The humanitarian sector in Ukraine: lessons learned during a year of full-scale war

The humanitarian sector in Ukraine: lessons learned during a year of full-scale war



Last year, Russia’s full-scale attack on Ukraine caused a humanitarian catastrophe unseen in recent decades in the center of Europe, in a country that was on the path of modern development from IT to the agricultural sector, from the latest state management technologies to social innovations. According to OCHA data, in Ukraine as of February 10, 2023, more than 17.7 million Ukrainians are in need of humanitarian assistance, 13.4 million have been forced to leave their homes temporarily or for a long time, or in many cases permanently. The murderous war of terrorist Russia against Ukraine, its civilian population, women and children has been going on for a year. Millions of people and dozens of countries from all over the world have supported and continue to support Ukraine and its population both inside and outside the country with humanitarian aid. Over the past 12 months, significant opportunities for optimization of aid and great potential for sustainability have crystallized in the field of humanitarian aid. It is no secret that all international humanitarian organizations, without exception, faced a challenge at the end of February 2022 that they have not been able to overcome to this day. It is about a strategic, tactical, flexible and at the same time sustainable organization of humanitarian aid. Everyone, at the private, institutional and organizational level, was driven by emotions, which was natural, and simply wanted to help as quickly as possible or took months to start helping. In many international organizations, the experience was too limited based on knowledge of humanitarian aid in certain countries of Africa or Asia, and there was no understanding of Ukraine, the specifics of its development and context. Even today, these moments do not allow us to develop the most effective cooperation with local partners – both state and public. On the other hand, the Ukrainian civil society itself was not ready for the scale of the disaster that had to be faced, as well as for the scale of work and cooperation with foreign partners, did not understand the logic and challenges associated with the work of foreign partners. In addition, there was no understanding of the full significance of their roles among Ukrainian public organizations for international partners, because local partners play a decisive role in the formation of humanitarian aid policies and can influence the sometimes unjustified, non-innovative and unstable methods of work of international organizations in the humanitarian sphere. Thinking in terms of “it’s good that they help at least somehow” on the part of local partners would be the wrong approach, because we are all in the same boat, and only with joint efforts and close communication will this boat move towards the goal – to help in order to improve and correct the situation. at the same time to make the beneficiaries independent. What could we pay attention to in this, hopefully, victorious year for Ukraine and its society in the field of humanitarian aid? 1. Humanitarian aid needs to be seen as development work from a visionary, contextual and strategic perspective. The goal of humanitarian aid is to prevent the victim from deteriorating, primarily morally and physically. The goal of assistance is not to make a person dependent, but to create favorable conditions so that he can help himself and others, in close cooperation with local authorities, entrepreneurs and public organizations. Therefore, it is necessary to quickly and “gently” pick up a person at the most critical moment. It can be compared to an airbag: an accident happened, but the person was not too badly hurt and immediately received further support to get out of the car and get away from the stress. 2. Ukrainian and some international organizations mostly comment on the humanitarian aid methods of the past 12 months as over-bureaucratized, conceptually outdated, and, unfortunately, not always humanitarian-centric, which often harms the environment in the broadest sense of the word. Such assistance requires too much unnecessary work with documents, agreements and things that require both human and electrical energy. Large and small international humanitarian organizations or those with access to funds spend a significant part of the financial, human and communication resources on the organization of humanitarian work, and this is too much of a resource that can be applied more innovatively and effectively. It would be possible to provide such resources for the benefit of the victims and involve them in humanitarian aid, which would be based on modern technologies of work coordination, document management and management methods. They should be directed to the payment of funds to local organizations and their employees, which should make it possible to hire their employees on a more permanent basis and for a longer period of time. This would, on the one hand, strengthen their professional, institutional development and institutional memory, and on the other hand, support the state and society through the payment of taxes for each fully employed employee. 3. The goal of humanitarian aid is to reach a level where beneficiaries can help themselves and organize processes independently. It is not enough to rebuild or equip a hospital with medical equipment or medicines, this will only partially contribute to sustainable functioning, because the medicines and equipment themselves will not help anyone, but the people who work with them, which are doctors, will help. Therefore, the approach should be comprehensive and people-centered, and the assistance should be aimed at the medical facility as a small ecosystem. From doctors to patients, from the building to the communication processes with all the players involved. Doctors should receive financial and psychological support for at least 12 months, along with professional development opportunities. Despite the war, the hospital can be provided with equipment and medicines also for the next 12 months – accordingly, patients will be provided with free medical and rehabilitation, as well as financial and material support. The hospital should become a hub of support from A to Z, then such support will have a positive impact. Another example can be school. It is not enough to rebuild a school without taking care of the teachers, children and their parents who will use the school’s services. Teachers need psychological and professional support to understand and be able to help themselves and students who are traumatized or stressed. It is necessary to promote the development of teachers through scholarships for educational innovations in new conditions, for the development of new methods of working with children and parents. In order for children to be in favorable conditions for development, parents need comprehensive support. Children should receive everything they need to study: from a computer and food to a scholarship for their own research or internship. The school can become a hub of educational, psychological and innovative issues, then it will have a huge positive impact on the environment and its people, and will be able to independently organize local processes to support children, parents and teachers. 4. Humanitarian aid may not be bureaucratic, because bureaucratic processes consume a lot of time and financial resources, which delays the provision of aid. If the application was submitted for the needs of March 2022, and it was supported in July 2022, is it possible to talk about assistance? Assistance should be provided as simply, quickly and without a mountain of documents and reporting as possible, which will increase its quality and impact. I am not saying that financial control should not take place, but the impact of non-bureaucratic assistance will be many times higher compared to bureaucratic processes. Controlling can take place with the help of various systems, such as blockchain, impact measurement or other analogs of such systems or methods. 5. It is necessary to take into account the environment and regions in which humanitarian assistance is provided and involve local farmers, producers and entrepreneurs, in particular social entrepreneurs, to promote their development and sustainability of work. This will make it possible to generate and develop an additional resource on the spot and, in the long term, solve a significant number of problems independently. If there are local apples in August, then they should be purchased and supported by the needy and local. If a local entrepreneur bakes bread, he should be able to supply his district or surrounding villages with bread. If local craftsmen work and can build or restore houses, then they should be given the opportunity to do their work for payment for the benefit of those who need their services. Then everyone will work for the benefit of the local ecosystem and support each other, which will allow the sustainable impact of aid to be felt and measured. 6. The new role of humanitarian aid with a large-scale projection: from victims to partners and participants, victims should have the opportunity to become active participants in programs and projects, and for this, accordingly, changes in the philosophy of humanitarian aid are required according to the principle of not Payer but Player and not Reciever but Shaper. 7. Humanitarian aid should be focused as much as circumstances allow: on children and education for them and adults, because it is education that is the backbone of hope for the future and resilience, and it is the children of today, and the adults of tomorrow, who will be the ones who will rebuild the country for decades to come after the Russian aggression. It is educated people who will be able to help themselves and others. Education will quickly create new jobs and innovative enterprises, take care of international visibility and additional cooperation. Funding of the education sector by international donors should be strengthened to meet the educational needs of Ukrainian children and adults and to develop relevant educational institutions and initiatives in Ukraine. Now is the time to modernize humanitarian aid approaches and use its potential to support and rebuild the Ukrainian state. Bohdan Androschuk, head of the department of Eastern Partnership countries, specially for “UP.Zhyttia” Cover photo: Tetiana_Shyshkina/Depositphotos Publications in the “View” section are not editorial articles and reflect the author’s point of view exclusively.



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