Our Clarifying Moment: A Global Call To Action
Rapidly and Flexibly Fund Locally-Led Peacebuilding and Protection and Support Nonviolent Civil Resistors
Locally-led peacebuilding and funding must be a critical component of the international response to the conflict in Ukraine. Activists, human rights defenders, and ordinary civilians engaging in nonviolent action and civil resistance to challenge military aggression and uphold basic rights and freedoms in Ukraine and the region require assistance to effectively prevent violence and achieve sustainable peace. The international community must look ahead beyond the immediate conflict to create local buy-in and ensure the capacity at all levels of Ukrainian society to participate in dialogue and peacebuilding efforts to address social cohesion, reconstruction, and sustainable peace.
Women and civil society organizations are playing a critical role in advancing peace and security, particularly when it comes to leading humanitarian relief efforts, documenting atrocities, and managing key government and anti-corruption bodies. Unfortunately, efforts to institutionalize localization in Ukraine through international support are facing headwinds. The ICVA, a global network of humanitarian organizations, found that Ukrainian organizations do not have sufficient access to funding, and have significantly fewer funding sources than their international counterparts, which in turn has undermined local Ukrainian organizations’ policy influence. At a fundamental level, donors must consult with local actors in Ukraine and those affected by the conflict to understand what they need, want, and hope to achieve in the short, medium, and long term. Ukrainian voices must be centered in the design and implementation of all peacebuilding, dialogue, humanitarian, and diplomatic efforts—and these efforts must be gender-sensitive, conflict-sensitive, and trauma-informed.
Immediate actions needed:
Donors must provide rapid and flexible funding for local organizations, activists, movements, formal and informal networks, and volunteers working in Ukraine and in the region, especially organizations that are led by and work on issues affecting women and youth, who are disproportionately impacted by violent conflict. Gender analysis of the conflict shows that it is exacerbating gender inequalities; women and children account for 80% of Ukrainian refugees, and analysis by UN Women estimates that 3.6 million people are in urgent need of gender-based violence (GBV) services in the country as of February 2024. While women are playing a critical role in humanitarian response, they are not fully involved in decision-making. The risk of sexual and gender-based violence, in particular, is compounded for those experiencing multiple forms of marginalization, such as women with disabilities. The U.S. should issue targeted sanctions on individuals perpetrating CRSV by leveraging the November 2022 Presidential Memorandum on Promoting Accountability for CRSV. Other governments and institutions should also issue sanctions against individuals perpetrating or commanding CRSV as a means of supporting local Ukrainians and the gendered violence of the conflict.
Donors must also work to protect and support LGBTQI+ populations, which are often excluded from humanitarian and peacebuilding efforts due to discrimination and marginalization, through direct funding of local LGBTQI+-serving partners, such as Outright International’s LGBTQ emergency fund, LGBTQI+-serving groups, and emergency assistance to LGBTQI+ individuals. In addition, specific support must be provided to LGBTQI+ individuals who may be fleeing across borders into countries with hostile attitudes and/or laws, such as for safe housing, transportation, and medical care, as well as guidance on how to navigate a new country’s landscape.
Donors should also provide general operating support in addition to capacity-strengthening resources and dedicated long-term funding for civil society beyond six-month windows or flash grants to support humanitarian assistance and protection. This shift in funding can help aid groups scale up their humanitarian presence and dedicate more attention to the elderly and people with disabilities. It can also create more focused and sustainable support for Ukrainians returning to their homes in conflict-affected regions. Donors must also adjust their response modalities and operations to better prepare and accommodate emergent crises like the June 2023 dam collapse or the February 2024 fall of Avdiivka. Modifications could include more flexibility within budgets to allow faster crisis response that is not impacted by project constraints.
Donors and international peacebuilding organizations must ensure that all support to Ukrainian civil society is locally-led and owned. They should consider departing from conventional assistance mechanisms and direct funds as requested and needed by local activists, allowing for adaptation as dynamics shift. For instance, provide support for salaries and operational costs to facilitate the work on the ground.
Donors should require close coordination between international non-governmental organizations and local organizations/partners to facilitate flexible program implementation/aid delivery and close gaps in risk sharing to ensure local staff/volunteer security, enhance their capacity, and address local needs.
Donors, governments, multilateral institutions, and civil society must support unarmed civilian protection to nonviolently protect civilians and enhance the safety and security of frontline humanitarian and peacebuilding actors. Governments and civil society organizations should establish coordination hubs to provide unarmed activists, human rights defenders, and civic leaders from Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, and elsewhere in the region engaged in internationally-protected nonviolent action and civil resistance with diplomatic, legal, and material assistance, in line with international best practices. Donors must ensure the inclusion of women, youth, LGBTQI+ persons, faith actors, and other marginalized communities in all peacebuilding initiatives and peace processes, in accordance with the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) and Youth, Peace, and Security Agendas.
Millions of Ukrainians are experiencing and will continue to suffer from trauma and other severe mental health issues due to the war. To help alleviate mental health issues, donors and the international community should provide psychosocial support and psychological first aid, as well as support existing efforts, such as the National Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Program, an initiative of First Lady Olena Zelenska to help Ukrainians “overcome war-related stress and the consequences of experiencing traumatic events,” and the training of psychologists for Ukrainian schools. Donors and the international community should scale up in-person and virtual mental health and psychosocial support for civilians, as well as aid workers, volunteers, first responders, and emergency crews.
Donors, governments, and civil society must support programs that boost social cohesion and resilience and facilitate mediation and peacebuilding for communities dealing with resettlement and the impacts of the conflict. Programs aimed at building social cohesion are essential because new inequalities or conflicts can arise within host communities of IDPs and refugees. To mitigate these risks, inclusive policies, trust-building, and mutual support and development initiatives are essential.
The humanitarian response has been largely volunteer-based and thus lacks specialists in data risk protection and analysis, which increases the probability of data hacking or online threats. To mitigate data risks or challenges, donors should ensure that funding includes allowances for mainstreaming protection risk analysis to address concerns related to civilian consent, data privacy, and security.
The international community must amplify the voices of the Ukrainian people working toward peace, diplomacy, and democracy through the press, social media, and other information outlets with the express consent and identity protection as needed. Media outlets, donors, and non-governmental institutions should immediately remove all photos, names, voices, and other personal identifying information of Ukrainians and local partners that may be subject to retaliation by Russian forces. They should also submit links to pages on their website with sensitive information on Google Search Console to ensure they are also removed from Google's cache and reverse image search any particularly sensitive images to see if they are cross-posted.