Ukraine’s Access Consortium Committed to Reach 77,000 Civilians Affected by the Conflict in the East of Ukraine in 2021

The conflict in eastern Ukraine has affected 5.2 million people since 2014. As fighting continues for the seventh year in Donbas, an estimated 3.5 million children, women and men are in need of humanitarian assistance. While the world continues to mobilise against the COVID-19 pandemic, the public health situation has had severe implications on Eastern Ukraine’s population, leaving vulnerable groups behind.

The ACCESS Consortium has been delivering multi-sectoral humanitarian assistance to some of the most vulnerable people in government and non-government - controlled areas (NGCA) of eastern Ukraine since 2017, reaching over 260,000 people. With support from EU Humanitarian Aid (ECHO), the Consortium partners People in Need (PIN), ACTED in partnership with IMPACT Initiatives, Help Age International (HAI), Médicos del Mundo (MdM), and Right to Protection (R2P) will continue to provide critical humanitarian assistance and advocate for strengthened international support to ease the suffering of people living on both sides of the line of contact.

“The European Union and its Member States are the largest humanitarian donor to the crisis in eastern Ukraine. This funding is a tangible expression of our solidarity with the civilians in areas directly affected by the conflict,” said Samuel Marie-Fanon, head of the EU Humanitarian Aid office in Ukraine.

In 2020-2021, ACCESS partners will support over 77,000 direct and indirect beneficiaries and 179 institutions affected by the hostilities on both sides of the contact line through protection activities; health services including mental health and psychosocial support; water, sanitation and hygiene activities; shelter rehabilitation and winterization; humanitarian coordination and information management work; advocacy efforts at national and international levels; and multipurpose cash and vouchers to meet food and other basic needs. Some € 780,000 of the humanitarian funding made available by the EU will support the Consortium’s efforts to help the most vulnerable through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Over the years, the elderly, single-headed households with low income, people with disabilities, and children have faced increasing challenges. "More than half of the population of our village have fled. A lot of houses are abandoned and many are destroyed. Our house is completely damaged. We were forced to flee. Some people we know proposed us to live in the house of their relatives as they have left and worry about the empty house in the conflict zone. We agreed and moved in. We take care of the house and the garden. We like the new place, but we have no work and desperately miss our home. We appreciate support by humanitarian organisations in these difficult times,” says Valentyna, who was displaced from Hutir Vilnyi and is staying Zolote III with her husband, who has health issues.

In parallel, ACCESS will engage with over 250 organizations in Ukraine to improve the humanitarian response to and further raise awareness of the ongoing conflict. As in previous years, member organizations will support and shape the humanitarian response in Ukraine by producing evidence on needs, building synergies with other actors, and searching for ways to operationalize the humanitarian-development nexus. Member organizations will also continue to advocate with national and international decisionmakers to ensure that essential needs of the conflict- affected populations are met; movement of people and transport of goods is facilitated across the line of contact; and humanitarian assistance can reach those in need.

The ACCESS Consortium

In 2017, a group of humanitarian non-government organizations decided to work together to deliver some of this much-needed humanitarian assistance: People in Need (PIN), Médicos del Mundo (MdM), ACTED in partnership with IMPACT Initiatives, Help Age International (HAI) and Right to Protection (R2P). The ACCESS Consortium has since reached over 260,000 people with support from EU Humanitarian Aid. ACCESS partners have developed significant experience of collective humanitarian intervention in Ukraine and a thorough, evidence-based understanding of the context.

The 2020-2021 Program

The 2020-2021 program will build on the past two years of collaboration between the partners. Through capitalizing on members’ complementary sets of skills and enabling the exchange of best practices and experience, the ACCESS Consortium will continue to deliver timely and critical humanitarian assistance, across the regions of Luhansk and Donetsk (GCA and NGCA), with support from the European Union:

• Cash and voucher support to help over 3,500 women, men and children meet their basic needs in an informed, empowered, and dignified manner. At least 1,300 people in need in the non-government controlled area (NGCA) will have access to food and hygiene items.
• Shelter assistance to approximately 1,900 people in remote communities. The needs in this sector remain high, and this assistance will enable the rehabilitation of conflict-damaged houses through light and medium scale repairs, and the delivery of coal to those most in need in Donetsk NGCA, to help them cope with the harsh Ukrainian winter conditions.
• Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) projects in both GCA and Luhansk NGCA will provide the spare parts, equipment, fuel and material needed by social services to provide water as well as waste water and solid waste disposal services to affected communities. More than 11,500 people will be supported through WASH efforts.
• Health programs for close to 26,000 men, women and children. These programs include Primary Health Care (PHC) services, Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Services (MHPSS) and Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH), free-of-charge medication and cash for referrals (transportation and medical examinations in the Sexual Health Centers) as well as capacity building to prevent and respond to gender-based violence (GBV).

