Evaluation of digital development of administrative and territorial units of Dnipropetrovsk region

Abstract

The article presents and analyzes the results of the May 2019 study of the digital developmentof districts, cities and territorial communities of Dnipropetrovsk region. It is through such researchthat we can identify critical territories, local digital development issues, and find ways to overcomethem. Meanwhile, in Ukraine, information development studies are conducted only at the nationallevel, bypassing the administrative-territorial units of regional subordination. Using the methodologyproposed at the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Institute of Public Administration of the National Academyof Public Administration, allows to carry out a comprehensive analysis of the use and development ofdigital technologies in these territories. The introduction of modern digital instruments into the practiceof regulating territorial development is conditioned by the priority of reforms of decentralization ofpower and public administration, the necessity of introducing new approaches, methods and meansof forming and implementing public policy and public administration in the conditions of theinformation society. The implementation of these tools should result in an efficient, transparent, openand flexible structure of local public administration, using the latest digital technologies aimed atsocial sustainable development and adequate response to internal and external challenges. The authorsdraw attention to the need to combine the efforts of different sectors of society within the frameworkof regional information programs, where the opportunities for cooperation between government,business and local authorities are much greater than at the national level. The paper notes the lackof a clear understanding and approval of plans for the digitization of public life, the implementationof e-governance and e-democracy tools in a number of administrative and territorial units, as well asthe lack of necessary and sufficient information on available best practices and mechanisms for theirimplementation. Proposals are given for the tasks of the Regional Electronic Dnepropetrovsk 2020Informatization Program and suggestions for improving the methods of digital development researchat the local level.