Development of E-Democracy. (UA0069)

Event: Development of e-democracy.; Implementation timeframe: 2017; Entities responsible: State Agency for E-governance, other executive agencies.; Partners: EGAP Programme, Centre for Innovations Development at the National University Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, the non-governmental organisations Centre of Policy and Legal Reform, e-democracy, and Eidos Centre for Political Studies and Analysis, other civil society institutions and international organisations (by consent).; Expected results: Ensuring the: Development of the Conceptual design for the development of e-democracy and submission in accordance with established procedures for consideration by the Government (May 2017). Development of the action plan for for the development of e-democracy and submission in accordance with established procedures for consideration by the Government (November 2017).

13. Elaborate e-democracy roadmap

Commitment Text:

Development of e-democracy

Expected results: Development of the Conceptual design for the development of e-democracy and submission in accordance with established procedures for consideration by the Government (May 2017). Development of the action plan for the development of e-democracy and submission in accordance with established procedures for consideration by the Government (November 2017).

Responsible institution: State Agency for E-governance.

Supporting institutions: EGAP Program, Center for Innovations Development at the National University Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, the non-governmental organizations Center of Policy and Legal Reform, e-democracy, and Eidos Center for Political Studies and Analysis, other civil society institutions and international organizations (by consent).

Start date: December 2016..                                     End date: August 2018

Commitment Aim:

This commitment aims to produce a conceptual design for the development of e-democracy (The Concept Paper) and submit it for consideration by the government. The commitment would also produce an action plan for the development of e-democracy. And it would result in the submission of that plan in accordance with established procedures for consideration by the government.

Status

Midterm: Complete

A multi-stakeholder coalition developed the concept paper and the action plan. This coalition consisted of civil society, nongovernmental organizations, international donors, representatives from academic institutions, and public service sector representatives, including the State Agency for E-Governance. The coalition submitted the concept paper and action plan to the Cabinet of Ministers for revision and further approval on 22 May 2017. [232] For further information, please see “Ukraine Mid-Term Report 2016–2018.” [233]

The government approved the e-democracy roadmap on 8 November 2017. [234] The approval allowed the coalition members to start implementing plan directives in 2018. [235] Since January 2018, the State Agency for E-Governance and the multi-stakeholder coalition have executed the action plan by engaging in projects that aim to facilitate the development of e-democracy in Ukraine. According to a civil society expert from the E-Governance and Accountability for Participation (EGAP) Program who actively participated in coalition activities from the beginning, coalition members felt a responsibility to actively execute the action plan because they had formally committed to the coalition and treated each other as equal partners. [236] Some policy changes resulted from the e-democracy commitment. The government made adjustments to the normative-legal act on “Citizens’ Appeal” to regulate the processing of electronic petitions on local levels. This report discusses more examples of the results associated with the e-democracy commitment in the following section.

Did It Open Government?

Civic Participation: Major

Before the implementation of this action plan, no consolidated government policy existed regarding the support of digital democracy in the country. All the existing initiatives were uncoordinated and depended on the goodwill of individual officials and politicians. The e-democracy roadmap established a common framework, opened new ways of engagement and cooperation between members of civic society, and instituted clear priorities. The creation and operation of the multi-stakeholder coalition established an inclusive and collaborative framework for authority–civil society interaction. As all coalition members had an equal voice during the drafting of the concept paper and the action plan, there was a substantial level of public influence. This approach has been sustained in the subsequent government practice of and inclusive and collaborative policy making in the domain of digital democracy.

A prominent example of cooperation between the coalition members on the action plan implementation is the project carried out with the State Statistics Service of Ukraine [237] (SSSU). SSSU intended to create a report about the development of e-democracy at local levels throughout the country. For that aim, it required a methodology. SSSU requested a methodological input from the State Agency for E-Governance. The latter, in turn, requested information from coalition members, who provided a detailed set of indicators for evaluating the advance of e-democracy. These indicators are expected to be used by SSSU for annual measurement. This stands as an unprecedented case of the direct involvement of civil society in drafting the policy of statistical indicators on e-participation. Another model engagement of civil society in the development of e-democracy is the national competition Open Data Challenge. [238] The competition attracted 190 information-technology projects that use open access data for grassroots activism and collaboration with authorities. Projects covered digital health, infrastructure, agriculture, legal technology, and ecology, among other topics. This competition embodied multi-stakeholder (uniting authorities, business, and the non-governmental sector) support of open data for online participation.

Carried Forward?

When this report was written (September 2018), the commitment had been fully completed in terms of development of the e-democracy concept paper and action plan. [239] The next steps should focus on finishing the implementation of the current action plan, evaluating its effectiveness [240] and feasibility, and finally, developing a new action plan for the next two years. [241]

[232] “Ukraine Mid-Term Report 2016–2018,” Open Government Partnership, accessed 15 September 2018, https://www.opengovpartnership.org/documents/ukraine-mid-term-report-2016-2018-year-1/.

[233] Ibid.

[234] “The Government Approves the E-democracy Concept Paper and the Action Plan (2017),” State Agency for E-Governance, accessed 13 September 2018, https://www.e.gov.ua/content/uryad-shvalyv-koncepciyu-rozvytku-elektronnoyi-demokratiyi-ta-plan-zahodiv-z-yiyi.

[235] Serhiy Karelin (EGAP), interview with junior researcher, 13 September 2018.

[236] Ibid.

[237] Ibid.

[238] Open Data Challenge, https://odc.in.ua/.

[239] Valeriya Tkach (State Agency for E-Governance), email exchange with junior researcher, 15 September 2018.

[240] Ibid.

[241] Serhiy Karelin (EGAP), interview with junior researcher, 13 September 2018.