UNHCR operates as part of the inter-agency humanitarian response, working in close coordination with local authorities and humanitarian partners. UNHCR is leading three clusters – Protection, Shelter and NFIs, and Camp Coordination Camp Management (CCCM).
Protection Cluster
UNHCR leads the Protection Cluster in Ukraine, alongside Right to Protection (R2P) as co-chair.
Key figures
UN agencies, national and international NGOs
coordination hubs in Dnipro, Kyiv, Lviv, Vinnytsia and Odesa
people reached collectively in 2023
people reached under Protection (awareness-raising, protection information counselling, transportation services, psychosocial support, case management and legal assistance) in 2023
Objectives for 2024
Ukraine Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan 2024
Cluster Objective CO1
Ensure vulnerable internally displaced people, non-displaced people, and returnees are provided with principled and gender- and age-responsive protection assistance to address risks to their physical safety and well-being
Cluster Objective CO2
Enable equitable access to basic services and legal and human rights for internally displaced people, non-displaced and returnees through the implementation of protection interventions aimed at strengthening the national protection systems and the capacity of service providers and communities themselves.
Under Protection, UNHCR and R2P coordinate 93 partners with a target of assisting 1.0 million IDPs, 1.5 million non-displaced people and 446 thousand returnees in 2024.
Key activities
- case management
- individual protection assistance (cash)
- hotlines
- individual protection assistance (in-kind)
- legal assistance
- protection counselling and protection monitoring
- psychosocial support
- referral to specialized services and transportation
- advocacy, assessments, awareness-raising, capacity building, community-based protection, and institutional support
Dashboards, tools and important links
The Cluster has rolled out an updated Protection Monitoring Tool as well as a Services Advisor tool to better inform referral and operational prioritization.
Other resources
Protection Cluster Ukraine Quarterly Newsletter – September 2024
Ukraine: Protection Analysis Update – June 2024
Protection Cluster Hub Factsheets
Dnipro | Kyiv | Lviv | Odesa | Vinnytsia
Visit Protection Cluster webpage for more information and resources.
Related stories
“My work is very fulfilling – I help people every day”, says a worker of the UNHCR Protection Hotline
Operators at the UNHCR Hotline answer 1,500 calls a day from people in need across Ukraine. Some 262,000 calls have been received since the start of the full-scale invasion. “When the war started last February, it was a shock for my family and I, especially since we...
“My favourite hero is you!” The IDP psychologist helps people overcome their trauma of displacement
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Each emergency is about protecting the people we serve, and this is my experience in Ukraine
“Blackouts, missile attacks, air alarms: this is my reality today. And not only because I am working in Dnipro, Ukraine, but also because I too have been displaced by this war. However, I don’t even think about being in danger anymore – I am totally...
Shelter and Non-Food Item (SNFI) Cluster
UNHCR leads coordination of the SNFI Cluster in Ukraine, alongside the Danish Refugee Council (DRC) as nation co-chair and People in Need as co-chair in the Eastern hub.
Key figures
UN agencies, national and international NGOs
coordination hubs in Dnipro, Kyiv, Lviv and Vinnytsia
people reached collectively in 2022
people reached with NFI support for households, collective sites and bomb shelters
people benefitted from emergency shelter assistance and house repairs
people supported with winterization assistance in 2022-2023
Objectives for 2023
In 2023, SNFI Cluster has two sectoral objectives that work together, in a complementary and mutually reinforcing way to ensure provision of shelter assistance and essential NFI support:
- to provide shelter assistance responding to needs of IDPs, people who remain in war-affected areas and returnees. This includes consideration of cross-cutting themes such as protection, inclusion, accountability to affected populations (AAP), housing, land and property (HLP), and environmental issues
- to provide essential NFI support based on needs for IDPs, people who remain at home, and returnees at the household level, including those residing in collective sites (CSs). Implementation of this objective will include efforts to promote a greener NFI response
Key activities
- emergency shelter support
- temporary housing
- light and medium housing repairs (cash and in-kind)
- heavy repairs
- refurbishment of collective sites, rental support and hosting family support
- provision of NFI kits for collective sites, households and bomb shelters
- provision of winter specific NFIs including clothes and heating, as well as support for winter energy needs (cash and in-kind)
Latest documents
Intro Shelter/NFI Cluster 2023.
Shelter Information Damage Assessment and Response Database – June 2023 Update
Interview with John Wain, the Coordinator of the Shelter/Non-Food Items Cluster for Ukrinform.
Visit Shelter, NFI Cluster webpage for more information and resources.
Related stories
House repairs restore hope for Ukrainian family after year of turmoil
Now aged 84, Kateryna Humennyy was just a child when war first upended her life in Ozershchyna, a small village set among vast agricultural plains an hour’s drive west of Ukraine’s capital Kyiv. Her father was killed during the Second World War, leaving her mother to...
UNHCR provides generators to help families stay warm amidst blackouts
A small settlement of modular houses near the war-stricken town of Borodianka recently became home to around 280 people. Less than a year ago, practically all the residents of this new community lived peacefully in their own houses and apartments. But after 24...
Ukrainian village torn apart by war begins long process of rebuilding
In the quiet rural village of Nalyvaikivka on the outskirts of Kyiv, locals are sifting through the debris of their destroyed homes, hoping to salvage whatever they can. Others gather at garden gates, offering words of support and condolence, trying to come to terms...
Camp Coordination and Camp Management (CCCM) Cluster
UNHCR leads the CCCM Cluster in Ukraine, which was activated in March 2022 following the escalation of the war in Ukraine.
Key figures
international and national partners
regional hubs in Kyiv, Lviv, Vinnytsia, Dnipro
people reached in collective centres in 2022
people are planned to be reached in 2023
The overall objective of the CCCM Cluster in Ukraine is to ensure a coordinated multi-sectoral response and operationalized data for protection and assistance to IDPs residing in communal settings, improving their quality of life and dignity during displacement, while advocating for transitional and durable solutions. The Cluster works to ensure that needs of communities are at the centre of the response, while minimum CCCM and SPHERE standards are met, and local capacity is developed.
Objectives for 2023
- improve living conditions in collective sites through enhanced site coordination and management, including facilitating multi-sectoral assistance by humanitarian actors, in support of government and other local site managers;
- strengthen self-organization of displaced populations in collective sites and improve access to information, in order to strengthen IDP mobilisation, participation and leadership in collective sites; and
- build the capacities of the Cluster partners and relevant stakeholders, including national actors, authorities at all levels, and site managers, to strengthen the protection environment for IDPs in the collective sites, ensure access to basic services, and multi-sectoral humanitarian response. Key activities include site monitoring through the Collective Site Monitoring (CSM) tool; establishing site management support teams, CCCM systems, community projects, and feedback and complaint mechanisms; and conducting capacity building for site managers and other stakeholders.
Latest documents
Ukraine Collective Site Monitoring: Round 7: March 2023
Map of the active collective sites (Ukraine, April 2023)
Map of the inactive collective sites ready to host IDPs in emergency (Ukraine, April 2023)
Visit CCCM Cluster webpage for more information and resources.
Related stories
The monastery that opened its doors to fourteen-year-old boy Mykyta and his family
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Eighty-seven-year-old Lyudmyla has lived her whole life in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city. Today she is far from home, living in Uzhhorod, a city in western Ukraine in a reception centre hosting people displaced by the war. She is one of over eight million...
University dorm in western Ukraine offers escape for fleeing families
Until recently, students filled the halls and rooms of this dormitory in Mukachevo State University in western Ukraine’s Zakarpattya region. Now, the building throngs with activity of a different kind, as families driven from their homes by heavy shelling and fighting...