Scoping exercise

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, the world’s fastest growing displacement and refugee crisis since World War II followed. More than 7.6 million refugees from Ukraine have been recorded across Europe, and another 6.2 million displaced inside the countryi. In response to escalating humanitarian needs, the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC)2 launched the Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal in the UK on 3 March 2022. The Appeal has so far raised £380 million from the British public, with some funds matched by UK Aid.

The following DEC members and their partners will be responding to humanitarian needs in Ukraine and neighbouring countries3, with DEC funds, for at least the next 3 years:

Action Against Hunger Concern Worldwide (UK)

ActionAid International Rescue Committee (IRC)

Age International

British Red Cross Oxfam GB

Plan International UK

CAFOD Save the Children UK

CARE International UK World Vision

Christian Aid

Strengthening local humanitarian action is a key priority for the DEC. The secretariat and members are committed to ensuring humanitarian response is as local as possible, by supporting and strengthening local and national groups, organisations and networks to effectively respond to priority needs. To inform this approach for the Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal, DEC commissioned this scoping exercise. The focus of the scoping was Ukraine.

Purpose: to localise the design process for the development of ideas, options and approaches to support, strengthen and accelerate ‘localisation’ / local humanitarian action in DEC’s Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal response. The findings of the scoping exercise will provide a basis for further DEC fund investment and will inform programmatic approaches by DEC members.

Timeline: 3 months (mid-August to mid-November).

Scoping team: Lizz Harrison, supported by Dmytro Kondratenko and Kateryna Korenkova.

Methodology: • Literature review: >150 (English) resources reviewed4 .

• Sampling: starting with DEC member partners and existing contacts, followed by a ‘snowballing’ technique supported by participants and networks.

• Consultations: open conversations in Ukrainian or English with key guiding questions. In-person, multiple-organisation group sessions were planned for local and national actors (L/NAs), following an ideation approach (e.g. ‘brainstorming’), and online for international actors. The approach was adapted to the availability of participants and the shifting security environment; the majority of sessions were held online, using tools to support an ideation process, and participants could either join scheduled group consultations or arrange consultations convenient for their organisation/ network.

• Online survey: in Ukrainian and English. Providing an additional (quicker) method for participation.

Intended to triangulate qualitative data, not to provide a large quantitative dataset.

• Feedback and verification: preliminary findings and emerging recommendations were presented to more than 70 people in English and Ukrainian online sessions.

2 The DEC is made up of 15 member charities, a board of trustees, and a small secretariat in the UK. 3 Poland, Romania, Moldova and Hungary, and cross-border support from Romania and Slovakia. 4 Including reports, articles, briefing notes, statements, webinars, podcasts, media and more.