The John Glenn School of Public Affairs' Parliamentary Development Project for Ukraine (PDP) has received a new $3 million contract from the U.S. Agency on International Development to continue its programs that teach democratic process and legislative reform through 2013.
Managed by the John Glenn School of Public Affairs, the PDP has been labeled as a “model program” and the USAID has recommended it be used as a template for other efforts to promote democracy around the globe.
Working out of its offices in Kiev and Crimea, the PDP will use this contract to continue its work developing programs that strengthen and develop the democratic policy making systems for executive and legislative branches of the Ukraine government including the regional parliament in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. The PDP will put special emphasis on efforts to increase transparency, responsiveness and public access to the Rada, the Ukraine parliament.
“This affords us the opportunity to help the Ukrainian government to institutionalize democratic practices that may be common in the West but are newly introduced in Ukraine,” said Dr. Charles Wise, the founding director of the Glenn School.
The Parliamentary Development Project began in 1994 and traces its roots to a 1991 visit by 14 Ukrainian delegates from its first-elected Parliament, when Ukraine was still a Republic of the Soviet Union. Wise orchestrated that visit to Indiana University, where he was a professor, and to Washington D.C. Other trips followed, and eventually the Parliament asked Wise to put together a program of on-site help. The USAID awarded a grant and the PDP was born.
Parliamentary Development Project for Ukraine awarded new $3 million contract
A new protocol of cooperation was signed between the Verkhovna Rada (the Ukraine parliament) and the PDP. Valentyn Zaichuk, the chairman of the Verkhovna Rada and Ellie Valentine, the director of Parliamentary Development of Ukraine, used Glenn School pens to sign the accord.
