How can you understand which projects a community is planning, how much they cost, where the funding is supposed to come from, and what stage of implementation they are at? And, most importantly, how can civil society organizations, journalists, and citizens use this data to help communities develop high-quality projects and monitor the use of public funds?
These issues were discussed during the online training session “How to Track the Use of Public Investment Funds and Work with DREAM Data,” organized by the Union Foundation together with Andrii Lukashuk, Learning Manager at Dream Academy.
What is DREAM and why does it matter?
DREAM is a digital ecosystem that brings together information about public investment projects and makes it possible to track them at different stages, from planning to implementation. Its goal is to make Ukraine’s reconstruction and development process more transparent, efficient, and accountable.
The importance of DREAM is particularly growing in the context of Ukraine’s path toward the European Union. One of the key areas of this process is the introduction of an effective public investment management (PIM) system. This is not only about new rules or digital tools. It is about how the state and communities plan investments, justify project needs, assess risks, and monitor the use of funds.
An effective PIM system is also important for attracting European funding in the future. The amount of EU structural funds potentially available to Ukraine could reach €90 billion over seven years. That is why it is important to understand now how high-quality public investment projects should be prepared and monitored.
From idea to implementation: what the reform changes
Public investments are state and local funds directed toward the development, reconstruction, modernization, and creation of necessary infrastructure.
Previously, the preparation of such projects could follow different procedures depending on the donor or funding source. There was no unified approach to track a project’s path from concept to implementation. Andrii Lukashuk explained that the public investment management reform is intended to change this situation. Its logic is straightforward: first, a community determines what it wants to achieve; then it decides where investment is needed; and only after that does it develop specific projects. Projects should be aligned with strategic documents and plans and supported by economic, financial, commercial, and management justifications.
In other words, the reform is not simply about entering information into a system, but about creating a new culture of public investment management. The DREAM ecosystem enables a unified approach to working on public investment projects. Experts have introduced a common methodology for preparing and monitoring the entire project life cycle.
This allows the government and civil society to understand how effectively and actively a particular region is developing, where it directs its funds, and which sectors it is developing most successfully.
What can you see in DREAM?
One of DREAM’s key features is data openness. The public portal and analytics module allow citizens, journalists, and civil society organizations to access information about public investments.
For the public, a significant portion of project information must be openly available. The DREAM analytics module enables viewing of projects, their status and life cycle, and funding information.
During the training, participants were shown how this works in practice using the Kherson region as an example. The regional profile displayed projects, their status, estimated cost, sector, objective, geographic impact, initiator, and other data. Users can also view a project’s feasibility study, strategic framework, technical solutions, and the portfolios it belongs to.
The analytics module enables work not only on individual projects but also on large datasets. Information can be filtered by region, community, sector, status, and other parameters, while tables can be downloaded for further analysis.
One important point emphasized by the speaker, Andrii Lukashuk, during the training was that the presence of a project on the portal does not necessarily mean it will be implemented.
A separate part of the training focused on how civil society can work with DREAM data.
When preparing projects, communities need to assess more than just their cost. Economic impact, accessibility, gender equality, energy efficiency, risks, and other indicators are also important. This is where civil society organizations with relevant expertise can be useful. The system enables you to determine whether a particular project needs assistance and to offer relevant expertise.
DREAM as a public monitoring tool
DREAM’s open data enables the public to see what is happening with public investments and to ask specific questions.
It is possible to track a project's stage, estimated cost, allocated funding, and how these metrics change over time. At present, the system does not automatically determine whether a particular project poses a corruption risk. At the same time, open data allows the public to analyze projects independently.
In the future, the system is expected to cover the entire life cycle of a public investment project — from planning and preparation through implementation and completion. It will also provide information on the use of funds and monitoring reports on whether project objectives have been achieved.
The training demonstrated that, for the Kherson region, the DREAM ecosystem can serve as another tool for identifying community needs, monitoring development plans, and understanding which projects require additional attention or support. Participants learned about the logic of the reform and, through practical examples, saw how to find information about their communities, analyze projects, and use open data in their own work.
The training was organized by the Kherson Regional Charitable Foundation “Union” with the support of the European Endowment for Democracy (EED). Its content does not necessarily reflect the official position of the EED. The information and views expressed in this material are the sole responsibility of the author(s).
