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Strengthening the Local Financial Initiative in Ukraine

Hromadsky Project

Hromadsky Project is an innovative online platform revolutionizing how Ukrainian cities and communities manage their budgets. Developed in 2026 as part of the USAID project "Strengthening the Local Financial Initiative in Ukraine," Hromadsky Project empowers citizens by automating the participatory budgeting process. It is a classic B2G product (business-to-government) where municipalities are the valued customers.

Background

The roots of participatory budgeting in Ukraine can be traced back to the Revolution of Dignity when passionate activists ignited a powerful demand for change.

Municipalities responded by embracing a new practice – entrusting citizens with the decision-making power to allocate a portion of the budget funds. Citizens propose projects that align with their vision for the city, which then undergo city-wide voting.

Electronic voting is widely adopted, and winning projects receive funding from the budget, turning ideas into tangible realities that benefit the community.

Development

Hromadsky Project serves as a transformative tool in this process, granting citizens a genuine say in their city's development and providing local authorities with insights into the community's needs and concerns. By promoting private-public partnerships and uniting activists and social initiatives, the platform fosters collaborative efforts to drive positive change.

In 2017, SocialBoost engaged PrivatBank as a project partner. APIs were developed for integration into the bank's products, and the bank expanded its products to integrate new voting capabilities. Later, SocialBoost improved the API to vote through bank self-service terminals.

Since December 2018, the team has started monetizing the project for cities. The annual usage fee varies depending on the population, including server infrastructure support, system debugging advice, technical support, and bug fixes.

Product

Hromadsky Project serves as a transformative tool in this process, granting citizens a genuine say in their city's development and providing local authorities with insights into the community's needs and concerns. By promoting private-public partnerships and uniting activists and social initiatives, the platform fosters collaborative efforts to drive positive change.

In 2017, SocialBoost engaged PrivatBank as a project partner. APIs were developed for integration into the bank's products, and the bank expanded its products to integrate new voting capabilities. Later, SocialBoost improved the API to vote through bank self-service terminals.

Since December 2018, the team has started monetizing the project for cities. The annual usage fee varies depending on the population, including server infrastructure support, system debugging advice, technical support, and bug fixes.

Results

Engaging a diverse array of individuals, from students and parents to architects and entrepreneurs, Hromadsky Project sees an array of initiatives proposed, spanning from playgrounds to sensory rooms and IT spaces.

As of March 2023, the Hromadsky Project was used in 99 cities and communities; in particular, three communities, in addition to the Hromadsky Project, also used the additional module School Participatory Budget. During the years of operation of the platform:

  • 7,308 authors submitted projects
  • 11,067 projects were registered on the platform
  • 4,917,443 votes were cast for projects

In 2019, the Hromadsky Project platform was one of the finalists in the Inclusive&Sharing Cities nomination at the World Smart City Awards, which took place on November 19-21 in Barcelona. The award organizers recognized the project among the top 20 solutions that change cities. The Hromadsky Project platform is the only project from Ukraine that made it to the finals.