Women’s rights organisations (WROs) have been at the forefront of the humanitarian response amid the ongoing Russian war on Ukraine. They have been steadfastly providing essential support to the most affected communities. Many have utilised and built on their existing resources to adapt their work to respond to the changing needs in their communities, often with little or no support from international organisations. WROs are able to provide expert programming and are part of the emergency relief coordination system, ultimately strengthening the humanitarian response and driving accountability toward the affected population.

Without donors' core support for programming, not only can it result in more expensive programming (for example, letting staff go at the end of project funding and then needing to go through a costly and resource intensive hiring process for the same position when a new project is funded)[DC1] for WROs in the long run, but it can also jeopardise their sustainability and undermine the progress of gender equality in Ukraine. The availability of dedicated, flexible, multi-year, and unrestricted funding for WROs is essential to enhance gender-sensitive and gender-transformative humanitarian action.

The Gender in Humanitarian Action (GIHA) group in Ukraine has been collaborating to identify the impacts of WROs role in humanitarian response and the support they need from the international community. This event will bring together Ukrainian WROs and allies from the international community to workshop mechanisms and opportunities for strengthening the support for WROs in Ukraine and globally. The event will draw out best practices and lessons learned from the Ukraine response. It will seek to understand what international actors can do to ensure sufficient resources and support is provided for WROs in Ukraine and other humanitarian contexts around the world to enable their vital role in humanitarian responses whilst also continuing their work to champion gender equality. It will also provide a platform for international actors to understand how they can better use the potential of WROs as leading gender actors in communities.