Outcome UKR_D_1.1

Support provision of essential and gender-based services that are designed in response to expressed needs of communities, both in areas impacted by the conflict and in locations hosting displaced people.

UN Women Ukraine made progress towards this outcome and the UN humanitarian response and coordination mechanisms better considered the needs, voices and priorities of women and girls affected by war. The 2025 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan (HNRP) identified women as representing 45% of the people in need and 42% of the planned reach, a significant increase since 2024 (when 31% of the people in need and 32% of the targeted population were women). This likely reflects a heightened recognition of women’s vulnerabilities through advocacy and use of gender and age, disaggregated data. The HRNP 2025 notes that “vulnerabilities are intensified by factors such as gender, age, disability, household composition […] Women-only households particularly those led by older women, face heightened barriers to services, protection risks and financial vulnerability.” The HRNP 2025 commits to prioritize inclusive programming through engagement of civil society organizations, including women’s rights organizations. This recognition of women’s needs within the UN system is in large part due to the efforts of the Gender in Humanitarian Action Working Group (GIHA) which UN Women co-chaired in 2024. With its expansion in 2024 to over 300 members, including 40 Ukrainian women’s rights organizations, the GIHA secured its position as Ukraine’s main coordination body on gender mainstreaming in the humanitarian response. UN Women through convening of partners, capacity building and skills development, support to communication, advocacy and data collection, and facilitation of GIHA localization in several regions/municipalities of conflict effected eastern Ukraine played a direct role in building up GIHA. GIHA contributed to the HNRP (and other planning documents including the 2024 Rapid Gender Analysis; the Multi-Sector Needs Assessment; the MSNA Gender, Age, and Disability Brief; and the Ukraine Winter Response Plan) by providing technical expertise and data including through the mobilization of cluster gender focal points and women’s rights organizations. UN Women supported the leadership, agency and voice of WROs. Two WROs which are UN Women partners were selected to join the UN Humanitarian Country Team where they advocated for integration of women’s needs in HCT decisions and actions. UN Women facilitated inclusion of WROs in the Alliance on Gender-Responsive and Inclusive Recovery . UN Women convened dialogues between leaders of groups facing multiple forms of discrimination, including IDP women, Roma women and LGBTIQ+ leaders – and the Humanitarian Country Team (HCT), UN Country Team (UNCT) and local authorities in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Poltava and Uzhhorod. This resulted in more targeted aid provision, including more humanitarian support from UN agencies for vulnerable Roma people living in western Ukraine and for elderly women in front line areas in Kharkiv oblast. Under this outcome, UN Women continued to strengthen the UN multi-donor Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund (WPHF) as the largest feminist fund for gender-responsive and inclusive humanitarian assistance and recovery in Ukraine. Through $6.5 million allocated to 54 women’s CSOs, women and their families across Ukraine received vital support, including food, hygiene kits, medication, legal aid, information on humanitarian assistance and emergency protection referral pathways, evacuation services and economic empowerment initiatives. UN Women invested in enhancing the institutional capacities of WROs and organizations representing groups that face multiple forms of discrimination to strengthen their agency and voice. UN Women continued to increase the management, monitoring and reporting capacities of the WPHF in Ukraine. Through the WPHF partnership and other forms of direct support to women’s rights organizations, UN Women in Ukraine directly assisted over 180,647 women and girls affected by the full-scale war in Ukraine , especially from vulnerable groups by providing them access to humanitarian support and services 9,709 women benefited from immediate life-saving humanitarian support. 16,637 women received psychosocial support. 8,828 women gained improved access to information on protection and socioeconomic services. 132,683 women were supported with legal aid/awareness, including reporting protection concerns and cases of conflict-related sexual violence. 12,790 women accessed economic support or set up a source of income for themselves and their families.