When Volodymyr Zelensky ran for the presidency in 2019, he promised to change the tone of Ukrainian politics, which continued to be mired incorruption and backroom deals. One of his key focuses was on using technology to improve both the reality of day-to-day life and Ukraine’s image abroad under the motto of a “state in a smartphone.” Within five years, all the services of the country’s paper-loving bureaucracy were to be transferred online. The flagship of this initiative was an app, Diia, which means both “the state and me” in Ukrainian, and what the Ukrainian state has not historically been known for: “action.”
Launched in February 2020, the system encompasses a spectrum of state functions, from birth certificates and passports to business registration. According to the Ukranian government’s statistics, more than 10 million people — nearly a quarter of the population — use Diia.
State in a smartphone: Inside Ukraine’s effort to replace bureaucracy with an appRead More
