On 21 September 2023, the first Integrity Forum for public servants and local self-government officials in Ukraine was launched. The event was held within the framework of the Richelieu Forum on Public Service.
During the Forum, speakers and participants discussed international and national trends in public service integrity, priorities and challenges. They discussed how integrity can be promoted through responsible leadership.
In her speech, Yuliia Lykhach, Director of the High School, shared the experience of the School in building a culture of integrity through training of public servants.
“Integrity is one of the important components of the High School’s Development Strategy,” the Director emphasised, “so this element is a systemic part of all study programmes. We develop integrity training programmes with international partners and in cooperation with the NABU, NAPC, and other law enforcement agencies, and focus on the practical needs of a specific target audience.”
It should be noted that the High School is the only educational institution that trains authorised persons in the prevention and detection of corruption. In 2023, it is planned to train 340 such specialists.
Starting in October, an educational course on the role of a manager in building an integrity environment of an organisation, defined by the Anti-Corruption Programme and developed by the High School together with the NACP, will be launched for public servants of category A.
The High School, in cooperation with the NACP and the VzaimoDiia project, also implements the following professional development programmes:
Integrity issues are studied in separate modules in the programmes:
” ‘Professional development of trainers and improvement of their coaching skills is also important to us,’ said Yuliia Lykhach, ‘so in cooperation with the MATRA programme ‘Good Governance and Integrity in the Public Sector in Ukraine’, supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Hague Academy of Local Government, we have trained 20 trainers on promoting integrity in the public service. We also updated the online course “Integrity of Public Servants in the Exercise of Their Duties” and the manual “Promoting Integrity and Good Governance. Reflections and Best Practices for Public Institutions”.
The issue of integrity covers all areas of public relations, so the experience of our international colleagues – partners, projects, schools of public administration – is very important. We hope that our cooperation in promoting the values of public integrity will continue to be fruitful, and that it will result in new curricula, online courses and educational films,” the Director of the High School summed up.