How humanitarian coordination response works in Kherson and Mykolaiv oblasts

Publication date: December 25, 2023

Halyna Kolesnyk, Head of the Communication Cluster at the Legal Development Network

Since September, Legal Development Network, together with the Czech humanitarian organization People In Need, has been implementing the project “Supporting volunteer groups on the front line, promoting international humanitarian law and facilitating an effective humanitarian response in Ukraine” with the financial support of the UK Government. 

The initiative aims to create a coordination mechanism to respond to humanitarian challenges in the Kherson and Mykolaiv oblasts and to strengthen the capacity of the de-occupied and most affected communities and volunteer communities to coordinate and recover.

How should the coordination mechanism function

Monitoring specialists collect needs in the most affected communities of Kherson and Mykolaiv. They check to see if the needs are valid and have yet to be met by someone else. In this way, the needs are verified. Then, they inform the partners about the unmet and verified needs.

In this way, the community would have its needs met quickly, and international and local NGOs would have confidence in the quality of their work, knowing that they are avoiding duplication and trusting the reliability of the data.

How does the coordination mechanism actually function

For the first link of the coordination mechanism (gathering and verifying needs) to work, it was necessary to establish systematic communication with the community.

1. First step. Establishing communication with community leaders. The community leaders gained an understanding of the work of the coordination mechanism, why it is needed, and how they will interact in the future. In addition, they shared examples of risks that arise in their communities.
2. Second step. Establishing communication with those responsible for humanitarian response in the community. These experts learned about the mechanism, how needs will be transmitted, how verification will occur, and why it is necessary.
3. Third step. Establishing relationships with informal community leaders and activists who are not involved in the work of local authorities and help verify the need.

For a year and a half of experience with humanitarian organizations, local government leaders have gained a stereotypical view of needs. They only talk about specific needs that organizations can meet. Therefore, a common understanding of the coordination mechanism’s approach was essential. That is why, at all levels, monitoring specialists articulated that they were interested in those needs that no other organization had recorded. Or those needs identified by an organization without a specific agreement on the timeframe for their satisfaction. These also apply not only to the community center but also to remote settlements of the community. 

The first need within the framework of the mechanism was recorded on October 19, 2023, in the Bilozerka community of the Kherson oblast. 

As of December 13, 2023, 569 needs have been collected, 368 of which have been verified (64.67%).

In October – 245 (43.06%); in November – 275 (48.33%), in December – 49 (8.61%).

368 needs (64.67%) were verified, of which 53 (9.31%) were no longer relevant, i.e., were resolved due to the work of organizations and local authorities.

To verify the need, visits were made to frontline settlements. However, due to the decision of the Kherson Regional Military Administration, data verification specialists were prohibited from visiting some settlements due to massive shelling. As a result, some of the needs collected in October and November still need to be verified. 

That is why communities along the Dnipro River are not sufficiently covered. The collection of needs in these areas will continue as soon as the security situation allows. 

An alternative way to verify needs is to communicate remotely with two or more community representatives. However, due to security measures, access is limited (unstable mobile and Internet connections, erratic electricity supply, etc.)

The collected verified humanitarian needs from the frontline settlements require rapid and flexible support from aid providers. As of December 2023, more than 110 humanitarian aid providers have been operated in Mykolaiv and Kherson oblasts. However, after communicating with some of them, we agreed on meeting only one need. In the vast majority of cases, the reason for the refusal is bureaucratic procedures and a lack of flexible resources that would allow them to respond quickly to newly identified needs that were not previously specified by their own needs monitoring tools.

“Given this experience, together with our partner People in Need, we are discussing the development of a systematic mechanism for responding to such needs. After that, we plan to create an automated mechanism for transferring and processing such information for all partners, in particular, with the involvement of the system of humanitarian response clusters,” said Olga Nastina, Executive Director of the LDN.

In 2.5 months, a team of seven needs monitoring and coordination specialists collected and processed needs in 106 settlements in 11 communities in Mykolaiv and Kherson oblasts.

Number of needs by communities

Information as of 12/13/2023

Total number of needs – 569 (382 – Mykolaiv oblast; 187 – Kherson oblast), of which 368 were verified (284 – Mykolaiv oblast; 84 – Kherson oblast).

Number of identified needs by communities

Information as of 12/13/2023

Percentage of needs by communities

Information as of 12/13/2023

Classification of needs 

Information as of 12/13/2023

Number of settlements where needs were collected

Information as of 12/13/2023

Total number of settlements – 106 (Mykolaiv oblast – 78, Kherson oblast – 28)

About Link

In setting up and developing the coordination mechanism, the team implementing it began to call the initiative Link, as this reflects the very essence of what we are doing: establishing links between the needs of the most remote and affected settlements and those who can meet those needs. 

Link is thus a coordination mechanism for responding to humanitarian challenges in the Kherson and Mykolaiv oblasts.

