Digital Era Governance: insights from the Netherlands for Ukraine

On 29 July 2026, the Kyiv School of Economics hosted the seminar 'Digital Era Governance: insights from the Netherlands for Ukraine' as part of the BRIDGE project.

Mykhaylo Vidyakin, Mariia Kriuchok and Oleh Omelchenko shared with the KSE community the Dutch experience they had studied, together with colleagues, on the course 'Legal, Implementation and Organizational Aspects of Digital Tools' run by Erasmus University Rotterdam, one of the project's partners.

Mykhaylo Vidyakin, lecturer at KSE University, organizational development management consultant and project management professional, spoke about the digital governance, starting from the fragmentation of government digital services – a problem the academia called 'digital feudalism'.

Every agency has its own digital castle: a separate portal, a separate database and its own rules of entry. The state appears to have moved its services online, but it is the individual who carries data from one institution to another – registering on several portals, entering the same details over and over, working out who is responsible for the next step and which data is needed more. This situation grew in part out of the New Public Management model, which once gave state agencies greater autonomy and, with it, their own processes and information systems.

The response was the concept of Digital Era Governance, which proposes assembling public services around people's needs rather than digitalising each agency separately. Its key principle is 'ask only once': if the state already holds particular data, it does not ask citizens for the same data a second time.

How this works at the institutional level is shown by ICTU in the Netherlands. It helps public bodies to define problems jointly, agree on solutions and build digital systems, while critical expertise and decision-making remains inside the state. Ukraine needs a similar logic: a convenient interface, for example, of a tax or pension agencies platforms along the lines of “Diia” is not enough, and behind it there must be a shared infrastructure of registers, data and interagency processes.

'What struck me most in Rotterdam was the constant interaction between the state, practitioners and researchers. Digital solutions there are not created in a vacuum: they are grounded in research, tested, and assessed for their impact on different groups of citizens. It is precisely this kind of cooperation that helps not only to introduce innovation faster, but also to avoid systemic mistakes,' said Mykhaylo Vidyakin. Full article on Zenodo

Mariia Kriuchok, a learning designer, lecturer and researcher at KSE University, explained why technology without scientific and ethical grounding readily turns into a political weapon or a source of discrimination.

In 2017, the Netherlands became the first country in Europe to launch CAS, a predictive policing system. It analysed the map of the city and forecast the likelihood of crime on the basis of historical data. In December 2025 it was shut down. The system generated too much operational noise — a camera could read a person who had been taken ill in the street as an offender under the influence of alcohol, because it could not tell one from the other. But the main reason is simpler: CAS did not achieve its aim, and research showed that ordinary patrols in yellow high-visibility vests deterred crime more effectively than an expensive algorithm. The second case cost the country a great deal more.

The Toeslagenaffaire scandal (the childcare benefits case) reached its peak in 2018: an algorithmic error led to thousands of families being accused of fraud without grounds, and the tax authority's demand that wrongly paid money be returned triggered a wave of suicides. The government resigned, and part of the population still does not trust algorithms in state systems.

Both stories demonstrate a gap in pace that arises even in technologically advanced countries: the capabilities of AI grow quickly, while state structures and legislative frameworks remain conservative.

'The Netherlands has almost a century of investment in applied science and in the use of innovation for the country's wellbeing. Today, without deep scientific expertise, any technology risks turning into a "political weapon" that, instead of solving social problems, will increase social inequality. In Ukraine we should reconsider the relationship between science and the state, so that the human factor and people's trust remain central in the race to create the best digital tools and AI algorithms,' added Mariia Kriuchok. Full article on Zenodo

Oleh Omelchenko, lecturer in data courses at KSE University, examined the DE-CIST project in Rotterdam. It demonstrates how data can reveal a problem that ordinary statistics do not show.

The research team combined more than a dozen layers of information about buildings (3D building geometry, the condition of insulation, weather and climate projections, among others) and added social data about the residents (income, tenure type and other characteristics). On this basis, the team built a model of the energy demand of every building in the city's pilot districts.

The study refuted the widespread assumption that the buildings in the worst technical condition consume the most energy. In fact, residents of older homes use the least, because they can afford only part of the heat they need and simply switch the heating off. In the statistics such a building looks thrifty, although the people inside it are merely cold. This is what energy poverty is.

The study also revealed another gap — between those who need change and those who can make it happen: the greatest effect comes from draught-proofing and roof and wall insulation, but all construction measures are decided by the owner of the property, while the most run-down buildings are mostly occupied by tenants.

One further conclusion from DE-CIST is useful for Ukraine's reconstruction: under one of the climate scenarios, by 2050 the heating demand of the buildings studied will fall by 22–26%, while the cooling demand will rise by 39–94%. So even the obvious solution of 'insulate everything' may turn out to be less obvious in future.

'The DE-CIST case is a strong argument for keeping all registry data complete and accurate. That said, the "integration" part of the study shows that data alone is not enough to bring about change — taking account of the sociological factors that can accelerate or slow it down matters just as much,' Oleh Omelchenko concluded. Full article on Zenodo

The Dutch experience in three different fields shows that technology does not work in isolation from institutions, research and an understanding of how people live.