Ukraine: EU and UNDP support community activists in exploring ways to adapt to war

For the first time since the beginning of the full-scale war in February, the Ukrainian Network of the Community Security and Social Cohesion Working Groups were able to meet offline with European Union support. The meeting took place on 1 November, in Truskavets, Lviv region.

The network, supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Ukraine, consists of civic activists, local authorities and the police from the most affected areas of the country.

Representatives of working groups from Donetsk, Luhansk, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, Zhytomyr and Kherson regions explored strategies to support communities located close to the front line. In particular, participants discussed the fastest ways to operationalise and support humanitarian centres, organise temporary shelters for internally displaced persons, provide basic necessities to the most vulnerable groups, especially before the winter, and organise anti-aircraft shelters and evacuation strategies.

A handbook on the working group methodology on community safety and social cohesion was also presented at the event. The manual was developed based on the experience of community mobilisation in several initiatives of the UN Recovery and Peacebuilding Programme co-funded by the EU. The manual is expected to be useful for the working groups all over Ukraine in the current difficult circumstances.

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