Fall Meeting of the Diia Summit

November 29, 2021

Opening Statement by Dafina Gercheva, UNDP Resident Representative in Ukraine, 29 November 2021 

Photo: UNDP Ukraine

Excellencies, distinguished off-line and on-line participants, dear colleagues,

I am very excited to join you today at the Fall meeting of the Diia Summit. I am also very pleased to welcome you all on behalf of the UNDP to this important gathering. This event is organized every six months to boost the digital transformation and ensure it is inclusive, fair, and just. In this day and age, technology plays an essential role in our lives. It presents ample opportunities for advancing sustainable development, but it also poses risks of divisions and exclusion.

We are living in challenging times. While we are making progress worldwide in a number of important dimensions of the Sustainable Development Goals, such as: reduction of poverty and maternal and child mortality; improvement of basic education; expansion of the access to public services, and much more. We are also facing complex and formidable challenges.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which is global, deadly, and multifaceted emergency, is hitting hard on the fundamentals of human development: income, health, and education, and is further exacerbating vulnerabilities and inequalities. This is a challenging moment in our collective history — yet, these unforeseen events present all of us with an opportunity — to respond and help prevent and prepare for future shocks with a new paradigm and business model that go beyond the status quo.

The COVID-19 pandemic also exposed deep pre-existing rifts between the relatively comfortable and the most vulnerable – gaps that separated people along lines of digital access, income, gender, class, ethnicity, and education.  It is therefore important to recall that mainstreaming the Sustainable Development Goals in the national and sub-national policies, development plans and budgets is a fundamental pre-requisite for a sustainable recovery and equitable and inclusive human development going forward. We must focus our efforts on ensuring that no one is left behind as the country moves forward, or the country may fall back in response to a future shock.

The role of technology and digital transformation in recovery from the pandemic and in advancing development is critical and indispensable!

In Ukraine, during the lockdown imposed by the pandemic significant progress in leveraging the benefits of digitalization has been made. Both public and private sector have proactively explored the opportunities offered by the digital age.

However, such rapid digital transformation has also widened the digital divide. Many people, in particular, vulnerable, and marginalized do not have sufficient digital literacy, or any device with access to internet.  This hampers their ability to access e-services and ultimately excludes them from the rest of the society.  

A national survey conducted in September 2021 revealed that 17 percent of women and men are not using digital services due to absence of any device with access to Internet. Among those without access, 28 percent have disabilities and 32 percent are elderly.  

To bridge the digital divide and ensure inclusive digitalization and access to e-services for all, appropriate regulations, which are fully aligned with the best European and International standards should be put in place and should be enforced. In partnership with the Ministry of Digital Transformation and with the financial support provided by the Government of Sweden, we are already developing a national standard on digital accessibility, which will be adopted by the Cabinet of Ministers in early 2022. The next step is to develop a law on digital accessibility, as stipulated in the National Strategy on Barrier-Free Environment, adopted earlier this year.

UNDP is committed to continue supporting the Ministry of Digital Transformation to put in place all the necessary legal and organizational safeguards to ensure all governmental mobile applications, webpages and portals are modernized and truly accessible to everyone. This is critical for ensuring non-discrimination and equal access to services for persons with disabilities, the elderly and other vulnerable groups who would otherwise be excluded. Bridging the digital divide is a key precondition for achieving the SDGs and leaving no one behind.

In closing, I would like to extend our appreciation and thanks to the Government of Sweden for the generous support provided to the digitalization strive of Ukraine. I would also like to acknowledge the unwavering commitment of the Ministry of Digital Transformation to ensure inclusive and human cantered digitalization. Thank you for the strategic partnership and excellent collaboration.

I wish you very productive and successful Fall Meeting of the Diia Summit.

Thank you.