ReliefWeb

Highlights

• Six months of war has had grave consequences. In Ukraine, at least 972 children have reportedly been killed or injured, nearly 18 million people need urgent assistance. 6.9 million Ukrainians, mostly women and children, are refugees in Europe.

• Fighting continues in eastern and southern Ukraine. Additional displacements from these areas, the socio-economic impacts of the war and the approaching harsh winter are expected to cause a further deterioration of the humanitarian situation.

• With UNICEF support in and outside Ukraine, 4.1 million children and women are accessing primary health care, 1.9 million children and caregivers have received mental health and psychosocial support, 3.6 million people have access to safe water, 1.1 million children are accessing education, 170,456 households received humanitarian cash.

Ukraine

• UNICEF and partners have helped nearly 4 million people to access health care; close to 3.5 million to access safe drinking water; over 1.7 million children and caregivers to access mental health and psychosocial support; and over 760,000 children to access formal or non-formal education, including early learning.

• Over 600,000 people, from households with over three children or at least one child with a disability, have received UNICEF-funded humanitarian cash transfers.

Refugee Response

• UNICEF is supporting governments to ensure access to services, protection and social assistance for Ukrainian children, their families and host communities in 13 countries.

• 37,332 households have received humanitarian cash transfers, over 320,000 children have accessed education, and 5.4 million people have been reached with life-saving messaging on their rights and access to critical services. 40 UNICEF/UNHCR Blue Dots are also providing integrated services for affected families, having reached at least 234,000 children and caregivers.

• UNICEF is strategically engaging with national governments to strengthen systems, influence policies and scale up refugees’ access to child-centered services, including building capacity of large municipalities, aiming at reaching over 780,000 refugees in Poland alone with technical assistance for system strengthening.

Funding Overview & Partnerships

In line with initial interagency appeals, 1 UNICEF is seeking US$948.9 million under its Ukraine and Refugee Response Humanitarian Action for Children (HAC) published in April. This includes US$624.2 for the response inside Ukraine (Pillar 1) and US$324.7 for the refugee response in Europe (Pillar 2). In August, UNOCHA released a final revision of the Ukraine Interagency Flash Appeal, reflecting needs and plans targeting 11.5 million people in Ukraine, with an overall financial requirement of US$4.29 billion to the end of December 2022. UNHCR is currently coordinating a recalibration of the 2022 Regional Refugee Response plan, to allow partners to reprioritize sectoral activities and budgets to reflect the evolving context and response strategy. With the war continuing to have a devastating impact on children and families in Ukraine and living as refugees, UNICEF is accordingly revising its overall HAC appeal to reflect financial requirements to scale up and sustain critical services and protection assistance, including priorities like back to learning and winter-specific interventions, until the end of the year. The revised HAC will be released in September.

As of 22 August, UNICEF has received US$956 million against the total HAC funding ask, US$599.3 million for Pillar 1 and US$356.7 million for Pillar 2, out of which 66 per cent is unearmarked funding.
Generous contributions have come from the people and Governments of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic,
Denmark, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland,
Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Vietnam, the United Kingdom, the United States of America,
Vietnam, the European Commission, and the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF). From the development donors, Education Cannot Wait Fund have provided generous contribution to HAC-Ukraine as well. Please see information on contributions received as of 22 August here.

Ongoing fundraising campaigns by UNICEF National Committees (NatComs) and country offices have generated timely, flexible support from the private sector, including from corporate partners, foundations, philanthropy partners and individual donors, with actual funds already remitted amounting to US$617.9 million for both inside Ukraine and refugeehosting countries. Private sector support2 has been unprecedented with donations from over 719 businesses, 213 philanthropy partners, 119 foundations and a large base of individual donors across over 24 countries.
For its response inside and outside Ukraine, UNICEF continues to work with governments, United Nations (UN) agencies, civil society organizations (CSOs)/non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other humanitarian partners.

Close consultations are also being held with Presidential advisors, key ministries, city mayors and the Ombudspersons Office. Through its long-standing presence in Ukraine, UNICEF has established partnerships in key hromadas (municipalities) and will continue to expand these in all oblasts (regions). Around 92 government and civil society partners have been engaged with UNICEF to respond to the critical needs of children and families across Ukraine. In refugee-hosting countries, UNICEF is leveraging partnerships established through long-standing country programmes and a strong network of National Committees. In the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, alongside the advocacy work of the NatComs, UNICEF has established and is scaling up operational programming and relationships with governments, municipalities and CSOs, to support their national response efforts. UNICEF is also developing new multi-country relationships with key networks, like the World Organization of the Scouts Movement (WOSM), covering the Czech Republic, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Ukraine.