Development of the E-Youth Digital Platform (UA0106)

Young people often have a problem with finding information about opportunities to develop their skills and abilities. Many young people are unaware of the opportunities or do not know how or where to find information about them. Young people's civic engagement and willingness to devote time to personal development, self-education, and volunteerism increase their resilience and build leadership skills. The ability of young people to take a proactive stance, which will also contribute to positive changes in communities, calls for a platform to be created to bring together young people and other stakeholders representing the state and the public sector, where all opportunities available for young people will be concentrated. In this regard, there is a plan to create an E-youth platform to provide exhaustive and up-to-date information on opportunities for young people to be viewed comfortably. The purpose of developing the E-youth platform is to maximize the number of economically active young people who will help the state to win and rebuild what has been destroyed, to motivate young people to stay in Ukraine, to strengthen ties with those who have left the country and encourage them to return to Ukraine and to increase young people's trust in the state. The platform will host a unified database for/about young people, training courses and programs, a marketplace of opportunities in the labor market; and information on administrative services for young people, youth centers, and youth workers. In addition, it will be possible to submit petitions, hold electronic voting for candidates to various bodies (youth councils, student and school self-government bodies), hold surveys of youth; and provide career counseling. The information published on the E-youth platform will be open, complete, timely, publicly available, and meet the basic standards of open data. One important aspect of the creation of the platform is to ensure its comfort of use, ease, speed, and efficiency of information search, as all opportunities for young people will be gathered in one place - on the single digital platform E-youth, which will also be a single point of entry for stakeholders, where they can inform young people about the opportunities available to them and youth policy implementation. In addition, an important task of the platform creation is to have young people’s feedback. The website should include feedback forms where youth can share their impressions and recommendations concerning events and opportunities, which will facilitate the monitoring and evaluation of the website use by youth and stakeholders.

Steps | Responsible agency | Completion time/period | Delivery indication

1. Stakeholder needs survey and data analysis | Ministry of Youth and Sports | December 2023 | Analysis of stakeholders and a survey of their representatives have been conducted; Existing platforms and digital solutions in the relevant field have been analyzed; Applicable normative and legal framework on youth policy issues in Ukraine has been analyzed

2. Road map for the development of the Eyouth platform has been prepared | Ministry of Youth and Sports | December 2023 — February 2024 | Project of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) "Dream and Act" (by consent) | Development stages of the E-youth platform have been developed

3. Preparation of the terms of reference, technical requirements, design, and content of the platform | Ministry of Youth and Sports | February — June 2024 | The terms of reference, technical requirements, design concept, and platform content have been prepared

4. Development of the first version of the Eyouth platform | Ministry of Youth and Sports | July — December 2024 | The first version of the product with the minimum required functionality has been developed

5. Information campaign | Ministry of Youth and Sports | December 2024 — June 2025 | Young people have been informed about the youth policy, its implementation, and the benefits of the Eyouth platform

6. Development of a normative-legal act regulating the functioning of the E-youth platform | Ministry of Youth and Sports | December 2024 — June 2025 | The relevant resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has been submitted for consideration to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine

7. Launching the Eyouth platform into trial operation and expanding its functionality | Ministry of Youth and Sports | December 2024 — June 2025 | The trial operation of the E-youth platform has been completed

8. Putting the E-youth platform into industrial operation and expanding its functionality | Ministry of Youth and Sports | May — June 2025 | The E-youth platform has been put into industrial operation; its functionality has been expanded

Action Plan Review

• Verifiable: Yes
• Does it have an open government lens? Yes
• Potential for results: Modest

Commitment 6։ Development of the E-Youth digital platform
Ministry of Youth and Sport

For a complete description of the commitment, see Commitment 6 in Ukraine’s 2023–2025 action plan: https://www.opengovpartnership.org/documents/ukraine-action-plan-2023-2025.

