Building Resilience on Ukraine’s Frontline

As the conflict in Ukraine enters its third year, the humanitarian crisis has escalated to alarming levels. With over 14.6 million in need of humanitarian assistance and infrastructure severely damaged, the need for increasing local capacity has never been more critical.

Our recently launched Capacity Building initiative, led under iMMAP Inc.’s wider project in Ukraine titled ‘Provision of Information Management Support to Ukraine Crisis Response Clusters’, has emerged as a crucial mechanism for humanitarian actors, including frontline responders, to swiftly address the emerging humanitarian needs and efforts across the country.

Over 3.3 million people are in need of assistance in the front-line communities in the east and the south of the country. The increasing need and dependency for humanitarian assistance in these communities have left humanitarian and frontline responders overwhelmed, and unable to attend trainings which are usually held in the capital, Kyiv. In response, our Capacity Building team, in collaboration with the Food Security and Livelihoods (FSL) Cluster, conducted an ambitious mission across the conflict-affected front-line regions, visiting five key cities directly impacted by the ongoing conflict —Kharkiv, Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia, Mykolaiv, and Odesa.

The conflict has severely disrupted agricultural production and supply chains, and food security has become a major concern in many parts of Ukraine. By collaborating closely with the FSL Cluster, iMMAP Inc. is helping to strengthen the capacity of organizations working to address this critical issue.

Over three weeks, the team conducted ten intensive training sessions for front-line responders and actors, engaging 191 participants from 53 local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working in the FSL sector.

"Currently, the greatest humanitarian efforts are concentrated in regions near the frontline zones. I am very pleased that we were able to contribute on-site to the capacity development of the organizations helping the most conflict-affected populations."

Iryna Tkachuk, Capacity Building Coordinator at iMMAP Inc. Ukraine

The training sessions which were informed and developed following a Needs Assessment conducted earlier in the year in collaboration with the FSL Cluster, and focused on two vital areas:

1. Coordinated Needs Assessments, which allows organizations to accurately assess the humanitarian landscape and pinpoint the most urgent needs of affected populations.
2. Effective Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) practices, which help to ensure that humanitarian projects achieve their intended impact and allow for quick adjustments when necessary. In Ukraine, where resources are stretched thin, and needs are vast, efficient and impactful project implementation is crucial.

As the conflict in Ukraine continues with no clear end in sight, our approach to Capacity Building is an innovative response to the unique challenges posed by the ongoing conflict. Through equipping local organizations with essential skills in these areas, the program is not just imparting knowledge but also building a sustainable foundation for humanitarian response. This initiative has been made possible through the generous support of USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA).

Read the full story??https://immap.org/story/building-resilience-on-ukraines-frontline/

Find out more about the work we do in Ukraine: https://immap.org/ukraine/