Romania
It all started in Romania, in 2016
The first sparks of what would later become Commit Global ignited at the end of 2015, when Romanian civil society was at a crossroads, and a deep sense of urgency was felt within the country. Code for Romania appeared as a response to this urgency, with the goal of using technology to tackle the country’s most pressing social challenges. What began as an initiative by a small group of volunteers grew over the years to a community of over 3000 people, driven by a collective wish to create meaningful change.
Over the past seven years, our team has conducted the most extensive research in Romania since the fall of the communist regime in 1989. We looked into several key sectors, mapping the stakeholders and identifying the most significant problems and pressing needs in domains like education, environment, health, care for vulnerable groups, and civic engagement. By understanding the environment, we could design nearly 400 digital solutions that would effectively address real-world problems. Of these, more than 70 have already been developed and are fully functional. In time, Code for Romania became a vital part in Romania’s civic-tech landscape, growing into the largest civic technology organization of its kind in the world.
When the war in Ukraine began on February 24, 2022, overnight, Romania became home to refugees and displaced people. In response, Code for Romania was able to develop and deploy the digital infrastructure needed by the Department for Emergency Situations to coordinate with international humanitarian agencies, NGOs, local initiatives, informal groups, or regular citizens who wished to help - all within just 48 hours.
”I wish we had this back in Lebanon,” remarked the head of the UNHCR office in Romania. In times of emergency, whether triggered by a natural disaster or a war, the needs of the affected populations remain fundamentally the same. Technology is agnostic of culture, language, or geography, which is why the digital infrastructure that supported Ukrainian refugees could also be adapted to help the victims of a hurricane in North America or any other crisis worldwide. Commit Global was created on the backbone of Code for Romania to expand the use of technology as a force for social change, empower civil society, and respond to humanitarian crises worldwide. Together, we build, deploy, and maintain the Global Infrastructure for Good.
Education
The challenges faced by the Romanian educational system go beyond the walls of schools and universities; they are a pressing concern for the entire society and play a central role in shaping the future of its citizens.
The more we prioritize education, the more we understand that Romanian society's problems require long-term, sustainable solutions, fundamental changes, and significant improvements. During our extensive research, we focused on the following areas: training of teachers, access to education, acquisition of real-life skills among young people, access to information, civic education, school safety, good management, and the quality of education in university and pre-university environments. We aim to address the challenges in those areas by bridging the gap between traditional learning methods and the areas in which technology can have a tangible impact. Interactions with others are essential at various stages of an individual's development, but well-utilized technology can enhance the value of the educational process.
The digital solutions built in Romania improve access to education, support educators, and ensure that all citizens acquire essential life skills and access crucial information.
Law Made Simple
Law Made Simple is a user-friendly platform that translates the laws from legalese to everyday language, helping citizens better understand their rights, obligations, and the legal services available. Through simple, step-by-step decision trees, users can navigate everyday situations and life events from a legal standpoint and easily discover the information they need.
EduacCES
EduacCES is an online platform that enhances access to educational resources for teachers working with students with special educational needs. Over a thousand learning materials, from sample tests and worksheets to research papers, articles, and teaching guides, have been provided through EduacCES.
Envirnoment and Disaster Relief Management
The well-being of each citizen is intrinsically linked to the health of the environment around them, within which they and future generations live and develop. When we think about the environment, forests, nature, and green spaces are often the first elements that come to mind. However, the scope of environmental concerns goes far beyond these, encompassing urban development, infrastructure, protected areas, the management of natural disasters, and strategies to combat various forms of pollution.
We aim to address these complex challenges by providing sustainable, scalable digital solutions that focus on some of Romania's most pressing environmental issues, from disaster protection and preparedness to pollution, waste management, and sustainable urban and rural development.
Earthquake
The 1977 earthquake in Romania struck on March 4th with a magnitude of 7.2, causing extensive damage, particularly in Bucharest. Decades later, are Romanians more prepared for another earthquake?
Our online platform provides information and resources meant to increase earthquake preparedness and raise awareness of seismic risks among Romanian citizens. It also acts as a meeting point for public and private initiatives dedicated to responding to seismic risks in Romania.
RVM
Resource and Volunteer Management (RVM) is a tool for managing human and material resources provided by civil society to the Department for Emergency Situations in the event of a disaster. The system is constantly maintained to always be ready in an emergency. The system enables the management of available resource inventories, their quantities, types of materials, and storage locations, as well as the status of volunteers organized by distinct specializations.
