Diia: Digital State

The Kitsoft company, commissioned by the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, developed the most powerful IT platform for state services — Diia. The portal provides more than 120 popular online services, which are used by more than 21 million citizens. We continue to improve the platform and develop new online services on it.

About the project

In 2019, digitization became one of the priorities of Ukraine’s government. Volodymyr Zelenskyi, the President of Ukraine, first presented the idea of the “state in a smartphone”, convenient and transparent public online services, at the largest IT event in the country – IForum.

To implement this ambitious idea, there was created the Ministry of Digital Transformation headed by Mykhailo Fedorov. The ministry’s goal is to digitize 100% of government services in order to build the most convenient country in the world. The strong commitment of the President enabled the “political will” for such large-scale changes.

This is how the path to creating a digital state, with a person at its center, began. The concept of a transparent and humane state is encoded in the acronym DIIA: “Derzhava i ya (The State and I)”.

Diia public service portal.

Solution

We have been specializing in the creation of electronic state services for many years, and we are developing our own AI-powered low-code Liquio platform, on the basis of which Diia was built.

The digital platform Diia is a marketplace for various public services, each of which is a separate module. Services can be configured by business analysts and configurators, while the involvement of programmers is minimal.

Several teams simultaneously develop dozens of different services. They use the same approaches and a standard set of interface elements and integrations with external services. They do not interfere with each other and have no effect on the core of the code. This approach allows you to quickly scale and adapt the system to needs and challenges.

The agency Fedoriv was responsible for the brand and communication strategy, and Spiilka was responsible for the design. As developers, we advised on technical possibilities, how services can work, how certain elements can be implemented on the platform. We analyzed and designed the first services together. Diia’s design received the RedDot international award.

The first release of the Diia portal took place just six months later, on February 6, 2020, at the Diia Summit, where the first online services were presented – a comprehensive service for parents of newborns eMalyatko and services for private entrepreneurs. Today, there are already more than 120 public services on the Diia platform. Here are a few of them: 

eEntrepreneur

This is a comprehensive service for business. You can order several services via one application form, and the system automatically builds the process of data processing, sending them to the next organization.

uResidency

A comprehensive service that allows foreigners to become residents of your country online, register a business, register with the tax office, and open a bank account in order to conduct business.

eMalyatko

A comprehensive service for parents of newborns. Via one online application, you can register the birth of a child and receive up to 9 public services from various authorities, which are required when a child is born.

For job-seekers

These services include Obtaining the status of unemployed and Removal from the status of unemployed. People can register even if all the institutions and state offices are closed as at Covid-time.

Social benefits

Services in this category are aimed at supporting the population under certain life conditions, for example, Application for a subsidy, Child support for single mothers/fathers, Adoption support, Support for a person with a disability from childhood and children with a disability, Support for the care of a sick child, etc. 

Business Registration

The services include: Opening and Closing a business, Making changes in data, including classification of economic activity certificates — for individual entrepreneurs, Opening and Closing LLCs, as well as obtaining specific documents for a certain type of activity; for example, The Registration of the capacities of a food market operator, etc.

Place of residence

If a person registers in someone else’s real estate, all co-owners must sign the application. A multi-signature mechanism is provided for this purpose. Other available services: Registration change of the place of residence, Removal from the place of registration, Statement of the place of residence.

Grants for business

The platform allows you to create application forms, gather applicants and organize the selection process transparently together with donors, banks and other related institutions. For this, a tool was developed that converts data from the application into such formats that can be processed by one or the other IT system.

For Construction

This category covers a large number of online services for the construction of structures of various classes — from the construction of fences to the construction of residential complexes and industrial facilities at various stages — from permits at the start to commissioning. Each service requires comprehensive logic and involves dozens of scenario options.

Anti-crisis

Due to the russian invasion of Ukraine, citizens and businesses suffered a lot. The ability to quickly launch services on the platform helps the government to provide the necessary services to the population in a timely manner: Obtaining and Cancellation of IDP status, Notice of Damage to Property, Compensation of businesses for employment of IDPs, participation in the eRecovery program, and others.

For Reference

The portal was developed by order of the Ministry of Digital Transformation with the support of international donors and partners: USAID/UK aid “Transparency and Accountability in Public Administration and Services/TAPAS”, the EGAP Program, financed by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and implemented by the Eastern Europe Foundation and Innovabridge, the USAID project “Support of leading organizations in combating corruption in Ukraine “VzayemoDiya” and the EGOV4UKRAINE project of the U-LEAD program with Europe.