Creating risk-management possibilities for civil monitoring of the reconstruction in Ukraine

About the project:

To enhance possibilities of the civil society to exercise oversight over recovery processes, ToP has designed and is currently implementing the project of Creating risk-management possibilities for civil monitoring of the reconstruction in Ukraine. The Project sponsored by the USAID Support to Anti-Corruption Champion Institutions (SACCI) Program in Ukraine was launched in April 2023 and is expected to be completed by the end of 2023.

The idea is to incorporate a supplementary anti-corruption and risk management mechanism into the Big Recovery Portal (BRP) development of which is a part of a separate EU-backed project (Big Recovery Watchdog). [The Big Recovery Portal (BRP)](https://www.facebook.com/bigrecoveryportal) will collect data on recovery processes, their lifecycle, and financing and will present this information in a user-friendly and understandable way.

Civic engagement is critical for effective recovery spending. It is vital to provide civil society with digital instruments and data to engage in monitoring and controlling Ukraine’s recovery. This will help stakeholders manage the risks of corruption, fraud, and potential misuse of public and donor-provided funds; advocate for effectiveness, transparency, and accountability of the recovery; and, hence, build trust and cooperation among potential donors, investors, and the Ukrainian government.

The main goal of the Project is to strengthen transparency and accountability of future recovery initiatives by developing a risk-management methodology and Online module for risk management that will be further integrated into the BRP. The expected results are as follows:

* to develop a risk-management methodology to detect potentially risky or low-quality projects based on input from different pre-existing data systems (i.e. Prozorro, spending.gov.ua, Dozorro, Geoportal, RISE’s DRMS, etc.), CSOs, media reports, citizens, etc. This information may be used to identify risk levels of selected recovery projects to provide donors, anti-corruption bodies, journalists, and Ukrainian citizens with clear actionable information needed for further monitoring, improvement or investigation them.

* to implement the above methodology as an online tool for calculating, tracking, and comparing risk profiles of different reconstruction projects to prioritize and automate monitoring. The user will have the possibility to search for and review detailed information on specific objects, filter data by certain risk criteria, recalculate metrics at selected time intervals, receive alert notifications for risky procurements and other potentially risky developments, etc. The online module will provide properly visualized analytics to all key stakeholders (CSOs, journalists, anti-corruption activists, law enforcement bodies, NACP, etc.).

* to educate BRP users (especially CSOs, journalists, local community, anti-corruption/ law enforcement representatives) on the BPR risk-management and anti-corruption toolkit and mechanisms for corruption and other wrongdoing reporting.

To sum up, the project team will:

* Provide risk-management capabilities to identify potentially risky/underprepared reconstruction projects for further review or investigation, and

* Increase awareness within the CSO, media, local community, and anti-corruption/ law enforcement bodies on the BRP risk-management toolkit to ensure transparency and accountability.