Ahead of the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Gdańsk on 25–26 June, members of the Humanitarian NGO Platform in Ukraine have developed a unified set of policy recommendations addressed to URC hosts, international donors, the Government of Ukraine and other recovery actors. Their collective voice was turned into a briefing note—a joint reflection on how humanitarian response intersects with recovery today, and what needs to change in a way it’s implemented today.
Ukraine’s recovery has already started, even while the crisis continues. The people affected by this war do not experience humanitarian response and recovery as two separate tracks, and policy should reflect that reality. This is what the NGO Platform community calls for.
Gender-sensitive approaches and meaningful participation of youth, persons with disabilities, and other vulnerable and marginalized groups must be embedded as a design principle across all recovery efforts. IDPs, refugees, veterans returning to civilian life—their access to housing, livelihoods, and reintegration support must reflect their actual circumstances, and their voices must shape the decisions being made about their futures. Investing in people, services, and support systems is essential to strengthening social cohesion and community resilience, while enabling a sustainable and inclusive recovery.
Our members make the case for local and regional empowerment as foundational to sustainable recovery. Communities, municipalities, and local civil society organisations are primary actors representing a concrete entry point into longer-term recovery systems. Government, civil society, the private sector, and donors working in genuine coordination—that is itself a recovery outcome, and one that requires deliberate, sustained effort from all sides.
The briefing note provides a set of recommendations regarding inclusion and support of internally displaced people, refugees, and veterans; women-headed households, persons with disabilities, youth, and LGBTIQ+ communities; survivors of gender-based violence; women entrepreneurs, Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), and smallholder farmers; and local authorities and civil society organisations taking on greater roles in recovery governance.
The briefing note is a call to decision-makers in the process of Ukraine’s recovery to consider these recommendations and deliver on commitments that are specific, trackable, and open to civil society scrutiny.
Read the full briefing note below.
