Today, January 20, 2016, during a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, the Ministry of Information Policy of Ukraine presented the Concept of the Government Communication Reform.
Yurii Stets: “MIP is committed to reform the system of the government communication, the implementation of which would improve dialogue with the society and form understanding and support of the government reforms”.
Advisor to the Minister on strategic communications Alina Frolova, presenting the Concept, noted that the proposed structure meets the best European practices. In the process of developing of the document, the Government communication activity was audited, more than 500 pages of data were processed, about 12 communications systems of other governments were considered and the experience of those, which is the most relevant to current challenges was involved. Conclusion is that the Government communication system needs a complete reboot.
“The structure that has been formed for decades, and was inherited by the Government, is obsolete and is not fulfilling its main objectives. It must be reformed, because we have to inform not only the population but also to build a dialogue and get feedback”, – said Advisor during the presentation.
The Concept plans to put the management of the government communications at the Prime Minister level, to declare the communication as one of the strategic functions of the government, to establish a separate Government communication office.
“The role of the Ministry of information policy of Ukraine is to creation conditions for formation of competitive and independent information space of Ukraine, protection of information space of the state. In turn, the Government communication office should deal with a communication support for reforms and activities of the Government”, – said Advisor.
The main result of the implementation of reform should become an increased level of public confidence in the government’s actions that will reduce risks of disturbance of people concerning the results of the reforms. And the Government communication will become professional and ethical.
After the presentation, the Minister Yurii Stets said that the funds for the implementation of the government communication reform will be raised with the help of donor organizations and States-partners of Ukraine.
In turn, the Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk noted the importance of such reform and expressed support for its implementation.
Note that the Concept of the Government Communication Reform was developed on the initiative of MIP with the participation of the Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, a group of independent experts and with the support of the UK government.