Woman holding and tickling a child in a food storage warehouse, both are laughing

Programme innovation

Programme innovation

Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal

The DEC has been working with member charities to explore different ways to promote innovation within the work we fund.

This page provides information about what innovation looks like for the DEC, what we have been funding and some of the lessons learned so far.

19 March 2025

Why the DEC IS thinking about innovation

The humanitarian sector is increasingly looking for more efficient and effective ways of working that ensure value for money and sustainable social transformation. As a funder, the DEC has multiple responsibilities in this area.

We have a responsibility to disperse funds quickly to ensure the delivery of a prompt and impactful emergency response for affected communities. There is also a responsibility to ensure that money is spent efficiently, and that programming is of high quality, relevant and effective.

This demands a close look at whether standard approaches can deliver, particularly in important areas such as accountability to affected populations and localisation. The DEC aims to model and facilitate better ways of working within the sector, particularly in terms of how, what and who we fund.

Through integrating innovation into our work, the DEC gives member charities and their local partners the space to experiment with new ways of working, driven by staff on the ground and communities’ needs. Taking an innovative approach also provides the opportunity, and dedicated resources, for DEC member charities to think more long-term, invest in research and learning, and work towards systems level change.  

Maks*, a child from Ukraine, develops his programming skills on a robot at a Digital Learning Centre in a library in Poland, on 5th October 2022.

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What is innovation?

A common misconception is that innovation only relates to specific types of programming – notably technology – and has limited relevance outside of the ‘for-profit’ sector.

In fact, innovation is a process that can be used by anyone to develop new and improved ways of working, in order to effect positive change within an individual programme, organisation, system or even sector.

Key components of the innovation process include challenging business-as-usual approaches, investing in learning and building evidence on what does and does not work, to improve efficiency, efficacy and impact.

A Dual Approach

To balance the multiple demands of delivering impactful emergency projects quickly, while harnessing innovation to test and develop quality programming for long-term change, the DEC has developed a ‘dual approach’.  

 The two strands of the approach, Engine 1 and Engine 2, run in parallel. As in a hybrid car, one engine works in a traditional way, and the second engine takes a new approach:

  • Engine 1

    A rapid response based on tried and tested, standard approaches to delivering aid (cash transfers, food, clothes, access to housing etc).

  • Engine 2

    A smart response that focuses on new approaches, innovation, system strengthening and longer-term change. 

The innovative strand, Engine 2, through Collective Initiatives mainly, allows greater flexibility in terms of the activities that can be funded and the opportunity for collaboration, collective work and new partnerships. 

Examples of activities include research, capacity strengthening and system strengthening to address the following key areas: 

  • Accountability to Affected Populations
  • Localisation
  • Safeguarding

The Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal was the first of the DEC’s appeals to put the dual approach into practice, followed by the Turkey Syria Earthquake Appeal.

FOCUS AREA: LOCALISATION

The process of shifting funding, decision-making power and leadership to locally-led organisations and people affected by crisis in all phases of humanitarian action.

Olena, from Christian Aid's local partner, Heritage Ukraine, joins a psychological support session for female residents of a small village in Eastern Ukraine, on 14 June, 2024. Image: Katya Moskalyuk/DEC

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Sustainable Humanitarian Innovation for Transformation (SHIFT) 

SHIFT was created in March 2022 as an Engine 2 initiative under the Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal and later expanded to the Turkey-Syria Earthquake response. It brings together a group of new and existing Save the Children initiatives and partners focused on promoting positive, systems level change (transformation) within humanitarian response, through:  

  • Applying innovative approaches to supporting local solutions 
  • Focusing on localisation and capacity strengthening 
  • Providing access to robust, locally led research, analysis and data 
  • Empowering diverse actors within the humanitarian eco-system

Recent research supported by SHIFT notably include:

When working in crisis becomes daily life: Local organisations in Poland

The role of Ukrainian women-led organisations in humanitarian action in Ukraine and Poland 2022-24 

Empowering youth in humanitarian action in Ukraine

Beyond protection: Designing intersectional humanitarian response to LGBTQI+ displacement in Poland

DEC funding for SHIFT ended in February 2025. Online information and access to learning resources remain available on the Humanitarian Leadership Academy website.

