December 2022 | Ukraine | Bulletin 1
Perceptions of aid in Ukraine quantitative findings round 1 Introduction The onset of the full-scale war on 24 February 2022 in Ukraine provoked one of the biggest humanitarian crises Europe has seen in the last decades. More than 17 million people are in need of aid and as of November, over 13 million people have been reached with humanitarian and governmental assistance. Countries were quick to raise funds and mobilise aid for Ukraine, where the first strategic objective of the Humanitarian Response Plan flash appeal states that aid needs to be provided based on the perceptions and feedback of people affected by the war. Ground Truth Solutions, funded by the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), surveyed over 2,000 people in Ukraine who received or needed aid on how they perceive the quality of the response. By asking their views, priorities, and expectations of how aid is provided, we work towards meeting two objectives: 1. To feed critical perceptions into response coordination in real-time. 2. To understand the quality of the response from the viewpoint of aid recipients and people in need. Partnering with a local expert, the Kiev International Institute of Sociology, we asked people’s views on access to assistance, aid seeking behaviour, information access, knowledge of feedback mechanisms, and fairness.
Key findings Over half the people contacted and three-quarters of self-identified people in need have received aid or services at least once since the full-scale war began. Despite this high proportion, over half the Ukrainians surveyed say they need more assistance. Women are more likely to identify as “in need” and are more likely to apply for aid than men (62% vs 46%). This is partly because more women (27%) than men (17%) are internally displaced. Aid recipients most often receive food (77%) and cash and voucher assistance (CVA) (51%). Cash is the main priority among people in need, despite 51% of people receiving CVA. Half of people (47%) said they need winterisation support – even before the recent wave of attacks on energy infrastructure. IDPs and people living in rural areas significantly more often indicate winterisation support.
This data collection is part of a bigger perceptions tracking project funded by the DEC. For more information, find us on groundtruthsolutions.org or reach out to serhii@groundtruthsolutions.org, marina@ groundtruthsolutions.org or rieke@ groundtruthsolutions.org.
To apply for aid, people most often use official websites and apps from aid providers (51%). Older persons less likely to use social media and other official websites and apps than younger people and more likely to use in-person or phone registration.
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