Odessa's Development Strategy: How to Measure Results

A discussion on ways to monitor the Odessa Development Strategy took place during a meeting of representatives from civil society organizations, the Odessa City Council, and the media. The meeting participants explored options for collecting statistical information about the city, opportunities for coordination between the government and the community, and effective mechanisms for presenting data to Odessa residents.

The meeting was attended by representatives of the NGO “Community Development Fund ‘DOBRO’,” the NGO “Zmistom,” and the Public Association “Odessa Strategy.” The keynote speaker was Andriy Fedotov, an expert in data-driven governance. Participants discussed the following aspects of future monitoring of the Odessa Development Strategy.

What Are Indicators and Why Are They Needed?

Any strategy involves setting specific goals. However, when addressing complex, multifaceted issues, it is not always easy to determine exactly what constitutes a result or the achievement of those goals. In practice, this sometimes leads to those in charge merely going through the motions of carrying out a series of actions and operations that are thematically related to the goal.

To ensure that the achievement of a goal can be verified later, performance metrics or indicators are incorporated into the strategy. Indicators must be measurable—for example, they should contain specific quantitative values or percentages—which not only allows for monitoring the effectiveness of implementation but also enables those responsible to clearly visualize the scope of actions required to achieve the goals.

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Discussion of the indicators for the Odesa Development Strategy. SCREENSHOT: Zoom conference

According to Andriy Fedotov, indicators should be considered before developing the strategy. The point is that indicators should not be created simply because they must formally be included in the text of the strategy (such as cutting 30 ribbons or helping 50 senior citizens cross the street). A specific indicator should be developed because the community has identified a concrete problem that requires priority attention. The combination of the community’s identified pressing problems and the corresponding goals and indicators developed for them should lead to the formulation of a strategy—that is, a plan to address precisely the most urgent problems, rather than all problems across all sectors.

At the same time, it is important to formulate the goal and develop the indicator in such a way that this ultimately leads to at least a partial resolution of the problem. For example, the mere fact that 300 unemployed people applied to the employment center is hardly a good indicator of its effectiveness. An indicator, for instance, could be that one-third of them were helped to find a job.

What Is the Challenge in Developing Effective Indicators?

Individual goals and measures within a strategy are often aimed at specific population groups—children, retirees, and so on. To meet the specific needs of such a group, it is necessary to have information about the composition and number of its members. However, this is where we in Ukraine face a problem with data collection.

At present, it is difficult to determine the exact number of members in any given community. Clearly, the war with Russia complicates the situation as much as possible. Naturally, the data from the 2001 census will be significantly outdated. Sources of significantly more comprehensive information include the State Voter Registry, data from the State Tax Service, mobile operators, and other institutions and organizations that, by the nature of their work, regularly collect information about the population. At the same time, using such information for strategic planning requires specific legal mechanisms for access and must take into account data protection requirements. For community analysis, the focus is primarily on aggregated or anonymized data, rather than information about specific individuals.

Another statistical challenge involves collecting information on specific events and incidents when formulating individual goals and objectives. For example, a significantly higher number of traffic accidents in one of the city’s districts could influence the formulation of a narrowly focused objective within the strategy. The challenge, however, is that such statistics must also be obtained from somewhere. Andriy Fedotov suggests that a variety of useful information may be scattered in an unstructured manner across various departments in Odesa. For members of the public willing to contribute to the development of the City Development Strategy, establishing effective communication with Odesa’s administrative offices and departments should be a key priority.

It is necessary to consider creating a diversified system for collecting statistical data that can integrate the work of city officials, sociological centers, and sociology departments at universities, along with footage from surveillance cameras, popular mobile apps, and websites. At the same time, Andriy Fedotov emphasizes that the system must operate with regular updates to the information.

How to Engage Odessa’s Residents in the City’s Development Strategy

For many residents, strategic planning remains far removed from everyday life. Therefore, one of the tasks for civil society organizations while working on the Strategy is to draw Odessa residents’ attention to issues of local self-government.

The meeting focused on the development and creation of dashboards that would allow citizens to monitor the implementation of the Strategy online. With over 200 tasks covering various aspects of city life, the Strategy includes many topics that directly relate to the everyday interests of Odessa residents. The idea of creating dashboards at the city district level also seems reasonable, as it would allow local residents to focus on the issues in their own neighborhoods.

At the same time, it is important to distinguish between current monitoring and future strategic planning. The current Strategy already defines metrics by which the achievement of its goals and objectives can be assessed. At the same time, the systematic collection of statistics during its implementation can help identify the city’s problems more accurately and develop indicators for future strategic planning cycles.

Conclusion

Monitoring the Odessa Development Strategy makes sense only when it is based on clear indicators, reliable data, and regularly updated information. That is why it is important now not to limit ourselves to creating a dashboard or other user-friendly tool for citizens, but to simultaneously establish a system for collecting and verifying data.

The participation of civil society organizations in this process can make the implementation of the Strategy more transparent and understandable to the residents of Odesa. If residents can see not only the planned goals but also the actual progress toward them, the Strategy will have a much better chance of becoming a practical tool rather than a mere formality.

This article was prepared by Intent as part of a partnership within the “Circle of Influence” project. The editorial team independently determines the content, focus, and conclusions of this publication.

The initiative is being implemented by the NGO “Community Development Fund ‘DOBRO’” in collaboration with the NGO “STEP” as part of the “Circle of Influence” project, with support from NED. Project partners: the NGO “Zmistom,” the Public Association “Odessa Strategy,” the Odesa City Council’s Department of Economic Development, the Odesa City Council’s Department of Labor and Social Policy, the social communications agency “Shchyro,” and the media outlet Intent.
      

Олег Пархітько