Dosvit

Toolset

IT Development

Industry

Digital Democracy and Governance

Dosvit is a platform that enables local governments and cities to create modern websites and adapt them to their needs, developing three key areas — local economic potential, transparency and accountability, and participation. The Dosvit platform emerged from cooperation with communities participating in the USAID DOBRE Program in 2018.

Background

The decentralization processes in Ukraine led to the development of openness and responsiveness in local self-government bodies. The law of Ukraine obliges united territorial communities to have official websites, which are a virtual representation of self-government bodies on the Internet and fully solve the task of information openness.

Development

During the platform planning, 36 community teams joined SocialBoost, an IT partner of the USAID DOBRE Program, in design thinking and brainstorming sessions. Together with IT specialists, they designed official websites of an innovative type. Community representatives with different expertise told the developers which critical applications should be in the platform's arsenal. Seven of these communities became pilots — they created and tested the first sites.

Product

The result of the development is a platform with a modular system. It is a conditional open app store where the community connects the necessary blocks and sections without the developer's involvement.

Community members without programming or design skills can use the platform to create their own official website in a few days. The platform allows adapting the site to the community's needs adding symbols, choosing a color scheme from those offered, and adjusting individual elements. In addition, everything works simply thanks to a set of ready-made templates.

Dosvit platform applications:

local economic development. "Economic Profile of Community," "Register of Enterprises," and "Investment Projects" contribute to the proactive involvement of investors in the development of the community.
participation. A dialogue is established with the community's residents through the "Appeal" and "Participation Budget" applications.
transparency and accountability. "Organizational structure of the community", "News," "Open budget," "ProZorro," and "E-data expenses" allow for maintaining a high level of transparency.

Features of the Dosvit platform:

principle of microservices: the community can connect or disconnect the necessary applications;
focus on marketing and promotion of community potential and resources;
API: applications can exchange data, and developers can create new applications;
design in compliance with high UX/UI standards: interaction with the site is easy and comfortable, and the product is intuitive and worked out to the smallest detail.

Results

The Dosvit platform serves as an invaluable tool for communities, offering seamless compliance with legal document publication requirements, transparent and swift resident communication, and the creation of compelling economic profiles to entice investors. Over the platform's operational history, it has been embraced by 85 communities spanning Ukraine, reinforcing its widespread utility and positive impact