After Ukraine wins the war against the Russian Federation, a large number of Ukrainian defenders will return to civilian life. All of them will need a modern and effective system of transition from military service to civilian life. The Ministry of Veterans Affairs wants to facilitate this process by creating effective digital tools and services that will provide information and qualified services to Ukrainian veterans and their families. Tetiana Kalyta, Deputy Minister for Veterans Affairs of Ukraine for Digital Development, Digital Transformation and Digitalization, spoke about the work of the E-Veteran platform, the introduction of new digital services and the Veteran's Assistant project in an interview with Ukrinform.

ALMOST 180,000 USERS VISITED THE E-VETERAN PLATFORM

- The E-Veteran online service has recently been launched in Ukraine. How does this platform help veterans? What services can they use?

- The E-Veteran platform was launched in early 2023. It offers electronic services that can be used by veterans, their families and some other categories of citizens.

E-Veteran is a platform where a veteran can apply for a particular service, learn about potential opportunities that could improve their standard of living.

It does not work like general search engines. The platform pulls up information from a particular community that fits a veteran's personal request. That is, it is an accumulated amount of knowledge and proposals from the state, as well as partners, businesses, and international organizations that are ready to provide assistance, services, opportunities, and do so safely and in one place.

- Is there any data on how many people use this platform?

- Yes, there is. Of course, it is all monitored. But I should say right away that we do not track transactions by name. The total number of unique users on the E-Veteran platform is 178,000, the home page has 642,000 views, and the Red Cross claims page has 423,136 visitors. More than 80,000 people viewed information about guarantees and benefits. It is clear that some people may have visited the platform several times, but this is the general information about the number of contacts on the platform as of now.

WE WILL SOON LAUNCH A NEW SERVICE - "TRANSITION FROM MILITARY SERVICE TO CIVILIAN LIFE"

- What services have visitors used most often during the platform's operation?

- There are two key blocks on the platform. The first is an informational block where you can find answers to questions such as what rights I have, how to apply, and what documents to collect. This block is divided into two parts: 1) guarantees and benefits, 2) statuses.

The second block is services. Today, there are three of them: receiving financial assistance from the Red Cross, applying for a veteran's assistant (about 2,000 views), and participating in the Invictus Games (5,761 applications were submitted through the platform).

Soon, we will be launching a new service called Transition from Military Service to Civilian Life. I think that in the future we will talk about the number of visitors from this block.

- What will this block include?

- This block consists of several steps. The first one is identification, i.e. logging into the system.

The second is a survey where you will have to answer some basic questions. For example, in which community a person plans to live in the future. Why is this important for us? Because we will provide a certain list of services at the actual place of residence. After all, some services or guarantees are provided at the place of residence, some at the place of registration, and some can be provided regardless of both of these factors. The person must also answer questions about children, as these are potential opportunities for the family. There will also be questions about health. This is what is currently relevant to the platform user.

In the future, we will update, improve, and provide as much information and offers to veterans as possible.

- How do you plan to improve this system in the future? Do you plan to add any new services?

- Actually, this is a complicated question. This is a very dynamic system that develops according to requests. The request should come from veterans in the first place.

We are currently working on monitoring the quality of services in parallel. This is a separate service that should record the status of needs fulfillment. A veteran can record that a service in a particular community was provided well or unsatisfactorily, and indicate what needs to be changed, supplemented, or added. A comprehensive approach should be based on two-way interaction, meaning that we need to understand what we provide (the result) and how we do it (the process). The key issue is the quality and accessibility of services for veterans and their families.

- What other digital tools do you plan to implement?

- We work with statistical data. This is the state open data web portal, data.gov.ua. We are currently working on updating information about our sector of activity and translating it into English. This is important because international partners, businesses, and communities need to see publicly available statistical information that they can rely on.

We are also updating the website of the Ministry of Veterans Affairs, which has many different internal systems and interactions. The key focus is on verifying information and exchanging data with other registries. The topic of integration is extremely important, and about 40% of our time is spent on integration between systems.

