14 September 2026
(PHOTO: Intent)
The development of a city strategy, which began last year in Odesa, is continuing, and on September 12, the city hosted the Odesa Strategy Conference 2026, which served as a milestone in this process.
Intent served as the event’s media partner, and the Center for Public Investigations participated in developing the strategy. The conference was organized by the “Na Chasi” community space, the “Plemya” civic organization, the “Odesa Strategy” civic association, the Regional Development Agency, and the Odesa City Strategic Development Council.
This year, more than 140 people—representatives of civil society organizations and associations, volunteers, experts, city council members, and Odessa’s acting mayor, Ihor Koval—contributed to the development of the document.
The central theme of this year’s conference was the slogan “Different Voices, One Odesa.” The organizers deliberately brought together people with diverse professional, political, and social perspectives in one place to ensure that the city’s strategic planning would not remain confined to a single circle.
In total, 25 of the city’s civic organizations have already joined the strategy development process; they discussed eight strategic areas of development. Conference participants unanimously recognized the development of the strategy as a necessary step, since, as Andriy Rozov, director of the city’s Department of Economic Development, noted, while legislation in Ukraine currently governs the creation of such strategies, the state-level process is quite slow.
“This is a national document; it is regulated by Ukrainian law. There are national, regional, and municipal levels. The national strategy is being developed, but there are no methodological guidelines. First comes the national strategy, then the regional one, and only then the municipal one. It will not be until 2029 that we will actually be able to implement the 2028–2034 strategy,” the official emphasized.
Meanwhile, he noted that the strategy will continue to influence budget planning, and legislative requirements stipulate that proposals from civil society organizations must be taken into account.
However, not all meeting participants agreed with the need to work on the city’s strategy right now—during a full-scale invasion—especially since the state is not funding the strategy development process. Councilmember Oleg Zvyagin even called the city’s development strategy during the war “fiction.”
In contrast, Councilmember and civic activist Oleksandr Slavskyi emphasized that the strategy process will continue regardless. He noted that because the city council has limited resources, it is precisely necessary to involve civil society organizations in the work on the strategy.
Кирило Бойко