Lyuba Shipovich and Natalia Shyrba quit their jobs in the US and became volunteers at the Odessa regional administration in Ukraine. Their mission was to build a team to design and deploy technology at the regional level to reduce corruption and to increase efficiency. After spending just a month a half working on the shores of the Black Sea, they visited New York to share with the Razom IT community what they learned (so far) and what they plan to do next.
We gathered at Civic Hall in New York and heard about some of their projects, including:
- Created DITO (Department of Information Technology of Odessa administration) as a team of volunteers dedicated to deploying tech tools to improve efficiency and reduce corruption inside the administration.
- Designed and deployed internal collaboration tools for the civil servants in the administration (including a joint calendar, standardized email, and a task management system)
- Launched a ticket management system that improved response times by lawyers within the administration to respond to questions and requests from citizens. This tool accompanied to the newly built, glass atrium of the ‘hromadske prymalnia’ (Citizen’s Service Center) that was opened a few months later in November.
- Launched an e-democracy tool where citizens could provide their input on proposed legislation in the Odessa Package of Reforms (www.uareformers.com)
- Started to develop a system of electronic petitions and other e-goverment tools
- Got to know the tech community in Odessa
- Held dozens of interviews with volunteers and partner organizations who work to improve the connections between civil servants and citizen activists
Lyuba had video blogged her initial impressions. Watch her weekly posts here.
Before they took off for Odessa, Lyuba met with Razom volunteers to hear their ideas of what can be done.
While they were working, they caught the attention of some media including Ukraine Today in September.
You can see more details about the event at Civic hall on this Facebook page bit.ly/RazomIT2015-10