Ukraine’s civil society has taken on an increasingly direct role in shaping public policy during the full-scale war. The question now is how to preserve that capacity, strengthen cooperation between organisations, and make collective advocacy work under growing pressure on funding and teams.
These issues were at the centre of the VI Legal Reform Forum for Civil Society, “Responsible for a Resilient Democracy,” held in Kyiv on 16 September. The annual forum brought together civil society leaders, government representatives, diplomats and experts to discuss
- the legal environment for CSOs,
- Ukraine’s EU integration,
- the next National Strategy for Civil Society Development for 2027–2032, and
- the role of coalitions in policymaking.
Kateryna Barysheva, Project Manager at Sahaidachnyi Security Center, Secretariat member and Community Manager of the Defence First Coalition, joined the discussion on the role of civil society coalitions and networks during wartime.
The panel examined
- how coalitions can influence state policy and EU integration processes,
- what they offer organisations at a time of declining funding, and
- how civil society can preserve common goals while responding to the immediate demands of war.
Barysheva presented the experience of the Defence First Coalition, drawing on the findings of Sahaidachnyi Security Center’s research “The new citizen-soldier: civil society actors driving change in national defence.” Conducted shortly before the Coalition was established, the research identified more than 40 active and self-sustaining civil society organisations working in Ukraine’s security and defence sector, with 12 included in an in-depth analysis.
One of the research findings was the emergence of a distinct civil defence sector in Ukraine, with CSOs increasingly involved across the full policy cycle, from identifying problems and developing solutions to advocacy and implementation.
For Barysheva, this is also where coalitions add value: they allow established organisations to combine expertise, resources and access while retaining their own identity.
“A coalition is about people and the emergence of new capabilities.”
This approach underpins the Defence First Coalition, which brings together organisations working on defence reform, integrity and security policy.
The discussion also addressed the balance between accountability, transparency and wartime effectiveness.
Watch the recording from the panel on YouTube (in Ukrainian).
