What can the EU learn from Ukraine’s digital transformation?

Last week, the European Commission published enlargement reports - progress and priorities for candidate countries, including Ukraine. 

The EU granted Ukraine candidate status in June 2022, and in November 2023, the Commission recommended initiating accession negotiations with Ukraine.

Candidate countries must adopt many legislative amendments to align their legal and public administration systems with the EU’s, as well as demonstrate progress in various areas such as the rule of law, public administration efficiency, the "ability to assume the obligations of membership" and more.

Currently, Ukraine ranks #30 in the United Nation’s E-government development index, outranking 13 EU Member States such as Croatia, Slovenia, France, Greece, Poland, Cyprus, Portugal, Italy, Bulgaria, Belgium, Hungary, Slovakia and Romania. 

Soon, we’ll be able to match Ukraine’s digital transformation efforts against the EU’s more broadly - back in September 2023, Ukraine adopted the EU’s DESI Index methodology and started measuring its data accordingly.

Harmonization with EU laws may have both positive and negative effects on the speed (and form) of digital transformation in Ukraine (f.e. EU’s data privacy rules), and we certainly hope it doesn’t affect Ukraine’s speed. In this article, we took a look at the best initiatives the EU can take from Ukraine. Based on our subjective view, of course. 

E-government super app Diia 

Ukraine’s poster child - e-government app Diia, was recently listed as one of the best inventions of 2024 by TIME magazine. 

The super app is currently being used by every fourth Ukrainian, has more than 30 public services available, with 125+ more available on the web version of the app, including access to digital ID documents (from digital ID to foreign passport, driver’s license or vehicle registration certificates), business services (from starting a business to opening a bank account) or even going through a full cycle of marriage process online. 

While implementation of similar projects is never easy, especially for countries ‘blessed’ with many dysfunctional legacy systems, the Ukrainian Ministry of Digital Transformation says they’re reengineering many processes to enable an integrated, mobile-first e-government experience for Ukrainian citizens. 

Practically speaking, Ukraine has managed to achieve tangible results the EU is still working on through the EU Digital Identity Wallet (part of broader European Digital Identity Regulation) and Single Digital Gateway (part of broader Single Digital Gateway Regulation), enabling citizens to prove their identity online and offline, travel with digital documents, access public services and more. 

Cloud actions that saved Ukraine’s e-continuity 

Another example of a practical digital transformation approach the EU (especially its Eastern flank) should learn from is cloud policy. 

Ukraine, in anticipation of Russian aggression back in February 2022, migrated state-owned data (think: records, archives, registers, and other data) to global cloud services providers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and more.

Previously, the majority of such data was stored in state-owned, on-premise data centers, which were subject to very real physical threats from Russia. If it hadn’t been for this action, the continuity of Ukrainian government functions would have been reduced immensely. 

As of January 2024, the Ministry of Digital Transformation is now responsible for shaping cloud policy. 

While the EU’s policymakers and practitioners seem to remain realistic regarding the current status quo of the use of global cloud services providers, Ukraine, if the accession negotiations are successful, will also become subject to broader EU regulation for cloud services and, subsequently, European sovereign cloud narratives. 

Building an army of Chief Digital Transformation leaders

No good policy will ever achieve significant results if we don’t have talented implementors. No good policy will ever be drafted without the involvement of talented practitioners for digital transformation. Lastly, the public sector will never be able to compete with the private sector in terms of compensation and opportunities, especially in the digital sector, therefore an ongoing search and continuous education for public sector talent is crucial. 

Ukraine has addressed the issue practically, and with the support of international partners, they started investing in their public sector employees’ education through CDTO Campus - a program for public sector employees, training them in various topics related to digital transformation, digital project management, and more. CDTO Campus website reads: 

“Our programs cover a broad spectrum of themes including digital strategy creation, practical aspects of digital infrastructure, development of digital education, building digital teams, and crafting individual solutions for organizations”

Moreover, the ‘CDTO university’ is available on a smartphone, making it easy to access and participate. 

While the EU Member States are certainly investing in the upskilling of their public sector, the processes remain fragmented, with knowledge often locked in within a very specific and limited circle of people. Ukraine’s CDTO Campus democratizes knowledge sharing among people of different levels of involvement, expanding the talent base and, eventually, streamlining the national processes, too. 

If I could copy only one idea from Ukraine, that would be it. 

Territorial digital transformation index

Speaking of digital transformation preparedness, the digital divide exists not only between different EU Member States (or countries, if we think globally) but also between municipal/territorial units within the country. 

The gaps between big (and rich) cities/municipalities are visible in virtually any country, with public budgets often spent on cemeteries’ records’ digitalization (no offense to the cause, it’s necessary but perhaps not the biggest priority) or local public administrations becoming subjects to bad actors who sometimes come with overinflated budgets, delayed or bad results which local public administrations are unable to address.

Ukraine has addressed the issue too - back in 2023, Ukraine started measuring the digital preparedness of their communities through ‘The territorial community digital transformation index’, identifying gaps and pushing local governments to adopt measures to change. 

Ukraine divides ‘territorial communities’ in size, has 65-78 numbers of indicators to assess digital transformation preparedness in 1) digital economy intensity level, 2) digital skills, 3) digital infrastructure level, 4) digitalization of public services, and  5) digital transformation of local governments areas. 

Citizen-friendly policy communication

If you ever speak to Ukrainians and ask their opinion on the best initiatives by the Ukrainian government, 9 out of 10 times, you will hear the Ministry of Digital Transformation mentioned, along with Diia and other projects.

Ukraine’s digital transformation is undoubtedly a path that Ukrainians follow, value, and understand, as government initiatives offer a well-balanced mix of high-level and practical solutions that are communicated effectively.

Timely and engaging communication about digital transformation initiatives is certainly something the EU Member States can learn from.