MILTON KEYNES, United Kingdom -– Developed by the Ministry of Digital Transformation (MDT) with support from USAID and launched in February 2020, Diia, the Ukrainian app fighting poverty, was created to be an easy-to-use app that would connect Ukrainians with their government and help make Ukraine a digitally advanced society during peacetime.
Connection With the Ukrainian Government
The app provides over 120 government services which originally centered around official administrative tasks such as registering births or renewing passports but has now been re-focused to help Ukrainians cope with the ongoing Russian invasion and to help alleviate war-induced poverty, which increased from 5.5% to 24.2% in 2022.
For example, Diia now offers the ability for Ukrainians to apply for funds and financial support to repair damaged buildings or aid small businesses, with nearly 1 million war bonds already having been purchased according to the Deputy Prime Minister of the MDT and face of Diia, Mykhailo Federov.
It also allows the creation of digital evacuation documents, which make getting through identification checkpoints easier and quicker. These features will drastically help those suffering from war-induced poverty in Ukraine and hopefully facilitate a faster recovery if or when the war comes to an end.
Furthermore, the Ukrainian app fighting poverty enables a closer link between the public and the government and also greater transparency. The ease of access and the visibility that the digital app provides on government policy allows Ukrainians to view and assess the performance of their government officials and thus also to hold them to account. The app can also provide a digital trail of official documents and funds distributed, which makes it an excellent anti-corruption tool and ensures that money is being spent on the areas that matter most.
This digital trail and transparency have also been paramount in securing international investment and support, claims Administrator Samantha Power of USAID, such as the $15 billion committed by the US Congress to USAID and Ukraine. The resulting transparency means that international aid programs can have confidence that the funds raised are being spent appropriately and not being impacted by corruption.
How Can This Technology Help Everywhere?
Following Diia’s successes, USAID has now launched a partnership with the Ukrainian government to help create similar apps for other nations, such as Colombia, Kosovo and Zambia.
This effort will help these nations digitize their own economies, which should bring all the same benefits that Diia has to Ukraine, such as increased participation in politics, reduction of corruption and the improved efficacy of democracy.
Diia has also been used to bring radio and television to Ukrainians during blackouts caused by bombings.
This access to information could also be hugely useful to other nations with unreliable access to electricity and thus could help to address poverty that way.
Another key benefit brought by Diia has been the much-improved understanding of what citizens require from their public services due to the digital app providing a means of constant communication between citizens and the state. This enhanced understanding should help all other governments developing similar apps to design more specific and informed policies to benefit their citizens.
What Is Needed?
Mykhailo Fedorov has articulated how Diia must be constantly monitored and adjusted in the face of events and what the nation is facing, as has been done twice — once when faced with COVID-19 in organizing mass vaccinations and now to help alleviate the burdens caused by the Russian invasion. The government must approach adapting the Ukrainian app to fight poverty strategically and also listen to and engage with the public to use the app to address their needs.
Putting the “state in a smartphone” also raises several privacy concerns both from domestic agents or from overseas and while Federov has assured that data is stored separately and not on the app itself, the constant monitoring of cybersecurity will be vital for the app’s ability to bring the benefits experienced thus far. This has been a priority from the beginning and something that the US has been supporting the Ukrainian government with since 2014.
– Saul Gunn
Photo: Flickr