The Novoodesa City Territorial Community of Mykolaiv Oblast has become one of the four pilot communities in Ukraine that will receive expert support in adapting local strategies, programmes, plans and recovery projects. This was made possible through cooperation with the Centre for Innovation Development as part of the project “Strengthening Democratic Processes in Territorial Communities”, supported by the USAID Democratic Governance in Eastern Ukraine project.
The project in the Novoodeska community started with:
- Holding working meetings with the community leadership to discuss the goals and expected results of the project;
- Creation of a working group of representatives of local authorities, civil society, residents and IDPs;
- Developing a detailed implementation plan for the project, taking into account the specifics of the community;
- Holding a public presentation of the project implementation plan to inform and engage community members.
Throughout the project, the Novoodeska community will have the opportunity to receive and apply modern democratic tools to ensure effective local recovery and sustainable development, including:
- Conducting a 2-day ideation workshop to generate ideas for community development projects involving various stakeholder groups;
- Developing an Implementation Plan for the Community Development Strategy until 2027 based on proposals from the public, business, and IDPs;
- Analysing the consistency of strategic and programme documents of the community, making the necessary changes.
The project will provide the necessary tools and expertise to review and update the Development Strategy in line with new challenges.
The Development Strategy of the Novoodeska community was adopted in February 2024, and the development of the Strategy began in 2021. Changes in the Strategy should be in line with changes in Ukrainian policies. The reorientation of secondary education in Ukraine towards vocational education requires revising the objectives of operational objective B2 “Creating an effective educational and cultural environment of equal opportunities” towards cooperation with vocational education institutions and businesses. Improving the system of humanitarian assistance to communities, implementation of European and global assistance programmes requires changes to Strategic Objective A “Effective community security system”, namely to the operational objective A2. “Ensuring food security (for the period of martial law)” in terms of creating a food fund, namely, expanding the functions of the humanitarian hub and its cooperation with assistance centres. Operational objective B4 “Development of river tourism” should be implemented after the end of hostilities.
If you have any suggestions on how to restore and develop the investment climate of the Novo Odesa community, please submit them here: https://forms.gle/MR9j2rgMG1Z5YuqJ6
Oleksandr Polyakov, Mayor of the Novoodeska community, emphasised: “Participation in this project is a great opportunity for our community to become more sustainable and united, as we will be able to develop a high-quality Development Strategy Implementation Plan that will reflect the interests of all residents. I call on the public, business representatives, IDPs, and youth to actively participate in all stages of the project and together create a successful future for our community!”
The implementation of these initiatives will not only contribute to improving the economic and social climate in the community, but will also serve as an example of effective resource mobilisation and public participation on the way to achieving the set goals, reflecting the power of cooperation and collective responsibility for the future.
For reference: The implementation of this project was made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The Innovation Development Centre is implementing the project “Strengthening Democratic Processes in Territorial Communities” with the support of the USAID Democratic Governance in Eastern Ukraine Project.