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.

The first two episodes are already available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. The podcast is released in English.

About the podcast

‍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.

Two episodes of the Code the State podcast have been released

The first episode focuses on why some governments move through digital transformation faster than others. Guests include Daniel Korski — co-founder of PUBLIC and one of the pioneers of GovTech in Europe — and Oleksandr Iefremov, CEO of Kitsoft. The conversation explores risk culture in public institutions, trust in digital services, the role of AI, and what truly drives digital breakthroughs.

The second episode focuses on how digital services move from idea to prototype and eventually create real impact on people’s lives. Together with Tuntufye Mwamlimina Ntaukira — Digital Governance Analyst at United Nations Development Programme (Malawi) and mentor of the Women in GovTech Challenge — and Oleksandr Iefremov, we discuss how to build government services quickly, why even the best solutions sometimes fail, and where real digital transformation begins.

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,” — Olena Uvarenko.

More about the podcast and new episodes — on the Code the State page.

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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.