DREAM Ukraine wins Copenhagen Democracy Summit People’s Award

Ukraine’s transparent electronic reconstruction ecosystem was recognized with The People’s Award at the Copenhagen Democracy Summit. The system is known as DREAM (Digital Restoration Ecosystem for Accountable Management) and is being developed jointly by the Open Contracting Partnership and the Ministry for Restoration with support from RISE Ukraine, a coalition of more than 40 Ukrainian and international organizations working on open government and anti-corruption reform.

DREAM will provide Ukraine’s citizens, government and donors with a one-stop platform to monitor and manage all stages of Ukraine’s post-war reconstruction projects, creating a single pipeline from communities to funders. It helps ensure the planning and implementation of reconstruction projects is accountable, efficient, inclusive, and sustainable. 

The Copenhagen Democratic Summit was held from 15-16 May with the participation of leading European politicians and heads of government. The award included a prize money of $10,000, and was presented by former Danish Prime Minister and NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who founded the Alliance of Democracies Foundation, which organizes the Summit.

Viktor Nestulia, Head of Ukraine Support at the Open Contracting Partnership and Chair of Ukraine’s RISE Coalition, said: “We will have to rebuild thousands of destroyed homes, schools, hospitals, kindergartens, and lives. Through DREAM, Ukraine can deliver projects where they are needed, so they are sustainable, on time and budget, providing full transparency and regular reports on the reconstruction progress.” 

DREAM is currently in the pilot phase, with some 500 users from 24 regional agencies and 190 municipalities volunteering to upload about 5,600 reconstruction project proposals. Ukraine’s government plans to adopt a law that will require all Ukrainian entities to use DREAM for reconstruction projects. DREAM is scheduled to be launched publicly at the Ukraine Recovery Conference on June 21 in London.

“We will track every euro, dollar, pound, krone and hryvnia invested in our country,” Nestulia said.

Open Contracting Partnership is assisting the RISE Ukraine Coalition and the Ukraine government through the Ministry for Restoration (also known as the Ministry for Community Development, Territories and Infrastructure) to leverage Ukraine’s award-winning ecosystem of digital open government tools in developing DREAM. Open Contracting Partnership is leading the technical development and intensive policy and practice support, thanks to financial support from the UK Government and the BHP Foundation.