Announcing the All-Ukrainian campaign Integrity Icon Ukraine, the project team worked to inspire civil society to launch a national movement to honor honest people working in areas of high corruption risks: medicine, education, law enforcement, customs, other public authorities and local governments.
As the national discourse on corruption is largely negative, it was decided to change the scenario, shifting the emphasis from “naming and shaming” corrupt leaders and towards “naming and faming” those public officials that are working with integrity to deliver and build honest public services in Ukraine.
The campaign was implemented between January – December 2020 and created a platform to celebrate civil servants and public service providers, who in their work are not limited to their direct job responsibilities, but do even more:
- educators who, in addition to quality teaching of their subject, educate a new generation of integral citizens;
- medical workers who oppose corruption;
- police officers who insist on transparency and the rule of law;
- officials who care about the most efficient use of resources;
- employees of city services that implement quality services to city residents.
The campaign focused on role models and tried to generate extraordinary ideas to increase professional responsibility and further disseminate them in Ukraine. By consciously emphasizing positive conversations about values and glorifying integral people, participants identified new, social norms and standards that should gradually bring about the desired changes in the minds of people working in public institutions and in society at large.
As part of the campaign, the organizers encouraged Ukrainian journalists to promote the non-corruption of people who work in good faith in areas with a high risk of corruption. During the year, published materials testified the integrity of honest public officials, which went beyond their immediate responsibilities, touched on the level of potential corruption temptations, highlighted the impact of those individuals on strengthening the integrity, legality and non-corruption in their organizations. However, such materials, unfortunately, did not appear so often.
About a hundred persons were nominated for the Integrity Icon Ukraine 2020 award. After carefully reviewing the submitted applications, the Campaign Advisory Board selected five winners. In order to present the results of the selection to a wide audience, short documentaries were made about each and everyone, which can be viewed below:
Victoria Baltser, Secretary of the Voznesensk municipality.
Nina Vorokh, Chairwoman of Mykhailo-Kotsyubynska OTG (Chernihiv Region).
Vladimir Guslyakov, Deputy Chief Physician of the Nemyriv City Center for Primary Health Care.
Dmytro Koshka, Senior Lecturer of the Department of Ecology at the Dnipro Polytechnic University.
Diana Taranyuk, Family doctor of the State Medical Center for Primary Health Care in Kyiv.
The Integrity Icon Ukraine campaign has become part of the global movement Integrity Icon and was carried out in partnership with the Accountability Lab (USA), which encourages public administration systems to work in the interests of the people. The organization creates a new generation of active citizens and responsible leaders around the world, supports change agents in developing and implementing positive ideas to enhance community integrity, and thus opens up new opportunities for positive social and economic change.
The project was realised with the support from the Embassy of the Kingdoms of the Netherlands in Ukraine and the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation.
