Open air free discussion – a unique dialogue festival ‘DumkoFest.Anticorruption’

The festival ‘DumkoFest. Anticorruption’ was held on September 23, 2018 in Kyiv’s Shevchenko park. This is the platform for open discussions, which brought together Kyiv’s citizens and guests, opinion leaders, representatives of non-governmental organizations, international and Ukrainian organizations, and journalists.

The main topics of discussion were the issues on how to prevent and overcome corruption and achieve success without bribes. Everyone, irrespective of the position and employment, could join the discussions.

The festival began with a briefing with the participation of Artem Sytnyk, the Director of NABU, Marcus Brand, Head of Democratic Governance Program, UNDP, and Eka Tkeshelashvili, the Head of the EU Anti-Corruption Initiative in Ukraine (EUACI).

Director of NABU Artem Sytnyk opened the Festival: ‘Such events as DumkoFest give the opportunity to tell people what’s happening in Ukraine, in particular in the anti-corruption reform’. He also called on the citizens to join discussions and expressed his gratitude to the international partners for their help in organizing the festival.

According to Eka Tkeshelashvili, the head of the EU Anti-Corruption Initiative in Ukraine (EUACI), society should also take part in the fight against corruption: ‘Ukraine’s success depends on success in combating corruption and establishing the rule of law. Equality of every person before the law should become regular. Thus, every citizen should have equal conditions for self-realization’.

In his turn, Head of Democratic Governance Program, UNDP Marcus Brand has noted that there are active citizens in Ukraine who are ready to unite for anti-corruption activities: ‘I have been working in Ukraine for many years and I have always been struck by the voice of public activists, especially young people who are involved in discussions. But we should remember that the fight against corruption is not only the role of special institutions, such as NABU. The Bureau is a kind of ‘fire brigade’, which acts if something goes wrong. But in reality, society needs to accept the idea of integrity. And this requires active society and participation of everyone. Integrity means that you do what is right even when nobody is looking. Integrity means that you make decisions based on your values, and not for your own gain’.

During ‘DumkoFest. Anticorruption’ there were two stages working in parallel – the main one and the one for the youth. Among the topics that were discussed there were:

- Anticorruption Cuisine. Recipe for Ukraine. Yurii Marchenko, Artem Sytnyk, Eka Tkeshelashvili and Dmytro Borysov took part in the discussion. The participants have given their opinions on  the possibilities for Ukraine to reach the first ranking positions among the countries with the lowest level of corruption and tried to create the recipe for the country’s success.

- Digital in fighting corruption. At the youth stage participants discussed fight with corruption without leaving home, with only a laptop and internet access. Participants: Denys Bihus, Serhii Milman, Nadiia Babynska.

- Reforms and corruption. What prevents Ukraine from success? During this discussion the participants  described successful cases and the lessons of anti-corruption struggle, which Ukraine should learn. Participants: Borys Davydenko, Inna Borzylo, Artem Bidenko, Svitlana Musyiaka, Inga Vyshnevska, Oksana Velychko, Roman Vybranovsky.

- How to succeed without corruption? In this discussion, successful Ukrainians under 30 years shared their recipes of success without corruption. Participants: Vladyslav Greziev, Illia Filipov, Valeriia Yegoshyna, NABU Detective, Iryna Lytovchenko, Iryna Shyba.

- Who leads the fight against corruption? During the discussions, participants talked on whom to trust in the fight against corruption and why citizens do not believe the law enforcement officers, but trust journalists and activists. Participants: Dmytro Boyarchuk, Oleksandr Marikovskyi, Volodymyr Petrakovskyi, Ivan Omelian, NABU Detective.

- Myths about corruption. NABU Detective, Dmytro Yablonsky, Yaroslava Kravchenko and Vitaliy Ustimenko together with the guests of the festival destroyed the most popular myths about corruption.

All the guests of the festival participated in interactive polls deciding who is the most effective in combating corruption and whether it is possible to counteract corruption personally.

Also, people talked to the journalists-investigators and civic activists on the Alley of NGOs.

Organizers of ‘DumkoFest. Anticorruption’ festival: NABU with financial and organization support of the United Nations Development Program in Ukraine, EU Anti-Corruption Initiative in Ukraine, Estonian Center for Eastern Partnership.