Education in Government Communications: Case of Ukraine

The article highlights building prerequisites that help to tackle problems related to the insufficient government communications and poor information provided to potential audiences in participatory democracies. The analysis has shown that many counties face the lack of strategic communications (both horizontal and vertical) and thus, create concerns about misunderstanding and bottlenecks in design and implementation of public policies. This problem expands when countries undergo rapid, systemic, fundamental changes, in particular due to the energy transition. Ukraine is not an exemption. Lack of real competition between MPA programs, pre-service and in-service training programs for public servants in Ukraine and poor quality of programs leave a niche for educational institutions to take the leading position. Hence, Kyiv Mohyla School of Governance (hereinafter – KMSGov) launched very specific and need oriented MPA program in Government Communications. The program was designed in close cooperation with Ukrainian public authorities and become client oriented. The program is innovative and one of a kind due to its integrity and consistency. It is student-centered and widely uses case studies, simulations and PBL techniques. In addition, the program consists of logically interconnected courses, which complement each other and provide broad pattern of particularities of evidence-based public policy design and implementation, public administration and management theory and practice, modern features of government communications and policy advocacy. Due to COVID restrictions and worldwide lockdown the Government Communication MPA program provided by KMSGov was fully transferred into on-line format without losing its quality. It became possible due modern information and communication technologies (tested in February-July 2020). The paper provides brief overview and main results of the analysis of the existing MPA programs and key particularities of the newly launched program