ACCESS Consortium Partners

People in Need (PIN) www.peopleinneed.cz: PIN is one of the biggest nonprofit organizations in Central Europe focusing on humanitarian aid, development, cooperation, human rights and social integration. PIN has a long-lasting presence in Ukraine starting from 2003 and was in position to provide immediate humanitarian assistance after the onset of the conflict in August 2014. PIN has been implementing a number of emergency food, NFI, shelter, protection, livelihoods, WASH, medical and cash-based interventions along and on both sides of the frontline.

Médicos del Mundo (MdM) www.medicosdelmundo.org: MdM is an international independent humanitarian organization that works to make the right to health a reality for all the people, especially for the victims of a humanitarian crisis. MdM has been operating in Luhansk oblast of Ukraine since August 2015 aiming to improve access and quality of health care services for vulnerable conflict affected populations. MdM is currently running two Mobile Units in Luhansk Oblast and outreach unit in Donetsk oblast to deliver a comprehensive care package (Primary Health Care, Mental Health and Sexual and Reproductive Health) in the locations close to the Contact Line. In Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts - GCA and in Luhansk oblast - NGCA, MdM provides support to health authorities through donations of medical equipment and supplies, and capacity building of national health staff aiming to strengthen the local health system.

ACTED www.acted.org: ACTED is a French humanitarian organization present in 37 countries and supporting over 16 million beneficiaries worldwide. Present in Ukraine since 2015, ACTED provides some of the most vulnerable conflict-affected people with emergency cash assistance to help meet their food security, winterization and other basic needs: more than 7,500 people were supported in 2018-19. In 2020, ACTED initiated an economic development program to further enhance economic security, economic and employment opportunities, and economic empowerment of the most vulnerable and marginalized. Jointly with local authorities, ACTED also implements Disaster Risk Reduction interventions which invest in the resilience of local systems and communities: over 150,000 people are now covered by risk contingency plans close to the line of contact. Finally, together with its global partner IMPACT Initiatives, ACTED supports evidence-based humanitarian aid planning and delivery, and local governance and decision-making..

IMPACT Initiatives https://www.impact-initiatives.org: IMPACT Initiatives is a leading Geneva-based think-and-do tank. Together with sister organization ACTED and UNOSAT, IMPACT launched in 2010 the REACH Initiative, which provides granular data, timely information and in-depth analysis from contexts of crisis, disaster and displacement to feed into evidence-based aid response and decision-making. Since 2016, the REACH initiative has been leading annual interagency humanitarian needs assessments to inform the Humanitarian Needs Overview and Response Plans in Ukraine. REACH also provides continuous information management support and capacity building to humanitarian agencies and clusters.

HelpAge International (HAI) www.helpage.org: HelpAge International (HAI) has a unique mission on supporting older people around the globe to claim their rights, challenge discrimination and overcome poverty, so that they can have dignified, secure, active and healthy lives. HAI has opened its office in Ukraine in November 2014, and the main goal is to provide comprehensive psycho-social support to conflict-affected older people, strengthen their resilience and well-being, provide them with stress coping mechanisms. This is achieved through two components – Psychosocial support; Protection, Coordination, Advocacy and Information.

Right to Protection (R2P) www.r2p.org.ua: R2P is an all-Ukrainian NGO dedicated to protecting the rights of asylum seekers, refugees, stateless and undocumented persons, as well as internally displaced and conflict affected persons. The organization seeks to lessen the impact on its beneficiaries from armed conflicts, repressive regimes and natural disasters. Right to Protection does this by protecting rights, providing assistance, and helping create the conditions necessary for safe and dignified lives.

EU Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid ec.europa.eu/echo: The European Union and its Member States are the world’s leading donor of humanitarian aid. Relief assistance is an expression of European solidarity with people in need all around the world. It aims to save lives, prevent and alleviate human suffering, and safeguard the integrity and human dignity of populations affected by natural disasters and man-made crises. Through its Civil Protection and Humanitarian aid Operations department (ECHO), the European Union helps millions of victims of conflict and disasters every year. With headquarters in Brussels and a global network of field offices, the EU provides assistance to the most vulnerable people on the basis of humanitarian needs.

Contact information

Idris Jonmamadov , Head of ACCESS Consortium, idris.jonmamadov@peopleinneed.cz, +380663071242

Samuel Marie-Fanon, Head of Office, EU Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO), Samuel.Marie-Fanon@echofield.eu, +38971859766

Lisa Hastert, EU Humanitarian Aid Regional Information Officer, Lisa.Hastert@echofield.eu , +905334125663