How organizational sustainability helps create legal services

Publication date: April 12, 2023

Author: Halyna Kolesnyk, communications manager of the Legal Development Network 

For six months, representatives of displaced CSOs from Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhia, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Luhansk, Mykolaiv, and Chernihiv oblasts worked on their organizational development, improving the potential to provide quality legal services to the population. What was achieved within the framework of the project “Capacity development of local NGOs – legal aid providers in Ukraine” will be discussed further. 

Most of the participating organizations of the project “Capacity development of local NGOs – legal aid providers in Ukraine”, which is implemented by the Legal Development Network (LDN) with the support of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Ukraine and the Government of Canada, have already passed the assessment of their organizational capacity. Project mentors helped them with this. The lessons learned helped to identify strengths and weaknesses, as well as vectors for further development. Several of the development directions will continue to be worked on within the scope of the project. And this work has already begun: organizations are improving internal policies, and developing strategic documents that will become important, in particular, for attracting resources and achieving greater sustainability in work.

Thus, the representative of the NGO “Women’s Format” Olena Rogova, who works in Chernihiv oblast, notes that it was very important for the organization to see areas of growth and prospects. One of these has already been processed. “Our team did not have clearly defined responsibilities, who does what. We split them up, and I think that’s really cool. I am personally inspired by what I started to specialize in. I would like to develop this further both in the organization and personally,” says Olena.

The distribution of roles in organizations has become important for the NGO “Egida-Center”, which works in the reception center for IDPs in Kryvyi Rih (Dnipro oblast), and its team consists of 38 people. The head of the organization, Nataliia Patrusheva, notes that it has become important for “Egida-Center” to develop the entire package of documents necessary for the organization. These are strategies, policies, job instructions, code of ethics, regulations, etc. 

“On the one hand, we understood that all these documents should be in the organization, but what should they look like? Our mentor Timur Kanataiev guided us in their development. After learning about our organization in detail, he diligently coordinated the process of creating all the necessary packages of documents. Thanks to this, we were able to receive powerful multi-million dollar grant support. And today we are waiting for the results of the review from one more organization. Thanks to Timur, we studied. Due to the extremely intense rhythm of work at the reception center for IDPs, we could not physically attend the webinars. Our mentor sent us all the recordings of the trainings, and monitored whether we watched everything. Today, we have even started sharing our experience with other organizations with which we cooperate. We ask whether they have developed a particular document, whether they pay attention to certain aspects, and we give them a hint ourselves,” says Nataliia Patrusheva.

NGO “Berdiantsi – own for their own” among those who were forced to leave the occupied city. For them, a big victory is, among other things, the structuredness and determination of “who has become who in the new life”. Its leader Viktor Tsukanov says: “Our team of volunteers consists of up to 20 people. Our mentor Kateryna Maltseva constantly reminded us that we need to be structured. We have become more aware of the fact that when entering a new level, you need to think differently. During these six months, our perception of what is needed has changed. Now, for example, when we now talk to international partners, and they ask about the organizational structure, we simply take already developed policies. …Without such help, we would never have achieved this structure. We also saw that legal support is also an important component of the assistance provided by our organization, so it was important for us to receive a mini-grant within the framework of UNDP support.”

Another example of strengthening organizational capacity is shared by the NGO “Family Circle / Public Expertise”, which was created in June 2022. Almost all team members are IDPs. From the beginning of its activity, the organization provided humanitarian aid, and now, thanks to the streamlining of its structure, the organization has the opportunity to develop legal services as well. “We took on a lot of responsibilities within the scope of the work of the information headquarters and the delivery of humanitarian aid. But thanks to the expansion of the staff, accurate structuring, and definition of the scope of responsibilities, we can gradually return to our main specialty, i.e. providing legal assistance. The advantage of our public organization is that we have two lawyers on staff, and I am also a lawyer. We can provide both primary and secondary legal assistance in partnership with the Centers for the Provision of Free legal aid in the Nadvirna district of the Ivano-Frankivsk oblast, as well as in the Zaporizhzhia oblast,” Liudmila Sirko says.

The Development Program of the United Nations Organization (UNDP) in Ukraine created additional opportunities for the development of legal services for organizations participating in the project “Capacity development of local NGOs – legal aid providers in Ukraine”. 10 initiatives aimed at improving access to justice for internally displaced persons, as well as residents of affected communities in Chernivtsi, Chernihiv, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhya, Mykolaiv, and Donetsk oblasts, were supported. They include the development of digital solutions, including chatbots, algorithms, and road maps for obtaining legal aid, legal advice, and legal education activities, for example, the creation of an educational board game.

Along with the implementation of their initiatives, the organizations will work for another two months on developing strategic documents, and some will work on their update. In addition, CSOs continue to receive practical recommendations on establishing communication – internal and external, leadership, building an organizational structure, legal services, and how to work with individual legal cases from experienced trainers of the project. The mentoring program is also ongoing and is focused on the strategic development of organizations participating in the project (mentees), as well as on the development of the mentoring institute within the Legal Development Network.

“I also see the growth of mentors in this project. Many skills and potential appeared in them, which, I think, they did not even suspect in themselves. They learned to notice victories, even small ones, of themselves and their mentees, to build boundaries so that all parties to cooperation clearly understand the competencies within which they work. And in general, watching from the side how their mentees develop, organizational processes take place, mentors get a better understanding of the development potential of their organizations,” says Anna Uvarova.

“At the end of the project, we will certainly see more capable organizations, it is already felt. Even those who at the beginning were far from legal services noted that this was not their profile, understood how important it is and is an integral part of assistance. They began to look for opportunities to introduce legal aid, either through the involvement of lawyers in the team or through increased cooperation with the Centers for the provision of free legal aid. At the same time, for us, as organizers, there were also many challenges, which were mostly caused by the terror of the cities of Ukraine by the russian federation. So we also try to be flexible, to react quickly, and to change the formats of training and interaction. Ahead, in addition to invaluable knowledge from the experts of the project, we will offer additional opportunities for growth for the participants — among them, an initial self-assessment that will be a confirmation of their organizational capacity. And this will help attract resources from partners. Equally important is the fact that we managed to create mutually reinforcing communities of local leaders, human rights defenders, and mentors, and we hope that they will continue to support each other beyond the time of implementation of this project,” says Iryna Chaika. 

For reference

The project “Capacity development of local NGOs – legal aid providers in Ukraine” is implemented by the Legal Development Network with the support of UNDP within the framework of the UN Peacebuilding and Reconstruction Program with the financial support of the Government of Canada.

The UN Reconstruction and Peacebuilding Program (UN RPP) is implemented by four UN agencies: the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the United Nations Framework for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the Food and the United Nations Agricultural Organization (FAO).

The program is supported by twelve international partners: the European Union (EU), the European Investment Bank (EIB), the US Embassy in Ukraine, as well as the governments of Canada, Denmark, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden and Switzerland.

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