Recycling Map
Recycling Map is the first national interactive platform that allows users to identify and locate selective waste collection points across Romania. It also enables users to contribute to the platform’s database by adding new collection points or updating existing ones if their descriptions are inaccurate.
Vulnerable Groups Support
Around each tragic event, society’s attention temporarily shifts toward the problems of social groups in need of support. However, the social inclusion of vulnerable individuals is not an issue that can be addressed with isolated good intentions. It demands long-term efforts and innovative solutions, as well as the intention itself.
People living in extreme poverty, institutionalized children, people with disabilities, and various minority groups represent some of the most vulnerable communities in Romanian society. While conducting our research, we focused on identifying the most pressing issues faced by the most vulnerable groups in Romania across five key areas: domestic violence, the challenges of the Romanian diaspora, issues affecting the LGBTQIA+ community, people with disabilities, discrimination against Roma people, the problems of abandoned children, and the extreme situation of individuals who fall victim to human trafficking.
By leveraging technology's positive potential, we designed solutions to address these pressing issues: support and empower Romanian society's most vulnerable people, combat discrimination and social exclusion, and ensure everyone can live with dignity. Given the diversity of the vulnerable groups and their challenges, each of the digital solutions designed is created to solve the problem of a specific target group.
Be an Ally
In a world where hate messages are louder and more visible, Be an Ally encourages support and kindness while fostering a sense of community for the Romanian LGBTQ+ population. As of 2025, almost 3000 allies joined the initiative through encouraging messages and stories.
Good Watch
In Romania, approximately 16,000 people live in public residential centers for adults with disabilities. Additionally, people with disabilities may also be long-term residents of other types of institutions, such as psychiatric hospitals.
Good Watch is a mobile tool that allows people with disabilities in residential centers to report abuse to the authorities. The tool has an intuitive design and is created in a language that is easy to understand, even for individuals with intellectual or psycho-emotional disabilities.
Health
In recent years, the need for an efficient, well-organized healthcare system accessible to all citizens has become increasingly apparent. In a functioning society, the right to health, health education, and access to medical services are fundamental aspects often taken for granted.
Our organization aims to use technology to address the existing gaps within the Romanian healthcare system, from connecting citizens with essential medical resources, information, and support to increasing access to vital healthcare services.
Having a health system so challenged, mental health tends to be overlooked even more.
To achieve these goals, 7 digital tools have been developed and are actively supporting Romanians in increasing their access to vital health services.
Community Health Nurse
Community Health Nurse is a patient management tool used by public nurses. Community health nurses provide medical services to compensate for the lack of healthcare and the patients' access to such services in areas and regions that need them the most (for example: rural areas, isolated regions, or places without a dispensary or clinic, etc.).
The digital solution deployed in partnership with the Romanian Ministry of Health has already been used by 1,800 community health nurses and their coordinators, serving over 700,000 beneficiaries nationwide.
Health Center
Health Center is developed in partnership with the Romanian College of Physicians. It enables access to easy-to-understand, essential health information about common medical conditions and available healthcare services. Useful information and helpful advice can be found on nearly 100 common afflictions.
Mental Health
Mental Health offers resources and information meant to support individuals facing mental health challenges themselves while also addressing the general population to reduce the stigma surrounding the subject. Currently, the website hosts useful resources and information on over 50 topics connected to mental health.
NGO Capacity Building
Every day, civil society organizations are vital in driving positive change. Supporting them fosters a more functional, inclusive, and resilient community. However, many NGOs face significant challenges related to efficiency, transparency, and access to and management of resources.
Following extensive research in understanding the internal operations of the various types of NGOs, from large international organizations to small initiative groups, we have identified a set of critical pain points that led us to design a 360-degree approach to solving the internal challenges of every NGO. The ecosystem is designed to provide a wide range of digital solutions specially developed for organizations' internal administrative tasks and external communication.
The entire ecosystem consists of integrated tools maintained centrally and managed from a single digital toolkit access point that can be available to every NGO, depending on their needs. An NGO may use one, two, more, or all tools available in this ecosystem.
Through digital tools, we empower NGOs by offering them the means through which they can have more efficient internal processes and increase their impact and visibility within the broader community. These technologies contribute to creating a stronger civil society, which is a cornerstone of any thriving and healthy society.
