A Ukrainian National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) is the key to effectively managing resources and building a modern sustainable economy. An NSDI permits agricultural land, forests, infrastructure, and water resources to be inventoried and monitored, allowing more effective government policies to be developed, and improves decision making within the Ukrainian civil service. A successful NSDI requires civil servants who are prepared for the transition to a digital Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI).
Ukraine is currently developing a Spatial Data Infrastructure, which will permit map and geospatial database information to be shared within government departments, and between Ukraine and other national governments, non-governmental organizations, private companies, and individual citizens. One of the important applications is that the Ukrainian Spatial Data Infrastructure will allow effective management of the country’s cadastral data, enabling the purchase and sale of privatized agricultural land. Although this is a very important result, the “larger picture” benefit of a Spatial Data Infrastructure will be the creation of an “information economy” in Ukraine. Such a transformation will enable Ukraine to become a vastly more efficient country, socially, environmentally, and economically. For example, an NSDI permits agricultural land, forests, infrastructure, and water resources to be inventoried and monitored, allowing more effective government policies to be developed, and improves decision making within the Ukrainian civil service.
As with any new technology, the implementation of a Spatial Data Infrastructure is not possible without people. A successful NSDI requires civil servants who are prepared for the transition to a digital SDI. It is much easier to implement new technologies when experienced, enthusiastic, and trusted advocates of the project are readily available within government offices.
The goal of Laying the Foundation for a Spatial Data Infrastructure: Building Capacity within the Ukrainian Government to Support Sustainable Economic Growth (Ukrainian SDI Training Program) is to encourage the adoption of this new technology by developing a locally administered training program with highly qualified Ukrainian instructors providing instruction to 100 trainees from the Ukrainian Civil Service.
Goals
The Ukrainian SDI Training Program is one key building block in a larger process. When considered as a part of the larger National Spatial Data Infrastructure project, a more extensive set of indirect goals can be identified. The Ukrainian SDI Training Program can support the development of Ukrainian SDI through the:
- Preparation of certified professionals for key government agencies in the fields of GIS and SDI;
- Transfer of Canadian experience in the field of education training for SDI;
- Education of the public about the need for SDI and how it can be used;
- Creation of an educational centre centred around the National Technical University of Ukraine "Kyiv Polytechnic Institute" and Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, which provides educational and scientific expertise for the Ukrainian SDI;
- Production of educational and instructional materials for education in SDI; and
- Support for the adoption and development of SDI in Ukraine.
The civil servants enrolled in the program will be trained in Ukraine by a cadre of local, Ukrainian speaking trainers, who will be trained in Canada for one month between April and June 2014. At the end of this project, the local trainers will be able to continue with SDI training activities, ensuring that the momentum developed during this project can continue indefinitely. The goal is to develop a functional, ongoing NSDI training program in Ukraine that can be sustained after the project has ended.
Expected Results
The following outcomes are expected:
Immediate outcomes:
- Four male and two female GIS trainers trained in technologies to support the Ukrainian NSDI;
- Six course curricula on SDI developed, adapted, and translated; and
- Approximately 100 Civil Servants (70 female and 30 male) trained and certified in Spatial Data Infrastructure and Geomatics technologies.
Intermediate outcomes:
- An educational program curriculum established to support the rapid adoption of an SDI in the Ukrainian Government. Academic expertise in SDI will be established in Ukraine;
- The Ukrainian Government and trainers will retain all program materials after project completion;
- Intellectual property protection conditions on the use and distribution of VIU training material will be explicitly defined within the agreement between VIU and its Ukrainian partners when the project begins;
- Trained personnel will manage land ownership more effectively;
- There will be an increased ability within the Ukrainian Government to work with Ukraine's European neighbours;
- In each of the courses that are translated and taught, data used in examples will be gender disaggregated wherever possible, and in each course there will be a minimum of one graded exercise where gender analysis or disaggregation is required for exercise completion