On 24 February 2022, escalating hostilities in Ukraine created a serious health emergency. Health systems remain resilient, but the war has reduced access to health services and medicines, especially for people living close to the front lines and in temporarily occupied areas.
In response to the conflict, partners scaled up their activities to ensure access to health care for the most vulnerable and affected communities across the country, including those hosting the largest number of internally displaced persons.
The Ukrainian health cluster has expanded nationally in all 24 provinces, increasing the number of organizations involved in the humanitarian response at the national and local levels. By placing local government coordinators in her four hubs, the cluster prioritized enhanced operational presence, response localization, and accountability to affected populations. In 2023, partner engagement and shared leadership will be improved through joint coordination of NGOs at the state level in three hubs.
In 2022, 196 individual organizations* reported providing quality lifesaving care to 9.4 million people and supporting 1,173 health facilities in Ukraine. In 2023, the Health Cluster implemented a membership process to increase accountability and transparency of the humanitarian health response. As of May 2023, Health Cluster will allow her 221 partners to coordinate. Of these, 64 are Active Members, 9 Associates and 148 Observers. This number is expected to grow as partners become more familiar with how the platform works and its value in coordination and accountability.
A Strategic Advisory Group was established in 2022 to provide overall strategic direction for the Health Cluster and enable broader membership decisions. Eleven technical working groups ensure ongoing technical guidance and partner support during the implementation of the response. A Cash Voucher Assistance Task Team was launched to develop guidance for partners implementing Cash Assistance for Health.
Human-centered response amid complexity and volatility
Health cluster partners provided humanitarian health assistance in over 900 Ukrainian towns and villages. To provide a comprehensive, people-centred response and ensure that no one is left behind in an increasingly complex and rapidly changing environment, assistance will include the provision of lifesaving drugs, medical supplies and equipment, and mobile Includes integrated primary health care, treatment and patient referral. Injured/Trauma Patients, Mental Health and Psychosocial Support, Reproductive Health Care (including GBV Services), Risk Communication, Community Engagement Activities.
With half of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure damaged or destroyed and attacks on health care continuing, health cluster partners are focusing their efforts on preparing health facilities for the winter and mitigating adverse health impacts. I left it. Partners have distributed over 350 generators and underwent minor rehabilitation to create a safe medical environment. Complex operational environments with security concerns, large and often unpredictable population movements, and high levels of data sensitivity made it difficult to reach people in need. Yet partners have targeted newly accessible areas with humanitarian health assistance for the most vulnerable.
Community-led humanitarian health response
More than half of the 196 partners reported to have implemented humanitarian health operations in 2022 are local organizations. Of his 53 INGOs, 11 (21%) had a local implementation partner and of the 6 UN agencies (50%) had a local implementation partner. This shows that Ukraine’s humanitarian health response has been marked by significant engagement with local partners of international organizations.
Local NGOs constitute the largest organization type with 101 organizations, followed by 75 INGOs, 6 UN agencies and 14 other organizations. These figures underscore the local nature of the response, with the resulting collaboration helping to reach out to those with the most acute health needs, tailoring the response to local circumstances, and helping the frontline. Enhanced ability of Health Cluster partners to respond more closely. Rapidly scale up humanitarian health assistance to newly recaptured areas.
National non-governmental organizations have played a key role in distributing medical supplies and practical items such as dignity and hygiene kits to women, adolescents, the elderly and persons with disabilities. Partner efforts also focus on supporting facilities serving internally displaced persons, training hospital staff and volunteers, and in some cases distributing information leaflets to local residents. Regularly interact directly with national and local health authorities to align health responses with priorities and identified key health needs. The response to this crisis has built on extensive existing networks, enabling faster action to deliver humanitarian assistance in hard-to-reach areas.
Ukrainian local health authorities will support new modalities of service delivery such as telemedicine, identify vulnerable groups requiring special care, especially in remote and isolated areas, and protect health workers from exhaustion and exhaustion. We carry out a wide range of humanitarian health activities. Emotional distress with targeted MHPSS interventions. Cooperation with international organizations will further enable Ukrainian partners to expand the scope of their activities by gaining access to international funding requests, such as the Ukrainian Humanitarian Fund, and to strengthen their capacity through technical guidance on critical issues. became.
Health clusters support response localization through subnational cluster coordination and ongoing information management, empowering all partners with evidence-based decision-making. These include Public Health Situation Analysis, Monthly Bulletins, Rapid Health Needs Assessments, Standard Assessment Tools, Monthly Presence Mapping (5w), and Health Requests Planning and Response Platform with 452 requests for assistance. .
In Ukraine, 14.6 million people need health assistance and US$307.4 million is needed for health measures.
* Cumulative number of partners reporting completed/ongoing activities through the 5W Reporting Matrix.
**Observers are organizations that have decided not to become active cluster members or have not met the minimum criteria for membership but are interested in contributing to the coordination, reception and sharing of information on health humanitarian response efforts. organization.
