Over the next two years, the Tallinn-based e-Governance Academy will assume a lead role in creating a data exchange and information system in Ukraine, enabling up to 600 local service centres in the country to provide up-to-date public services to the people by exchanging information with national central registries.
The cost of the data exchange and information system to be set up is €5.7 million and the funding comes from the EU, the Swedish government and the Estonian ministry of foreign affairs. Ukraine’s counterpart in this project is the State Agency of e-Governance.
According to Hannes Astok, the director for development and strategy at the e-Governance Academy, the project is the most ambitious yet undertaken by the organisation in terms of its financial volume as well as scope.
“We will start the project by mapping existing services and databases and procuring a data exchange system to provide Ukraine with an efficient and secure method for cross-usage of data. Developing e-services will help the Ukrainian government reduce red tape – citizens will not have to submit the same data repeatedly. It will also mitigate the risk of corruption – due to data processing and other actions of the state becoming more transparent,” Astok said in a statement.
Ukraine’s decentralisation effort
Creating up to 600 service centres is part of Ukraine’s decentralisation effort, which involves central authorities delegating duties to the local level. It is planned that as many as 70 public services will be available in Ukraine in a fully electronic format upon the project’s completion in 2020.
The e-Governance Academy has supported Ukraine’s efforts towards e-governance since 2012. Previously, its experts have helped Ukraine prepare policy papers, support the development of a document exchange system and create e-services for local governments in Western Ukraine.
The e-Governance Academy is a consultancy organisation and think tank founded for the creation and transfer of knowledge and best practices concerning e-governance, e-democracy, cyber security and open information societies. Since 2002, the organisation has trained more than 3,000 officials from more than 50 countries and has led or participated in more than 60 international development projects on the national, local and organisational levels.
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Cover: Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, at night.
