I, like many of you, spent the weekend glued to coverage of events in Ukraine and the neighboring countries as the Ukrainian people and the rest of the world struggled to process what was happening.
I regularly teared up at the stories, videos, and images of people, who had just a week ago been peacefully living their lives, being torn away from their homes while leaving husbands, brothers, and sons behind to fight. Also making me emotional are the images of people flooding the streets in Amsterdam, Berlin, Prague, Toronto, and more cities around the world to show solidarity with the Ukrainian people, and the incredible generosity of people in neighboring nations to provide food, shelter, and transportation.
But even as the world rallies behind Ukraine, the realities on the ground are grim as the situation changes nearly by the hour: Hundreds of thousands of people are pouring into neighboring countries to escape the Russian invasion — though not all refugees are being treated the same, according to African and Indian students studying in Ukraine who say they were stopped from crossing the Polish border and were told “Ukrainians” must be given priority.
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The latest estimates from the UN Refugee Agency suggest more than 500,000 people have fled the country, while UN Human Rights chief Michelle Bachelet said that at least 102 civilians have been killed since the invasion launched, though the toll may well be higher.
Meanwhile, humanitarian groups are mobilizing: The United States announced an additional $54 million in humanitarian assistance to provide food, safe drinking water, shelter, emergency health care, winterization, and protection, as well as support family reunification efforts. USAID Administrator Samantha Power is in Poland and has traveled to the border to observe relief operations. José Andrés’ NGO World Central Kitchen is in Poland and Ukraine serving hot meals to people who are displaced.
The United Nations General Assembly is set to meet today in an emergency session called by the Security Council to “decide whether to use armed force, when necessary, to maintain or restore international peace and security.”
The EU is mobilizing aid too. Humanitarian commissioner Janez Lenarčič tweeted Sunday that the European Commission has ensured €90 million ($100.5 million) to support humanitarian partners on the ground. The bloc is also using the Civil Protection Mechanism, where EU states provide equipment such as first aid kits, protective clothing, tents, and firefighting paraphernalia. France has also proposed activating the bloc's "temporary protection" direction for the first time, which would grant refugees three-year residence permits in host countries and is expected to be approved this week.
The headline grabber, however, was the move by the EU on Sunday to use the off-budget European Peace Facility to send €450 million worth of lethal arms — including fighter jets — to help Ukraine. Germany broke with its long-standing policy of not sending weapons to conflict zones over the weekend too.
Get up to speed: We have a comprehensive overview of how humanitarian groups are adapting or scaling up their work within Ukraine and at its borders. Plus, coverage on how the conflict will affect humanitarian work in the country.
+ Are you working in Ukraine now or on its borders? Are you in Russia? We’d love to hear from you about your work, thoughts, and concerns. Please send us an email.
Catch yourself up
Our journalists were hard at work in February bringing you the latest in-depth analysis of the future of work in our sector, and lots of key funding insights, including the state of humanitarian aid in Ukraine by my colleague Miguel Antonio Tamonan, and his analysis of USAID’s top contractors and grantees.
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Take a look: February’s top Pro stories
Turnaround
The Biden administration on Friday announced the issuance of a new so-called general license to ease pressure international sanctions have put on the Afghan economy, which are contributing to a severe humanitarian crisis in the country. A statement from Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the license is meant to “clarify that financial institutions, nongovernmental organizations, international organizations, and private sector companies can engage in wide-ranging transactions and activities in Afghanistan while complying with U.S. sanctions.”
Afghanistan aid: NGOs say that even if they get the funding, it will be hard to transfer any cash into Afghanistan as sanctions and banks make it a struggle to get money into the country
Recap: We’ve been covering aid and development assistance in Afghanistan, including the U.N. Security Council's resolution that can increase the flows of assistance to the country.
Still waiting
Three years ago, a community in northeast Haiti saw a ray of hope: They’d reached a historic agreement with the Inter-American Development Bank and their country’s government to get compensation after an IDB-financed industrial park seized their land for construction back in 2011. It is believed to be the first such instance where a community was awarded land as part of an accountability complaint to a multilateral development bank.
But many families still haven’t seen their compensation — even as the bank in November approved an additional $65 million for the park’s expansion. Community members tell me they’re frustrated with the Haitian government, which is stalling at approving land transactions the agreement was supposed to guarantee farmers, and the bank, for not doing more to push the government along.
In Haiti: 3 years on, those displaced by IDB project await land compensation
Data docs
Kenya launched a community health volunteer program in 2006 to improve health access, as well as leverage the presence of community health volunteers and their engagement with the community in order to collect data for health planning services. But the system does not always work as intended: Reporting delays by community health volunteers have made data collection a challenge.
Reporting for Devex, Anthony Langat brings us a look at a pilot program to digitize health data so it can most effectively be used for decision making, planning, and monitoring progress toward universal health care in Kenya. It also helps integrate community health data with the national health information system.
“The application makes work easier. From my end, I can tell how many children under the age of 5 are in the village and how many pregnant mothers are there,” says Jane Grace, a community health worker supervisor. “We are now screening for cervical cancer and from the app the CHV knows which homestead to go to.”
Lessons from the pilot are to be incorporated into a nationwide rollout later this year.
Devex Pro: Can Kenya’s digitization of community health improve data collection?
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In other news
The Dominican Republic has begun construction of a 244-mile (393 kilometers) concrete wall along its border with Haiti, over protests of civil society. [The Guardian]
Alphabet confirms that it has temporarily disabled Google Maps’ live traffic data feature in Ukraine as a precaution to protect local communities. [Reuters]
Bitcoin has become even less environmentally friendly since a crackdown from China, with carbon emissions from mining comparable to the entire country of Greece. [BBC]
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About the author
Teresa Welshtmawelsh
Teresa Welsh is a Senior Reporter at Devex. She has reported from more than 10 countries and is currently based in Washington, D.C. Her coverage focuses on Latin America; U.S. foreign assistance policy; fragile states; food systems and nutrition; and refugees and migration. Prior to joining Devex, Teresa worked at McClatchy's Washington Bureau and covered foreign affairs for U.S. News and World Report. She was a reporter in Colombia, where she previously lived teaching English. Teresa earned bachelor of arts degrees in journalism and Latin American studies from the University of Wisconsin.
