How international NGOs are setting up a Ukraine response from scratch

Prior to the Russian invasion on Feb. 24, many international NGOs had no presence on the ground in Ukraine or its surrounding countries. The scale and pace of the unfolding refugee and humanitarian crises have left organizations scrambling to determine whether and how their expertise is needed. Nearly 3 million people have fled Ukraine in less than three weeks, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency, and many more have been displaced within the country amid fighting and Russian shelling. Civilians are running out of food and water, while those fleeing bring only what they can carry, with a particular need for blankets and supplies to keep warm in frigid temperatures — all conditions that require a large-scale, built-from-scratch humanitarian response. Among the INGOs performing needs assessments, rapidly hiring staffers, and identifying local partners across the region is Concern Worldwide, an Ireland-based humanitarian NGO that responds in conflict settings. Ros O’Sullivan, the head of emergency operations at Concern, said that his organization would not typically respond to a disaster in Europe. It mostly works in sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East. Concern is working closely in its Ukraine response with the other members of Alliance2015 — a network of eight Europe-based NGOs, located in Ireland, France, Spain, Italy, the Czech Republic, Germany, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. “What brought us here was just the sheer humanitarian need,” O’Sullivan said. “What brought us here was to look and see from a humanitarian perspective: Is there something we can do as an organization?” Even before the invasion, as Russia ratcheted up tensions on Ukraine’s borders, organizations began the early stages of planning their response. “Our real sense — and from talking to our alliance partners inside — was nobody knew where it was going to hit and when it was going to hit. So the sense was this is the sort of thing you cannot actually prepare for and pre-position, other than waiting to see if Russia comes in,” O’Sullivan said. “Talking and planning, but putting nothing in place because nobody really believed it would come to this.” Now, more than two weeks in, members of the organization have visited as many as 12 border crossings in five countries to conduct assessments. O’Sullivan is currently visiting Ukraine. Mercy Corps was operational in the east of Ukraine for several years after Russia took control of territory there in 2014 but hasn’t had a presence in the region since 2017. Just prior to Russia’s latest invasion, though, the INGO had been planning ahead: It was mobilizing a team to travel to the region around Ukraine and determine what, if any, role the organization might play in a full-scale conflict. “While we were doing that, things did in fact start. … So our scoping mission basically just transformed into a mission designed to actually set up a presence on the ground. We built off the same core staff that we had going in for the scoping mission because everyone's skill sets were appropriate,” said Justin Odum, team leader at Mercy Corps. “Suddenly we had a lot more support and a lot more attention from throughout our headquarters,” he added, indicating the pace at which the crisis escalated. “Suddenly we started talking about org charts and immediately talking about who would come behind us.” An immediate priority was identifying local organizations with which Mercy Corps could work, including by supporting them with cash. That has allowed those groups to continue meeting immediate needs while Mercy Corps goes through the logistics of setting up its operation, including finding office space. In addition to Odum, who has experience in Iraq working with refugees and local people displaced within the country, Mercy Corps has two other staffers on the ground. More people with expertise in financing and programming will join the team, he said, adding that previous experience working in a conflict zone, although useful, is not necessary for staffers. Few staffers have Ukrainian language skills, while more, like Odum, speak Russian. He said that while much of the refugee population prefers to speak their native language, he’s seen an understanding from Ukrainians that INGO workers are communicating however they can to help. “We’re looking at where we can bring the greatest added value in the shortest possible time to reach the most people that are impacted.” --— Ros O’Sullivan, head of emergency operations, Concern Because Ukrainians fleeing the country are generally not congregating on borders in refugee camps, organizations can have difficulty conducting needs assessments. The majority of people arriving don’t require visas to travel within Europe and therefore don’t stay more than a few days before moving to other destinations. “Things like assessments are much more time-consuming because you have to find the people; they’re not just literally sitting there ready to answer your questions,” Odum said. “It’s more a matter of having to allocate a lot more time to conducting proper assessments.” Inside Ukraine, Mercy Corps is “relying heavily” on local organizations to ensure the INGO is asking the right assessment questions and correctly identifying needs, Odum said. Where Mercy Corps decides to work is subject to change, he said, but the organization is trying to determine where it can locate offices to be as close as possible to places with high need. “We really want to continue and expand working through partners, so we’re looking to work with partners who might have more access than we have or that we could possibly get over the course of the next few months,” Odum said. “We aspire to try and identify the organizations that are literally based in some of the worst places and [figure] out how we can support them. We haven’t gotten quite that far yet.” This includes organizations that can get supplies into heavily besieged cities such as Kharkiv and Mariupol, he said. Odum is currently based in Lviv, which has become “something of a hub” for the response in western Ukraine because it is currently safer than other areas of the country. Concern had not initially anticipated operating inside Ukraine, but O’Sullivan said the organization has decided this is now necessary, given the scale of the need. Concern and its partners are going to operate under what O’Sullivan said they call the “Mozambique model” — a structure they found worked extremely effectively in that country after Cyclone Idai in 2019. The model saw multiple partners working together under the umbrella of one organization that had all the appropriate paperwork to be operational there. “It was very, very effective and increased our reach exponentially,” O’Sullivan said. In Ukraine, Alliance2015 members will pool their staffers in one organizational response structure, instead of each independent NGO setting up its own separate operations. This will allow the network to mobilize experts with various specialties — such as cash assistance, nutrition, and WASH — regardless of the particular organization they are affiliated with. INGOs must consider the local registration requirements in the areas where they intend to set up operations. The Ukrainian government has waived these, O’Sullivan said, but such legal boxes must still be checked in countries such as Romania and Poland. Working through the alliance’s Mozambique model will allow all NGOs to mobilize in the response even if only one organization is officially registered in particular jurisdictions. “If you don’t have a prior presence, [then] you don’t know the lay of the land, you lack knowledge, you lack experience, you’ve got to build a program from scratch at the same time you’re trying to respond and to deliver a response. To be fair and to be realistic, we do it, but we don’t feel that it’s necessary to be planting our flag from the outset,” O’Sullivan said. “We’re looking at where we can bring the greatest added value in the shortest possible time to reach the most people that are impacted,” he continued. “We find that, more and more, we’re working through those who are already on the ground. What we do is we help them go to scale.”