Diia.Digital State is the largest-scale digital project in Ukraine today, which we are carrying out jointly with the Ministry of Digital Transformation. Its goal is to make it easy and transparent for individuals and business to communicate with their government.
To transform Ukraine into a digital state, many services still need to be digitized, the legal framework needs to be updated, the work of state registries needs to be streamlined, and technological capabilities and data protection need to be ensured. These changes will affect not only administrative services but also such sectors as healthcare, business, education, transport, the court system, issues related to democracy, and so on.
This initiative has led to the launch of the Diia government services portal. Diia, meaning “action”, is the access point to all public services that the government provides to individuals and businesses. Everything on this site is clear, quick and easy-to-understand. The services have been completely streamlined, the language is simple, and the interface is based on UX/UI design. MinDigit plans for 100% of government services to be accessible online by 2024. As of May 2020, the Diia system has already been visited by over 2.3 million users.
The concept of the digital state was preceded by the development of Diia as a national brand, which was also done with the support of the EGAP Program. The Diia brand stands for “the State and I” and is based on the contemporary idea that interactions between individuals and their government should be easy, understandable and quick. They should not waste time or energy, nor should they involve unnecessary dealings with bureaucrats, which is a great way to cut out corruption.
In support of the Digital Transformation Ministry’s goal of helping 6 million Ukrainians develop good digital competence by 2023, we jointly carried out the first-ever study of digital literacy among Ukrainians.
Presented at the end of 2019, the results shows that 53% of Ukrainians already have some digital competence, but below the basic level. Another 37.9% have very low competence, while 15.1% have no digital skills at all.
Younger Ukrainians, age 10-17, showed the highest levels of competence, with 61.6% registering as “higher than average”.
As the basis for determining the level of digital competence, we used the methodology of the European Commission, DigComp 2.0. Digital competence covers four parameters: information and communication skills — which are the most developed among Ukrainians, both at over 70%, according to the survey —, the ability to solve problems online, and the search for information in the Internet.
Altogether, the study involved:
All the results of this research can be found here
The results were used as the basis for the National Online Digital Literacy Platform called Diia.Digital Education, presented on January 21, 2020.
Together with the Ministry of Digital Transformation, we participated in developing and launching the National Online Digital Literacy Platform called Diia.Digital Education. The purpose of this project is to teach digital competence to at least six million Ukrainians by 2023.
Our key target groups are:
An innovative form of educational “serials” has been chosen for the learning process: instead of lessons, series, and instead of grades, seasons. The project has invited both expert instructors and Ukrainian celebrities whom people are used to seeing on TV and who will entertain, keep the dialog moving, tell jokes and improvise.
On the Diia.Digital Education platform, anyone who is interested can find, among others, such educational serials as:
All educational serials are free of charge. New specialized and niche courses for business professionals, lifestyle courses, and courses in new digital careers will be available through the online platform nearly every month. At the end of every course, participants can take a final test and get a certificate confirming that they have passed successfully.
As of 1 January 2021, the Diia.Digital Education platform has seen 400,000 users take its courses.
To lighten the first few days of parenthood, the EGAP Program has worked with the Ministry of Digital Transformation to set up an innovative government service called eBaby, which allows parents to arrange for 10 services with a single application.
Previously, getting all these services required the parents to go to some 11 different agencies, collect up to 37 documents, and waste nearly 10 days in the process. eBaby is a service that encompasses all the services connected to the birth of a child in a single application that can be submitted in the maternity ward, the CNAP, or the State Registry of Civil Status.
eBaby includes:
Within four months of the launch of the project, more than 3,000 families to whom a new child was born made use of eBaby services. By the end of the year, this service will be available to all Ukrainians on the government services portal Diia.
The commercial about eBaby service.
Starting your own business has never been easier. In 2017, together with the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine and the State Agency for E-Governance — now the Ministry of Digital Transformation —, we launched the online registration of individual entrepreneurs or FOPs. As of April 2020, this registration can be done on the Diia platform in 10 minutes.
Registering a new entrepreneur is one indicator of a growing economy. On average, about 26,000 FOP are registered every month. In 2019, the number of registered FOP in Ukraine approached 2 million.
Status as a FOP has a number of advantages: self-employment, a choice of many areas of activity, a flexible schedule, and working in the legal economy. Most importantly, it’s a great way to fulfill your professional dreams and visions.
What you need to do
Since 2017, some 80,000 Ukrainians have taken advantage of registering a FOP in through the online Palace of Justice.
