Digital Communities Forum: From Idea to Action
On October 27-28, the Digital Communities Forum: From Idea to Action took place in Lviv – a large-scale event organized within the framework of the EGAP Program, implemented by the East Europe Foundation with the support of Switzerland in cooperation with the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine.
The goal of the forum was to showcase the best practices in using digital tools for community development, increasing trust, and enhancing citizen engagement.
The event brought together digital leaders from across Ukraine and became a platform for experience exchange. Participants discussed the digitalization of community processes, e-democracy tools such as E-Dem and the SVOI platforms, as well as approaches to improving transparency, trust, and citizen participation in decision-making.
On the first day of the forum, participants learned about best practices in e-democracy, citizen engagement in local change, and worked in groups on ideas for developing the E-Dem and SVOI platforms.
The second day was dedicated to the final of EGAP Ideathon 2025 – a competition of ideas aimed at improving digital solutions that enhance interaction between authorities and citizens.
Nine teams reached the final: representatives of municipalities, the IT sector, civil society organizations, and businesses. They presented innovative projects that promote the development of digital democracy and encourage more active citizen participation in decision-making.
Winners of EGAP Ideathon 2025:
- BeeDigital – the “Tvii Deputat” solution for transparent work of local council members;
- Document UA – a service providing easy access to city council documents with AI analysis and personalized notifications;
- Smart City Boiarka – a financial module in the resident’s online account on the website and in the chatbot that allows users to monitor tax debts.
The Audience Choice Award went to CrimeDataLab for developing a road safety platform based on open data.
All these solutions aim to improve citizen services, expand public participation in community governance, and can be scaled to other cities. Lutsk City Territorial Community also received two awards at the forum:
- For the best adaptation of the participatory budget to martial law conditions;
- For the most visited Administrative Service Center website.
The community was represented by Vasyl Sarai, Deputy Director of the Department of Administrative Services of Lutsk City Council, and Nataliia Khmel, Deputy Head of the Department of Information and Communication Technologies and Head of the Information Technologies Division of Lutsk City Council.
Department of Information and Communication Technologies,
Department of International Cooperation and Project Activities