Context and objectives

In 2021, the government adopted the Ukraine National Youth Strategy 2030 ^[32] and the 2021–2025 ‘Youth of Ukraine’ program. ^[33] These documents emphasize the development of digital tools for youth policy and prioritize the participation of youth in public life. The Law of Ukraine about the main principles of youth policy defines the framework of youth policy implementation and lays out the foundations for the formation and activity of various types of youth and children's organizations, including youth spaces, youth centers, youth councils and advisory bodies, and public associations. The law established the National Youth Council as a consultative and advisory body under the Cabinet of Ministers for interaction and cooperation with central and local authorities in youth policy. ^[34]

This commitment continues the objective of a previous commitment on involving young people in policymaking. The Ministry of Youth and Sport will set up an online platform with comprehensive youth-related information and for collecting feedback from young people for policy making and youth projects. Additionally, the platform will have a tool for voting the National Youth Council members [35] and other youth bodies. The ministry will first collect information on the needs and available resources for young people to integrate all existing resources in the platform and inform the Terms of Reference for its software. They will then pilot the platform, conduct awareness raising, and adopt legislative regulations to institutionalize the platform at the level of state policy. The platform will incorporate a wide range of the ministry’s services, such as the management of youth centers, youth exchange programs, competitions for government awards, project grants for youth organizations, and so on in accordance with the needs assessment. The ministry will discuss the functionality of the platform with implementing partners, [36] one of whom has proposed that the platform serve as a tool for youth surveys, enabling actors in the field to get information from the platform without duplicating data collection efforts. [37]

Potential for results:Modest

If successfully implemented, the platform will provide access to a wide range of information and services related to young people in one place, as well as innovative participation opportunities that have not been available to young people before. However, as the platform will facilitate the implementation of existing youth policies and regulations rather than bringing significant changes to these policies, the IRM assesses the potential for results of this commitment as modest.

Currently, Ukraine has several platforms for youth-related information, including for youth workers, youth centers, as well as resources for career and education opportunities, among others. ^[38] These are often difficult to find, especially for young people that are not engaged in any groups or projects. Consequently, stakeholders report a lack of awareness among young people about the opportunities to influence government policies. [39] The platform will serve as a unified information resource, covering youth-related news, programs, training courses, organizations, career opportunities, research data, statistical information, and other information in one place. It will also be a useful information source for Ukrainians abroad (including young people who emigrated following Russia’s invasion). Furthermore, the platform will collect information from youth organizations and centers who can register and input their information (news, opportunities, project information, et cetera) directly on the platform.

Finally, young people will have new opportunities to participate through surveys, online voting, and youth exchange programs. Stakeholders expect the platform to improve the engagement of youth in social, economic, and political life of the country, and in initiatives undertaken by the government and youth organizations. The Council of Europe’s recommendation highlights the importance of information and ICT to enable active youth participation in society. This Recommendation calls on states to consolidate and develop existing youth information and counselling services, adapting the forms and channels of youth information to the needs of all young people at local, regional, national, and European levels, as well as fostering the development of innovative ways to use new forms of communication. [40]

Opportunities, challenges, and recommendations during implementation

The USAID-funded ‘Dream and Act’ program implemented by IREX will support the needs assessment, while the Eurasia Foundation’s “Transparency and Accountability in Public Administration and Services” (TAPAS) project (followed by the “Digital Transformation Activity” (DTA) project) will assist the implementation of the platform. [41] Securing state resources will be necessary for the long-term sustainability of the platform. As the human resources of the Ministry of Youth and Sport are limited, the ministry may have to outsource the operationalization of the platform to a contractor. [42]

The platform will need to be promoted among young people for it to become the main source of information and resources for Ukrainian youth, including those abroad. Stakeholders suggest linking it with the “Diia” e-government platform, which is used extensively among Ukrainians and especially young people, for better outreach. In addition, civil society suggest disseminating information among civil society organizations who work on youth-related issues and incorporating information of these organizations on the platform. [43]

The IRM recommends the following:

• To enhance youth participation in policymaking, the government could provide information on draft policies and laws in digestible language and invite young people to take part in consultations, allocate space for discussions, and produce media coverage on the role of youth in the country, including engaging young people in content development (e.g., through competitions). Practical examples can be found in the Joint Council on Youth’s guidelines on young people's participation. [44]
• The government could make the platform easily accessible to national minorities and people with visual impairments, therefore narrowing the digital divide and addressing other challenges linked with digitalization. [45]
• The government and partner organizations could utilize multiple channels for disseminating information about the platform. While the commitment plans outreach activities and media campaigns, the IRM also recommends engaging local stakeholders, local governments, and youth centers in raising awareness about the platform, as well as reaching out via Diia to youth groups that are not typically engaged.