WE, AS THE MINISTRY, HAVE TO SIMPLIFY THE PROCEDURE FOR PROVIDING SERVICES TO VETERANS AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE

- It is interesting to learn about the new program at the ASCs to introduce a single point of entry for veterans' services. Can you tell us more about it?

- ASCs are entry points for service provision, for recording needs on the ground. They have the ability to track which services are most in demand, where they need to be improved, which work algorithms are more efficiently worked out, and which are not. Because the service must be worked out both procedurally on the ground and at the level of automatic services and digital interaction algorithms. The ASC accepts documents, works with them, transfers them to the right place, and then the service is finally provided.

But if a person submits documents to administrative service centers and realizes that nothing happens there, it means that the problem is not with the ASC but with the systems themselves, which means we have something to work on.

- What services can a veteran use through administrative service centers?

- Services for veterans are divided by the type of funding. Some are funded from the general state budget, and some are funded from local budgets. Why is this important? Because decisions on the types and scope of services are made at different levels. When it comes to national services and guarantees, it is clear that they are defined at the state level and can be used everywhere. When it comes to services financed from local budgets, decisions are made at the level of local authorities, and thus regional differences in the scope, timing, and procedure for providing these services may arise. These services can be completely different and diverse.

As the Ministry of Veterans Affairs, we must create accessible and understandable mechanisms for veterans to receive guaranteed services and simplify this process as much as possible so that it is barrier-free, inclusive and accessible to citizens.

THE VETERAN ASSISTANT PROJECT CANNOT BE IMPLEMENTED QUICKLY

- We are currently selecting candidates for veterans' assistants. I understand that they will be able to accompany veterans in ASCs?

- The veteran assistant project was actually developed this year. You can apply for this position through the E-Veteran platform. Anyone can apply. This has significantly expanded the range of applicants. Currently, there are many more applicants than is usually the case when internal state competitions are opened. Unfortunately, we do not have time to implement this project as quickly as we would like. There are certain issues regarding funding and organizational nuances of the project.

The veteran's assistant will accompany the person if necessary. If a person is unable to use the digital service on their own, they can go to the ASC or contact a veteran's assistant.

- How can a veteran find this assistant?

- Assistants will be assigned to municipal institutions or municipal non-profit enterprises. They will be available in every community. Information about this will be available. The key specificity of the veteran's assistant's activity is that he or she will work "in the field," meaning that he or she will directly contact veterans and come to their homes if necessary.

- Will the veterans' assistants be able to cope with the potential volume of requests from their mentees?

- We hope that not everyone will turn to an assistant, because there are digital solutions that allow them not to do so, such as the E-Veteran platform. If a person cannot cope with something on their own, they will turn to an assistant.

In an ideal world, the system should work in such a way that a person does not need an assistant. If something doesn't work or is not enough, it is a record of what needs to be improved.

FREE RETRAINING PROGRAMS FOR VETERANS WILL BE INTRODUCED AT UNIVERSITIES

- A project to establish Veteran Development Centers is currently being actively launched in Ukraine. What is their function?

- A Veteran Development Center is a project to provide educational services. They will be opened at higher education institutions and will rely on the existing infrastructure, adapting it to the needs of veterans. Veterans will be able to apply there in case of need for education, retraining, or retraining. The higher education institution will be able to orient the veteran on the state of the labor market, the list of available certificate courses developed by the institution's specialists to improve their basic qualifications, deepen their knowledge and skills, provide career counseling, and plan a new educational trajectory.

- What programs for veterans will be introduced in higher education institutions?

- First of all, a veteran will be able to acquire certain additional skills in short certificate programs and then go to work. Developing such programs is the task of university departments. Each higher education institution will have different programs, depending on its scientific and educational profile.

- Will these programs be free?

- These programs will be free of charge for veterans.  They will be financed either by public, private or international funds.

- So now a veteran can already come to a certain Veteran Development Center and take advantage of the programs that have been developed?

- Yes. The only thing is that since we are just starting this process, certain organizational nuances may arise. But we are ready to resolve them promptly. We want to make it work.

Victoria Shevchenko, Kyiv

Photo: Ruslan Kanyuka, Ukrinform