However, the relationships that exist or can be established are not only between the needs and those who can meet them but also between those who ensure the work of the mechanism, between partners and communities, and the residents of these communities.

Therefore, Link is also a platform for uniting efforts to support war-affected communities and respond to their needs.

In what ways can the mechanism be helpful to the communities and organizations?

By checking the needs from 2-3 sources, monitoring specialists identify already closed or irrelevant needs or new stakeholders in the community that the local government was unaware of.

Thus, the mechanism establishes communication in the community and details the current state of affairs for residents and community leaders.

“Very often, international organizations treat communication with community leaders superficially. When they solve someone’s needs and provide assistance, they do not inform them. Such phenomena harm coordination and community development, as they do not allow for the creation of solutions and prompt action. It also creates precedents for duplication. Therefore, access to a unified system of verified needs and comparison of data from existing information systems allows us to highlight and counteract such practices,” said Vitalii Okhrimenko, Strategic Development Director of the LDN.

The Link coordination mechanism does not duplicate the existing cluster system of humanitarian response, as it works with verified (unmet previously) needs. Therefore, organisations can access verified and reliable data unavailable in any other system. However, the data system considers the classification experience in the cluster system to make the use of this data convenient and understandable for everyone.

Capacity and recovery

To ensure the sustainability of the decision-making process, in December and January, meetings are held in Shevchenkove, Mishkovo-Pohorilove (Mykolaiv oblast) and Bilozerka (Kherson oblast) municipalities to develop and update recovery and socio-economic development strategies.

In addition, a sociological survey will be conducted to forecast multi-year trends in community recovery and development.

During December 2023 and January 2024, training events for CSOs, civic activists, and local authorities on how to:

• create projects;
• conduct communication;
• make community recognizable;
• participate in decision-making processes, and much more.

These are the topics that community representatives expressed the most significant demand for during the strategy.

Outlook for 2024 or what comes next

The initiative’s team is developing a humanitarian response mechanism to help automate processes and meet verified needs on time. The automated coordination system will combine various tools: CRM system, website, IP telephony network and public dashboards, which will help to make it easier for aid providers to access verified needs and understand in real-time the urgency of the needs, whether they are in progress or require immediate response.

This will be an integrated solution incorporating the experience of existing developments. The task of integrating with the Damage Assessment and Response Database (SIDAR) and several humanitarian aid coordination tools used by government authorities and other stakeholders is already underway.

During December 2023 and January 2024, lawyers and a psychologist will work in Mykolaiv and Kherson oblasts to provide legal aid in communities and monitor the effectiveness of legal assistance provided by other providers in the oblasts.

“We will do our best to keep Link working and developing in the future. This coordination mechanism allows us to identify needs that no other humanitarian organization is aware of, improve communication within the community and establish relationships. For example, an orthopedic bed for a person with cancer, a wheelchair, walkers, blankets and pillows for IDPs and returning families, heaters for people with disabilities, construction materials for certain settlements not reached by aid, and much more. These are needs that are verified, but which no one covers,” said Timur Kanataiev, Program Director of the Legal Development Network.

Verified needs growth dynamics

Dynamics of settlement coverage

It is worth noting that some needs are so unique and require a rapid response that they are challenging to address through a project-based approach that requires adherence to specific procedures.

For example, there is a need to quickly organize the delivery of hot meals for 65 elderly people in remote settlements of the Pervomaisk community in the Mykolaiv oblast during the winter. This community is one of the most affected in the Mykolaiv oblast. 

“This is the problem we learned about when we established communication with community leaders. We found a list of 65 elderly people who were either alone or had no relatives to take care of them regularly and who did not have access to a daily hot meal. We also found a local group of activists with a plan and partial resources to meet this need. They showed us the premises where they had started to set up a kitchen and introduced us to potential cooks and those willing to deliver this food daily. In the winter, they could not afford to offer these people to go to a social canteen every day, exposing them to the risks associated with the weather and long distances. These people could easily slip, fall and get injured,” says Vitalii Okhrimenko.

Realizing that it would be challenging to meet the need for support on time through a classic project approach and that the representatives of such a local initiative group have minimal experience and capacity to prepare such grant proposals, the Legal Development Network proposed to use the flexible funding it received from its partner organization Global Giving. The kitchen and hot meal delivery should be launched in December – January. Flexible funding will help cover logistics services, the purchase of lunch boxes and labor costs. In return, all the food will be obtained classically – through humanitarian aid providers, patrons and caring volunteers. Also, we should remember the support they have received from local authorities and invest their time and resources in partial kitchen repairs, utilities, logistics, and management processes. 

“We have to learn to recognize and appreciate this contribution of local people who are real titans. Under the conditions there, they are self-reliant and find the strength to help other people. To ensure that such unique verified needs are met in time, international organizations must provide flexible funding and a simplified access procedure,” Vitalii Okhrimenko said.

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