June 14, 2019 — The Prometheus civic platform for online education is offering free-of-charge registration and the chance to obtain a certificate for passing the “Interaction between State Agencies and Public" online course. The purpose of the course is to familiarize specialists from state agencies with modern principles, standards, mechanisms and tools for interacting with the public, as well as to develop their skills in planning and implementing public relations campaigns, as well as evaluating their effectiveness.

The course targets public servants from subdivisions of state agencies who interact with the public in the course of their activities, as well as representatives of civil society organizations, researchers, and other interested persons.

 “The effective implementation of reforms requires well-established communications between the public authorities and the media,” says course developer Natalia Baldych, assistant professor of the Department of Economic Policy and Governance of the National Academy of Public Administration under the President of Ukraine. “Indeed, informing people about the successful course of reforms is a prerequisite for increasing public trust in state institutions, which is essential in the context of the transformation processes in Ukraine. By taking the course, the relevant specialists will receive innovative knowledge about improving their interaction with the public and the media, and will be able to apply these new skills in their daily work.”

The course structure includes four modules in the format of video lectures, participation in discussion forums, and interactive test assignments. The duration of the course is four weeks.

 “For this we focus on many aspects: institutional, procedural issues, practices and results. We hope that the course “Interaction between State Agencies and Public" will be a step forward towards improving the interaction between public authorities and the media.”

The course was developed within the framework of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) project “Supporting Civil Service Reform by Enhancing Civil Society-Government Cooperation in Ukraine”, which is being implemented in partnership with the National Agency for Civil Service and the Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, with financial support of the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The opinions, conclusions and recommendations expressed in the course are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the positions of UNDP, the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the National Agency of Ukraine on the Civil Service, or the Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.

Media Requests:

Yulia Samus, Communications Specialist, UNDP, yuliia.samus@undp.org

"Interaction between State Agencies and Public" online course