In April 2020, the EGAP Program, together with the Ministry of Digital Transformation, transferred the registration and closure of FOPs to the Diia portal, simplifying registration at the same time. Instead of 58 fields in the application form, there are now only 12 and autofill works as well. Setting up as a FOP includes not just the registration of an individual entrepreneur, but the registration of a payer of the unified tax and VAT as well, all through the same application.
This and dozens of other services are accessible on the Government Portal and the Diia platform, your one-stop-shop for individual or business communication with the government.
Video of the “E-services” component Coordinator Oleksii Zelivianskyi about one-time financial assistance to FOP (individual entrepreneur) and employees.
Business is a country’s economic DNA. That’s why, together with the Ministry of Justice and the State Agency for E-Governance — now the Ministry of Digital Transformation —, we streamlined the process of doing business by setting up online registration of a limited company or TOV. Since 2019, it takes only a few clicks to set up a company or to make changes to its statutory documents.
A limited liability company or TOV is the most common form of doing business in Ukraine, covering 76% of all legal entities. The online system for registering a TOV provides boilerplate statutes that can be purpose edited and submitted along with an application to use the simplified tax system and register as a payer of the value-added tax or VAT.
Both for newly registered and for existing TOVs, the model of governance, name, management, and type of activity, and the procedures for paying dividends, increasing statutory capital and convening shareholder meetings can all be selected remotely.
What you need to do
This and dozens of other services are accessible on the Government Portal and the Diia platform, your one-stop-shop for individual or business communication with the government.
A chatbot is like having an assistant in your pocket 24/7. The EGAP Program and the All-Ukrainian Charitable Foundation “The Right to protection” have developed a bot to help internally displaced persons (IDPs) and those wh o live in the occupied territories quickly and simply find answers to most of their urgent questions about situations that they are facing.
More than 1.5 million Ukrainians are internally displaced in Ukraine today — and as many live in the occupied territories. Every day, these people run into ongoing problems and complications, and often they have no idea where to turn for help — or to whom.
This chatbot makes it possible to get legal advice, to get the addresses of government agencies and organizations, to get samples of documents for various types of situations, and to submit an application online. This information helps avoid fakes and manipulations in the occupied territories.
As of December 2019, the bot has been operating full-time in Facebook. Given that not all users are active in this particular social network, the EGAP program and the All-Ukrainian Charitable Foundation “The Right to protection” joined forces in the summer of 2020 to develop a bot on the most popular mobile nets in Ukraine, Viber and Telegram.
Short instructions for users of the “Legal Beagle” chatbot for IDPs in Viber.
Short instructions for users of the “Legal Beagle” chatbot for IDPs in Telegram.
Digitizing services means saving time for both individuals and businesses, greater access and convenience — and the elimination of corruption in the process. The goal of this project is to make all administrative services transparent and accessible to every Ukrainian.
Digitalization makes it possible to equalize access for urban and rural residents, not only to administrative services but also to other key areas: education, safety, participatory government and budgets, and information about government spending. Every voter can influence the allocation of taxpayer money.
Digitalizing the oblasts means systematic efforts to plan strategic digitalization in a participatory fashion and to implement it together with the community, according to jointly established priorities. The goal of the EGAP Program is to improve the quality and accessibility of government services and to reach a new level of interaction between governments and their communities.
It’s in the oblasts that the effectiveness of the transformed system of government services will demonstrate the success of this large-scale initiative to institute e-government in Ukraine.
During the first phase of the EGAP Program, 2015-2019, we undertook a number of steps together with oblast state administrations (ODAs), local government agencies and community organizations;
For the second phase of the EGAP Program, 2019-2023, we have involved 40 competitively selected communities in five target oblasts. Working together with them, we are putting together digital success stories that are expected to attract even more oblasts to the digitalization process.
Together with the State Agency for E-Governance — now the Ministry of Digital Transformation —, we have placed all administrative services in a small “suitcase” that travels to people who, for health or other reasons, are unable to visit a СNAP personally.
Mobile suitcase is a compact but full-range working toolkit for the СNAP administrator. The mobile suitcase app allows an administrator to work off-site with an individual just the same as they would in their office.
Mobile suitcases bring administrative services to the elderly, the disabled, and those who are in the hospital or for other reasons cannot visit a СNAP in person.
The СNAP staffer’s secured “James Bond suitcase” is equipped with a laptop computer, 3G modem, compact printer, mini-scanner, power bank, and a POS terminal to receive documents and apply for administrative services at the applicant’s location. You can examine the suitcase here.
Mobile suitcases have been provided to 12 СNAPs in four oblasts where the EGAP Program is being implemented. During Q1 of 2020, they were used more than 130 times.
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