October 25-26, Kyiv: "Information Society in Ukraine" - this extremely acute topic was discussed by about 420 participants of the International Scientific Congresses. The Congress was organized by the State Agency on Science, Innovations and Informatization of Ukraine with the organizational support of the National Centre on E-governance, State Enterprise "State Center for Information Resources of Ukraine" and the UN Development Programme. A prototype web portal of the Open Government Partnership Initiative in Ukraine was presented to the audience, which had been developed under UNDP support.
The main purpose of the Congress was to establish a leading platform for discussion of the current state of information and communication technologies (ICT) and the prospects of Ukraine's participation in the global ICT market.
Mykola Azarov, the Prime Minister of Ukraine welcomed the participants in his video statement. Volodymyr Semynozhenko, Chairman of the State Agency for Science, Innovation and Informatisation expressed confidence that the Government of Ukraine, the economy and the citizens of Ukraine are interested in maximizing openness that promotes efficiency and competitiveness of Ukraine. Therefore, the international Initiative Open Government Partnership (OGP) is important for Ukraine.
Elena Panova, UNDP Deputy Country Director noted that information and communication technologies provide tools for achieving sustainable human development and equality through providing services to the most marginalized groups while also enhancing transparency and accountability. However, ICT development alone does not guarantee sustainable human development. Appropriate policies and practices need to be developed. Rural-Urban divide is huge creating serious obstacles for reaching the poor and vulnerable population.
Also, UNDP Deputy Country Director informed about the joint efforts of the State Agency on Science, Innovations and Informatization of Ukraine and UNDP in creating a web portal of the OGP Initiative. This portal will be a powerful tool for the dissemination of information regarding the Initiative and mobilizing the citizens to decision-making process.
The Congress had working sections on state policy in the area of ICT development and information society in Ukraine, OGP, ICT infrastructure , challenges and achievements E-governance, development of ICT industry and partnership of government and business. Also, the exhibition of latest ICT solutions of the leading domestic and international IT companies was held.
Open Government Partnership – is a multilateral initiative, formally introduced on September 20, 2011, which aims to enforce the governments specific commitments to promote transparency in government, citizen participation in the governance process, the fight against corruption and the use of new technologies good governance. Ukraine was one of the 55 countries that joined the Initiative.
At the section devoted to OGP Initiative, the participants spoke about the process of its implementation, discussed the challenges and achievements, got familiarized with the experience of the regions of Ukraine, the implementation of the Action Plan, in particular the initiative "Public Libraries - Bridges to E-governance" together with the Programme "Bibliomist" and pilot project "Electronic Region - E Dnipropetrovsk".
Within this section the participants watched the video message of Raul Zambrano, UNDP Senior Policy Advisor from New York. Raul Zambrano said the key elements of the OGP Initiative are transparency, accountability and participation, which are also the principles of democratic governance. In addition to these three principles ICT enables participation.
Olena Ursu, Governance and Sustainable Development Expert of UNDP Project "Municipal Governance and Sustainable Development Programme" presented the Project activities aimed at introducing the elements of e-governance in 29 partner municipalities. This work includes creation of the official websites of the city councils, introduction of municipal services quality management systems / ISO, establishing centers of administrative services provision, introduction of electronic document flow and support to web projects based on crowd sourcing.
A prototype of official web portal of OGP Initiative created under UNDP support was presented for discussion. Web portal contains a communication hub (forum for registered users to hold discussions on the working topics or open discussions), section "Blogs", "On the OGP Initiative", "News", "Documents", "Library" and others.
More than 420 participants attended the Congress, among them - representatives of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, ministries and other central and local executive bodies and local authorities, the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, academia, Civil Society organizations, trade missions and international organizations.
The information materials can be assessed at the Congress web-site.
For more information, contact Galyna Smirnova, Monitoring and Communications Officer, tel. (044) 584-34-75 or e-mail: galyna.smirnova at undp.org.ua
