Why Ukraine is one of the most digital countries in the world (and how he achieved it despite pandemic and war)

The idea was that citizens could access everything they needed from their mobile phones: driver's licenses, marriage certificates, property deeds and much more.

They began with driving licenses in 2019, which were very popular; Shortly after, the Diaia application received an impulse during the pandemic, when Covid certificates were added.

“This was perhaps two or three million more,” says Bornykov.

Despite the war, Diaia has continued to develop.

At present, the application houses 40 government services, including tax payment, car registration and marriage applications.

Perhaps the funniest thing is that Ukrainians can make local selections for Eurovision through the application, including the selection of the members of the national jury and the election of the national representative.

In addition, there are 30 documents available in the application; Bornykov showed me some of his, including his weapons license and car insurance.

There is also a Diia portal, which can be accessed through a computer browser, which has 130 services for citizens and companies.

In total DIIA has 22.7 million users.

All this, according to Bornyakov, makes Ukraine one of the leading countries in the field of digital government services, which, in his opinion, places the country ahead of Estonia, known for his digital government.

“I have not seen anyone better than us, except perhaps Saudi Arabia, and this is related both to the number of users and the focus.”

How could Ukraine achieve such advances, despite the disorders caused by COVID-19 and in the middle, during the last three years, of the fight against Russian invaders?

Part of this is having the right workforce, according to Bornyakov.

He says that during the last 20 years Ukraine has been a popular destination for companies that seek to outsource IT projects.

Calculate that in Ukraine there are 300,000 developers of softwaremany of which have worked on complex projects for large international companies.

“There are many technical and experienced engineers who can do bright things,” he says.

In addition, they are not as expensive as in other parts of the world. Therefore, it estimates that between 5 and ten million dollars were spent on the development of DIIA.

Hire developers of software In the United Kingdom, for example, it would cost five or ten times more, he says.

David Eaves is an associate professor of digital government at the University College in London and has studied the efforts of governments around the world to digitize their services.

He states that the key to Ukraine's success was the work prior to the development of the application.

Using a software Similar to Estonia, Ukraine created a data exchange system that facilitated the flow of information between government departments and organizations.

Then, the DIIA application was added to the data exchange.

“If you have this flexibility to move data, it is much easier to create new services, because instead of asking citizens, the same information over and over again, they can simply be asked for permission to access it,” says Eaves.

In this way, when requesting a benefit, users will not have to re -enter their address, place of birth and marital status, and their income may be collated with their tax records.

This not only reduces administrative burden, but it means that the government does not have to design a system to collect, store and process this information again.

That flexibility allowed Ukraine to add new services to face war challenges.

“In fact, we have introduced around 15 different services related to war,” says Bornyakov.

For example, users can request compensation if their properties were damaged or destroyed. Or inform about the location of Russian troops through the application.

Eaves points out that the Ukraine War with Russia has driven the government to modernize.

“When you are at war foot, there is a feeling of urgency. The urgency of providing the service becomes more important than the rules that sometimes make bureaucracy difficult,” he says.

This positions Ukraine among countries that lead the effort to digitize government services, according to Eaves.

Consider that Denmark is probably leading the way with a solid infrastructure, a range of services and a well -designed user interface.

Ukraine is developing artificial intelligence systems that, according to Bornyakov, have the potential to facilitate interaction with the government.

He sees the guide to the user through the different steps to get what he wants.

“We want to redefine the approach to government services,” he says.

But, although Eaves is struck by the possibility of AI in government services, he recommends caution.

Developers must be sure to have reliable data to train the AI ​​and then ensure that the system can learn what the right answers are.

AI is like having a Ferrari.

You can do incredible things, but you better have good roads, because it is very difficult to drive a Ferrari on a dirt road.

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