THE ECOSYSTEM’S CENTRAL POINT
NGO HUB
NGO Hub is the ecosystem's central point and allows organizations free access to a catalog of digital tools that helps them identify and use the solutions provided pro bono. The catalog includes digital tools and websites that offer support in communication, fundraising, data management, operational management, financial management, and representation.
Website Factory NGO - an easy-to-navigate and free website builder for NGOs;
Act for Good - a platform that enables citizens to easily redirect 3.5% of their income tax to support the civil society sector;
VIC - a volunteer management tool;
Agora - a self-regulation mechanism through which civil society chooses its proposals for representatives in public institutions.
NGO Hub opened its doors in 2024, and in its first year, close to 2000 NGOs joined the ecosystem.
Since 2017, an estimated over seven million Euros have been redirected into the nongovernmental sector through Act for Good.
Over 100 NGOs have requested to use Website Factory NGO to create a better online presence.
The civil society representatives in the Economic and Social Council were elected on Agora for the past two consecutive terms.
Democracy and Transparency
Free and transparent elections represent the cornerstone of any democracy. They grant its citizens the power to choose their leaders and influence the decisions that shape their lives.
Since 2016, our organization has focused on improving electoral practices by developing digital solutions that enhance the transparency and fairness of the electoral process. To this end, a comprehensive ecosystem of digital tools has been developed, meant to provide citizens with real-time data, increase accessibility to relevant information for all voters, and keep a watchful eye on the electoral process to ensure greater integrity and transparency.
The ecosystem empowers citizens to use technology to actively participate in the electoral process and hold their leaders accountable.
WORKSHOP
European Election Watch
In the wake of the European Elections 2024, we organized a workshop to enhance observation, monitoring, and communication efforts surrounding the elections.
During the four-day workshop, we explored strategies to strengthen electoral processes and promote transparency in our democratic systems with NGO representatives and electoral experts from Poland, Bulgaria, and Romania.
Vote Monitor
Vote Monitor is the first digital tool used in Romania in election observation and one of the first similar tools ever built worldwide. It is a game changer that helped transform election observation from a pen-and-paper activity followed by a long and difficult data analyzing process into a real-time one.
From 2016 onwards, the NGOs in Romania that coordinate independent observers can receive real-time information from any polling station and have a general overview of the situation at any moment.
Vote Results
We developed Vote Results to help increase the accessibility of electoral information. Throughout the days of the elections, the platform presents real-time information about voter turnout, and after the polling stations close, it also displays real-time partial results at country, county and municipality level.
Through extensive research and development, the platform also brings together historical data on all elections in Romania after 1990.
Vote Diaspora
In 2014, thousands of Romanians living in the diaspora queued for days to be able to vote, yet many were unable to. For the following elections, we developed a platform that allows anyone to understand what they need to do to vote abroad and where the closest polling station is, through an easy-to-navigate decision tree that takes just under two minutes.
Since 2016, Vote Diaspora has been helping over 1 million citizens learn what documents they need in order to be able to vote and how to get to the polling station.
Code for Romania Task Force
The task force is a rapid response mechanism that allows the fast creation and deployment of digital tools in emergency situations, meant to assist intervention teams on the ground, as well as provide smoother communication between the authorities and the citizens, contributing effectively to restoring normalcy.
Living in permacrises, Code for Romania has already been through two major task forces - moments when the team and community of volunteers came together to deliver the critical solutions needed in a timely manner.
Covid-19 Task Force
After witnessing the pandemic approaching, in March 2020, Romania entered a lockdown. The COVID-19 pandemic brought fear, uncertainty, misinformation, and much loneliness. Our team could not just stand by and witness it. In a matter of days, the entire community stepped up to create the critical infrastructure that the authorities and civil society needed to help Romanian citizens. The information platforms created around the pandemic were used by over 16 million Romanians within the country, as well as by tens of thousands in the diaspora.
Indeed, the entire adult population of Romania got the information they needed from the websites created and maintained by our team.
Ukrainian Refugees Task Force
Just as the pandemic seemed to end, a new crisis appeared on February 24th, 2022, when war broke out at Romania’s border as the war started in Ukraine. As hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians fled towards Romania, the Code for Romania task force built a unique humanitarian digital infrastructure to protect them and provide access to vital information and services.
Over 2.5 million refugees have found support through the solutions created under the Dopomoha.ro platform, and they continue to do so today.