Ukraine’s humanitarian landscape two years on | Insights from the 2023 Multi-Sector Needs Assessment

On the second anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the country continues to grapple with the impact of ongoing conflict. Over the course of 2022 and 2023, the conflict has caused destruction and damage to houses and infrastructure, disrupting service provision and exacerbating humanitarian needs. Despite some areas showing signs of stabilisation, with more localised impact near the front lines, the continued generation of multi-sectoral data is crucial to adequately understand the evolving needs of affected populations.

Since the launch of the country office in 2015, IMPACT – through its flagship initiative, REACH – continues to support the Humanitarian response in and outside Ukraine. In 2023, REACH once again conducted the Multi-Sector Needs Assessment (MSNA) in Ukraine. This nationwide survey aims to improve the understanding of the current humanitarian situation, providing a baseline of household-level needs across key sectors of service provision and aid.

Proximity to conflict zones emerged as a significant factor shaping household needs, particularly in areas near the frontline. Here, households faced unique financial and infrastructural challenges, where 71% of households faced extreme or extreme+ levels of need – twice the rate of other regions. This disparity is fuelled by heightened protection needs, as households reported experiencing safety and security incidents in their community, including reports of armed violence, shelling, and attacks on civilian infrastructure.

Displacement dynamics further compounded the humanitarian crisis, significantly shaping both the magnitude and drivers of need. With over 6.4 million Ukrainians displaced abroad, the challenges facing returnees are multifaceted – from challenges around employment, livelihoods, housing, and the lack of essential items and documentation.

As a result, both returnee and internally displaced households were more likely to have extreme levels of needs compared to their non-displaced counterparts.

To unpack these findings, REACH published an interactive StoryMap that outlines the timeline of how humanitarian needs have evolved and provides insights from the latest REACH data regarding the current situation on the ground. You can access the StoryMap here.

More from Ukraine | Using big data and AI to support the Ukraine refugee response

In the early days of the crisis, we collaborated with Data for Good at Meta and leveraged big data and AI to support the Ukraine refugee response.

One of the many initial information gaps faced by the response was the need for close to real-time insights on the volume of people leaving Ukraine and their movements in the following weeks and months. Using displacement models developed by Data for Good, the Meta team compiled custom displacement reports during the early months of the war to better estimate the total number of people leaving Ukraine, the gender and age breakdowns of those displaced, and their destination countries. This was data crucial to response planning, as the actors were able to understand population distribution at the subnational level, data otherwise unavailable due to the lag time between arrivals and registration processes.

If you would like to learn more about IMPACT’s collaboration with Data for Good, read the case study or watch the video produced about the project.

More REACH News:

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Türkiye-Syria Earthquake One year on, looking at the earthquake’s lasting impacts in conflict-affected Northwest Syria.

A year after the two devastating earthquakes that hit Southern Türkiye and Northern Syria on 6 February 2023, affected communities in Northwest Syria are still grappling with the profound challenges left in the aftermath of the disaster – deepening a thirteen-year long humanitarian crisis. Our latest article reflects on the lasting impacts of the earthquake on an already vulnerable Northern Syria and explores what our latest data tells us about the region one year on.

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About REACH

REACH is a leading humanitarian initiative that collects primary data and produces in-depth analysis to help aid actors make evidence-based decisions in support of crisis-affected people. With this in mind, our flagship research programmes aim to inform the prioritisation of aid according to levels of need - both crisis-level planning and targeted rapid response - as well as decisions around appropriate modalities of aid. Through our team of assessment, data, geospatial, and thematic specialists, we promote the design of people-centred research and set standards for collecting and analysing rigorous, high quality data in complex environments

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