How data management transforms community life?

On 27 January, the Ukrainian Crisis Media Centre hosted the eleventh public dialogue in the "Decentralisation in Action" series. The event brought together experts, representatives of government agencies, international programmes, and local communities to discuss the role of data in transforming governance decisions and community life.

Participants explored key issues, including:

– digitalisation of data collection processes;

– the role of data in decision-making;

– challenges of data collection at the local level;

– access to national statistics;

– up-to-date population data;

– data usage in international projects;

– training community staff in data management;

– legislative support for local data management.

The Swiss-Ukrainian DECIDE project actively contributed to the discussion. Valentyna Poltorak, DECIDE Project Manager, spoke about the role of data in strategic planning and decision-making at the local level, as well as its importance for regional development planning and national policymaking.

According to Valentyna Poltorak, the DECIDE project, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Science and the Ministry for Communities, Territories and Infrastructure Development, initiated the creation of educational registers, which had not previously existed in Ukraine. To facilitate this, a modern tool, the AIKOM2 system—was developed.

Currently, all territorial communities are connected to AIKOM2. The system provides real-time statistics on children, internally displaced persons, and students studying in various formats (offline, online, or blended learning).