On 21 November, the Data+ communication platform hosted another Open Data Talks online event — a meeting with the CDTO of the Ministry of Community and Territorial Development and the head of DREAM. The speakers discussed the current state and plans for the development of open data to support communities and rebuild Ukraine.
“The Ministry of Digital Transformation team has been working with the Ministry of Development for many years on opening up data and developing dialogue with users. We appreciate our colleagues’ openness and their willingness to support these processes. The community’s interest in open data is particularly important now, during the post-war reconstruction period. The Ministry of Digital Transformation will continue to promote the disclosure of high-quality data, particularly data that has a significant economic, anti-corruption and social impact,” commented Yanina Liubyva, head of the expert group on open data development at the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine.
The Ministry of Community and Territorial Development of Ukraine is the main administrator of nearly 50 datasets, including data in the areas of urban planning, construction, and public investment, and is responsible for the development and operation of the digital system in the field of construction, the Unified State Electronic System in the Construction Sector (USESCS), and the national public investment management system DREAM.
“First and foremost, the most critical sets are being opened: the community codifier, the register of temporarily occupied territories, and the Register of Damaged and Destroyed Property data. A comprehensive information audit is currently underway, which includes checking all registers and their structure, API capabilities, level of publicity, and compliance with open data requirements,” said Andrii Bratus, Deputy Minister of Community and Territorial Development of Ukraine for Digital Development, Digital Transformation, and Digitalisation.
The Deputy Minister also made a separate note regarding steps to publish the Register of Damaged and Destroyed Property in open data format. A draft has already been prepared, which provides for the publication of five key elements with data, namely: damaged buildings, commission inspection reports, inspection reports, as well as two sets of data concerning compensation for damaged and destroyed property linked to real estate objects and the amounts of compensation awarded.
“The exact coordinates of the objects will not be disclosed — this is a matter of security. A compromise solution: details will be provided down to the level of the settlement, but all other information about the type of object, area, number of floors, and damage category will be available,” added Andrii Bratus.
According to the updated requirements of Resolution 835, the Ministry of Development has established 48 data sets. The largest number — 29 sets — relate to the construction sector. The rest cover transport, housing and communal services, and other areas.
In the new version of the Resolution, the Ministry of Development is required to publish data from the Register of Damaged and Destroyed Property, which is important for transparent and accountable reconstruction.
“BRDO has been working with open data for many years, especially now, when the war has made it difficult to open new datasets. One of the key datasets, the opening of which BRDO has consistently advocated for together with other civil society organisations, is the Register of Damaged and Destroyed Property. It is critical for transparent reconstruction, and we have repeatedly called for its publication. Work is currently underway to find a balance between openness and security requirements. I would like to separately mention DREAM, a system that was built on the principle of openness from the very beginning. It has already become part of the public investment infrastructure, and we see opportunities for further collaboration,” said Oleksii Dorogan, CEO of BRDO.
DREAM is the digital foundation for public investment management (PIM) reform, which the Ministry of Development is developing in collaboration with the Ministry of Economy, Environment and Agriculture of Ukraine and the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine. PIM reform is changing approaches to planning and selecting recovery projects. As part of the reform, DREAM provides a link between strategic goals, projects and procurement. DREAM can already be used to develop medium-term public investment plans, project portfolios and feasibility studies.
“After large-scale destruction, Ukraine needs to rethink its approaches to planning and implementing public investments. Before the full-scale invasion, there were dozens of procedures and no unified system for evaluating projects. DREAM is designed to change this logic — it is a digital foundation for reform that unifies the entire investment management cycle. We are developing the system so that it allows us to see not only static data, but also the dynamics of decision-making,” said Viktor Nestulia, head of the DREAM Project Office.
From the outset, the DREAM ecosystem has been built on the principle of “open by design”. At the same time, certain modules are currently closed due to information about sensitive infrastructure objects. Unlike other administrators who process and disclose data after the fact, DREAM generates it directly from business processes in real time. The system is based on OCDS and OC4IDS standards and extends them to reflect complex reconstruction processes.
“Unlike many systems, we use OCDS not only for publishing data, but also as an internal transaction model. Therefore, our data is more comprehensive and reflects the entire project lifecycle,” explained Andrii Hazin, Senior Data Manager at Open Contracting Partnership.
Representatives of the Ministry of Development, DREAM, and Open Contracting Partnership emphasised their openness to cooperation, willingness to consider specific proposals from users, and the importance of prioritising data sets that have the greatest impact on the reconstruction and transparency of public investments.
A video recording of the meeting is available on the YouTube channel of BRDO.
This event was prepared under the project “Effective monitoring of Open Data policy compliance”, implemented by the Better Regulation Delivery Office BRDO, with the support of the Open Government Partnership through the EU for Integrity Programme for the Eastern Partnership, funded by the European Union. The content of the discussion is the responsibility of the speakers and does not necessarily reflect the position of BRDO, OGP or the EU.