USAID will help Ukraine bring its e-governance app to other countries

The United States Agency for International Development will help expand an e-governance app and digital platform it has supported in Ukraine to other countries, the agency announced Wednesday. Diia is a mobile application and online portal that has helped Ukrainians to engage with a range of government services using their smartphones — from applying for benefits to providing identification and digital signatures, to accessing humanitarian aid and critical services. Launched in early 2020, the app is now used by more than 18.5 million people, or more than half the adult population in Ukraine, according to Ukrainian officials. USAID Administrator Samantha Power met with Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov at the World Economic Forum Annual Meetings this week in Davos, Switzerland, where she announced the agency’s plans to provide $650,000 to encourage the adoption of e-governance systems such as Diia beyond Ukraine’s borders. Power has said before that she sees Diia as an example of how technology that is well-designed, accessible, and focused on people’s needs can save lives. “We all know that famous saying: there’s an app for everything. Well, it turns out that there’s even an app for enduring a war,” she said at the Global Digital Development Forum last year. “Diia is an app that was originally designed to simplify bureaucracy. Today, the Ukrainian Government has repurposed it for wartime.” The app is part of a digital transformation effort in Ukraine that predated the war and remains a priority for the country’s government. USAID has supported Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation to develop Diia and strengthen its cybersecurity. Since Russia’s invasion last February, it’s helped the government to expand its services, including emergency funds and government assistance. In Davos, Power called Diia an example of how countries around the world can develop effective digital transformation strategies. Ukraine has already begun to share the technology with other countries, and Estonia is the furthest along, according to a USAID press release. Speaking about Diia in Davos, Power said she sees USAID’s support of the platform as part of a larger effort to leverage technology to support democratic reform.