On October 14, 2022, a round table meeting was held for Ukrainian public organizations. We want to share the results of this meeting and have written for you all the changes that we will update in our work
Paragraph 1. Reduce bureaucracy
- Unify application forms for projects financing and reporting forms for donor associations. If one of the departments of the organization rejects the application form, the Ukrainian organization will have the right to transfer it to the next donor without making any significant changes.
- Develop a reporting automation mechanism based on already existing web platforms. Donors must guarantee a transparent system of reporting according to the resources that have been collected, transferred and localized to help the Ukrainian population.
- Speed up the application review period to a maximum of one place.
- Donors and international organizations should create mentoring programs for small or newly created Ukrainian organizations. The goal of such programs should be to involve representatives of international NGOs directly in the work of Ukrainian NGOs in order to structure reporting and develop bilateral cooperation skills.
- Prioritize consideration of requests from Ukrainian NGOs based on urgency. For requests that are critical to saving the lives of certain population groups, inclusion should be created through a system of simplified verification.
- The translation of requests from Ukrainian into a language that is official in the international organization must be done by the international organization side. The staff of every organization cooperating with Ukraine must have a translator from Ukrainian into the official language of that organization.
- Donors who have already cooperated with a specific Ukrainian organization should provide letters of recommendation if the cooperation was successful. These letters must be recognized by other international organizations as part of the verification process.
- Generalize the categories of expenses in project budgets. The report of the implemented project must consist of categories and subcategories, categories can be completely changed at the discretion of the grantee, and articles can be changed within 20% without the consent of the donors.
- A large number of international organizations and donors must agree to develop universal standards for the verification of Ukrainian organizations. Create a single system through which any Ukrainian organization can submit a request for verification of its ability to work with pomegranate financing.
- Create a two-level verification system for organizations that have just begun to gain experience in working in Ukraine.
Point 2. Solidarity with Ukraine in the most effective way. The influence of local organizations on the formation of lists of needs.
- Most international organizations refuse to adhere to the principles of solidarity due to fears that they may be condemned after the end of hostilities and denied funding for taking sides.
- There should be a list of goods to which the party suffering the conflict and bearing the greater number of casualties is entitled by default. These are medicines, food, warm clothes, heating devices, hygiene products, tools for repairs and restoration of buildings. These goods, as humanitarian aid, should protect the civilian population and be distributed to the needs of the military to respect the rights of people who did not choose to participate in this war, but are currently forced to defend themselves.
- Lists of medicines and food should be formed exclusively with the participation of representatives of local organizations. They should be updated at least once every 2 weeks and the supply should be regular and not one-time.
- Each international organization should have a grantee manager on staff to quickly respond to changes in the territory to prevent critical situations.
- Access to resources for work in the occupied territories should be given to organizations whose members have proven experience working in these territories before or during the occupation.
- Beneficiaries of humanitarian and financial aid in the occupied territories must provide the minimum necessary private information for personal identification, and this information must not be published on open resources under any circumstances.
Point 3. To provide an opportunity for Ukrainian public organizations to talk about their own experience and needs
- Invite Ukrainian organizations to monthly meetings of donors, international conferences, round tables and panel discussions. Ukrainian organizations should become equal members of the dialogue about challenges and solutions.
- Simultaneous translation into Ukrainian must be mandatory at conferences where issues of aid to Ukraine and cooperation with Ukrainian NGOs are discussed, Ukrainian organizations involved and reports on the conference must also be translated.
- Holding conferences and events with the involvement of international donors, where the following topics will be covered: "Stories of successes and failures of NGOs", "Basic needs of NGOs in Ukraine", "Support of rural NGOs".
- Create a platform where various Ukrainian NGOs will be gathered with descriptions of their needs, problems, stories, and contacts. Availability for the dissemination of information about the activities of Ukrainian public organizations on the platforms of international organizations. Obligatory mention of grant recipients in project publications.
- Fund the work of journalists and communication experts who will cover the work of NGOs in Ukraine for an international audience. Develop booklets about the work of various organizations and communities in Ukraine in English for distribution among donors.
Point 4. Start studying with us
- To exchange experience between international and Ukrainian organizations in order to show the needs and transfer the knowledge of response in critical situations that has already been accumulated.
- Start physically visiting Ukrainian NGOs, at least as part of sightseeing tours and getting to know the teams for a better understanding of the realities.
- Post volunteer positions from Ukrainian organizations on your resources that have access to an international audience. Now there is a need for remote volunteering, such as creating publications, translating materials, crowdfunding, finding logistics channels, and more.
- Develop pilot projects on the basis of Ukrainian NGOs in order to scale this experience to other countries or save it for the future.
- To create projects for the development of the potential of Ukrainian organizations only under the condition of stable funding of 1 year or more.
- Dissemination of Ukrainian fundraising models and examples of fundraising projects to local organizations in other countries.
- We can teach the principles of working in crisis situations for obtaining quantitative and qualitative indicators, determining priorities in conditions of constant changes and how to persistently search for alternative solutions to problems.