of non-governmental organizations; the problems of the young people in the activities of non-governmental organizations; the cooperation between non-governmental organizations and the education sector; the problems of women in the activities of non-governmental organizations; activities of non-governmental organizations in the social sphere; activities of non-governmental organizations in the sphere of building the democratic society; activities of non-governmental organizations which work in the sphere of building the infrastructure of the "third sector"; and the creation of the Western Ukrainian identity.  During the forum, the participants were asked which issues were the most topical for public organizations (see results of the poll at the end of the article).

Even though the work of Ukrainian non-governmental organizations is still at the beginning stages, it is worth stressing that precisely public organizations, not political parties, began and in fact carried out the Ukrainian "velvet revolution" in 1989-1990 which resulted in Ukraine’s independence. With the establishment of statehood, a true boom began in the creation of public organizations dealing with different forms of activities. For example, if back in 1991, only 319 of the currently operating non-governmental organizations were registered, in early 1998, their number went up to 17,781 organizations. Does this imply that one can say boldly that the civic sector in Ukraine is being effectively and quickly set up? Not at all. There are several reasons for this.

Some of these reasons are connected with the "third sector" itself: they lack financing, experience, and qualified staff. Other reasons are directly connected with society in which the "third sector" functions. First, social activity of the Ukrainian society, in general, is quite low.  In addition, the number of those who take active part in public life, compared with, for example, the early 1990s, has decreased significantly. Second, today in Ukraine the authorities and the public do not pay attention to  the activities of non-governmental organizations. Over the past few years, old stereotypes established in the public conscience and several new stereotypes emerged which have impacted the attitude toward public organizations. One of the most popular stereotypes is an almost unconscious association of the activities of non-governmental organizations with protest actions, meetings and pickets. This stereotype was formed during the "velvet revolution" when the demand of the time and the situation public organizations chose precisely this form of participation in social activities. The "green light" for the emergence of another stereotype was given by non-governmental organizations themselves which sometimes discredited the definition of a "public organization" and worked to satisfy their own private, not public, needs.
 
Precisely for this reason, representatives of public organizations try to change public opinion through their daily activities. They also want to exert an impact on government structures because the effective work of non-governmental organizations depends on having a favorable legislation environment which will allow ordinary citizens to better understand the role of the third sector in the development of democratic society.

The First Forum of Public Initiatives, held in 1997, formulated several demands which still remain unmet: the simplification of the registration and reporting of non-governmental organizations; granting them an opportunity to deal with commercial activities, the profits from which would be channeled to the development of non-governmental organizations; and the division of organizations into those which work to satisfy their own needs and those which primarily handle the needs of society. And although the Parliament of Ukraine plans to consider an appropriate draft law soon, no one has asked the opinion of non-governmental organizations on the essence of this document.

An important demand of the First Forum was that local self-government authorities allow some work to be performed by non-governmental organizations. The experience of other countries proves that non-governmental organizations are able to perform such contracts better than state structures and the costs are much cheaper. For example, Great Britain saves up to 15 percent of its budget by delegating the fulfillment of a range of social contracts to public organizations. One can only imagine what this share of saved money could give to the poor Ukrainian budget. The adoption of a draft law on the state social contract which is currently being drafted will hardly help to resolve this issue quickly because it is very difficult to convince a local "self-government" official and this requires specific expenditures.

Vasyl Poluyko, the president of the Western Ukrainian Center Resources Center, noted that there is an obvious improvement only in the sphere of education, which was the final demand of the previous forum. The number of educational institutions where social workers and managers for non-governmental organizations are trained is increasing. This is a good sign  because the lack of professional leadership is also one of the most serious problems that Ukrainian non-governmental organizations face.

Compared with 1997, the Second Forum of Public Initiatives set much more pragmatic goals for itself. It is too early to speak about concrete results or about the impact on the further development of events. However, it is still necessary to generalize and analyze the proposals put forward by 12 working sections and reports delivered by the guests of the forum. From this, it can only be said that representatives of public organizations shared their experience and established new contacts. But the fact that Ukrainian non-governmental organizations are trying to independently resolve their problems and try (with smaller or greater success) to exert an impact on the power structures in order to force them to recognize the non-governmental organizations as a full-fledged subject of public life instills us with optimism.