- Direction:
- IT
How governments build digital states: the new global podcast Code the State by Kitsoft
- Publication date and time:
- Reading time:
- 3 min
The Ukrainian GovTech company Kitsoft, with the support of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), has launched the podcast Code the State — a series of conversations about how governments create public online services and build digital public infrastructure. The podcast brings together practitioners, officials, and innovators who implement IT solutions in the public sector worldwide.
Code the State explores the real side of digital transformation — technological solutions, managerial trade-offs, failed projects, and real breakthroughs. Each episode is built around a specific story or case: what worked, what didn’t, and why.
- In each episode:
- real digitalization cases
- practical experience of launching services
- mistakes and challenges governments face
- approaches that enable scaling solutions
- the future of the digital state: the role of AI, agents, digital identity, and the platform approach to public services
The podcast explains complex GovTech topics in simple language and shows how to apply this knowledge in practice.
Host — Olena Uvarenko, International Program Lead at Kitsoft. The project will be of interest to those working in government digital teams or international organizations, building GovTech products, advising governments — or simply wanting to understand how digital transformation actually happens.
Opening episode: Ukraine and Europe — different approaches to digitalization
This episode opens the podcast and is dedicated to how the digital state is developing in Europe and Ukraine.
Episode guests:
- Daniel Korski — Danish entrepreneur, investor, former adviser to the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, co-founder of PUBLIC and one of the pioneers of GovTech in Europe
- Oleksandr Iefremov — CEO of Kitsoft, whose team created the Diia platform used by millions of Ukrainians.
In the conversation:
- Why public institutions avoid risk — and how this slows down digital transformation in Europe
- How Ukraine managed to create a digital service trusted by millions
- Why some countries transform while others do not
- What actually lies behind digital breakthroughs — politics or technology
- Why crises make states more efficient
- How artificial intelligence will change public services — and where its limits are
The real barrier is really bureaucratic risk averseness. And when you don’t understand something, your natural response would be to fear it and avoid it.
Governments need to stop thinking in procedures and start thinking in services that people actually rely on
First season: Women in GovTech
The first season of Code the State is dedicated to the Women in GovTech Challenge 2026 — a global program in which women from 85 countries develop prototypes of digital public services. Participants learn prototyping on Liquio — a low-code platform with a Community Edition created by the Kitsoft team for developing digital public services.
The season includes conversations with challenge participants, mentors, and international experts from UNDP, the World Bank, GIZ, EY — thought leaders and specialists in digital governance, cybersecurity, and public infrastructure development.
Code the State is about the real experience of digital transformation in governments. For me, it is an opportunity to hear from people who are actually changing systems and to understand how these changes happen from the inside. I invite you to listen to the first episode
More about the podcast and new episodes — on the Code the State page.
This article was prepared by Kitsoft, a member of the GovTech Alliance of Ukraine. The content is the sole responsibility of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of GTA UA or other Alliance members.