Find out more

Busy aid workers at JRS's centre for refugees from Ukraine in Bucharest, Romania. Local partner of DEC charity CAFOD, JRS provides legal advice on rights and obligations as migrants, as well as other services. Image: Adrian Catu/DEC

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What is Due Diligence?

The process of assessing risks and ensuring compliance with legal and ethical norms and principles in the activities of humanitarian organisations. This process aims to ensure transparency, efficiency and trust in the work of humanitarian organisations, as well as to reduce risks for employees, recipients and partners of the organisation.

Due Diligence and Cash Capacity Harmonisation Project 

This initiative led by the Collaborative Cash Delivery Network (CCD), was created to address the need for simplified due diligence processes that allow local actors in humanitarian response more equitable access to funding.

The project sought to build upon previous work by organisations such as Start Network, to address inefficient and duplicative due diligence and cash capacity assessment processes, by trialling different approaches.  

The aim was to create a harmonised due diligence tool that would be used by multiple agencies. This would save time and resources for local NGOs by reducing the number of different formats they needed to fill in, and could ultimately pave the way for ‘passporting’ of due diligence approval - where one NGO agrees to accept the due diligence carried out by another, rather than conducting their own.  

The project began with a review of the due diligence processes of 5 INGOs across their responses in Turkey, Syria and Ukraine, in addition to an assessment of local partner needs. A due diligence assessment tool was then developed and piloted by two out of an original five target INGOs (Concern and World Vision) - in Ukraine (Concern), and in Moldova and Northwest Syria (World Vision).

Concern Worldwide are now incorporating the tool into their ongoing work on Due Diligence Passporting, along with the 'Alliance 2015' network of NGOs, and the tool has been shared with the Ukraine Humanitarian Forum to support their (DEC-funded) due diligence project in Ukraine.

Find out more.

 DEC-funded cash vouchers via Age International's local partner HelpAge International in Moldova, on August 2022. Image: Andreea / Câmpeanu / DEC

Due Diligence Community of Practice (CoP)

This initiative was born from the Due Diligence and Cash Capacity Harmonisation Project, with key inputs from other DEC-funded projects under the Collective Initiatives umbrella. This includes projects led by Christian Aid, by the Ukraine Humanitarian NGO Forum and Action Aid, as well as support from Concern Worldwide.

It consists of a group of international and local NGOs who have come together with the aim of improving alignment, facilitating knowledge sharing and reducing duplication of effort related to due diligence requirements.

The CoP is hosted by ICVA, with Save the Children playing a co-hosting role, and has the ultimate goal of effecting systems level reform to simplify currently inefficient due diligence processes.  

For more information contact Laura Gordon (l.gordon@savethechildren.org.uk)


 

Due Diligence Harmonisation Initiative

The aim of this initiative, led by Action Aid, is to assess the Due Diligence context in Ukraine (including the legal environment, country-specific rules and issues) through consultations with donors, INGOs and local organisations.

Mindful that different entities across the Ukraine response are looking at due diligence mechanisms, the initiative is also mapping existing reports and analyses at country level, in order to avoid duplication and collate information that may not have been shared between organisations and networks.

Educational activities with girls from Ukraine in Moldova, on August 2022. Image: Andreea Câmpeanu/DEC


 

Local Pooled Funds

The Flexible Funding Mechanism for Women’s Rights Organisations (WROs) in Ukraine

Partners: Oxfam and ActionAid

This pooled fund seeks to strengthen the organisational capacity of WROs by providing flexible funding and capacity strengthening support. The aim of this support is to enhance WROs’ participation and representation in humanitarian decision-making and reinforce their leadership role in local and national emergency relief efforts. The initiative also focuses on generating learning that will be used to inform the approaches of Oxfam, ActionAid, WROs and the wider humanitarian sector in the Ukraine response.

Local Pooled Fund with Reduced and Tiered Due Diligence pilot, with the Start Network

This initiative was born from recommendations within the DEC commissioned report on local humanitarian action in Ukraine, and from Ukrainian civil society, to establish a locally-led pooled fund in Ukraine with reduced, tiered due diligence requirements. The objective is to allow smaller and newer humanitarian NGOS and voluntary networks to access funding. The pilot aims to address this need by testing a funding mechanism that contributes to the establishment of additional channels, particularly NGO-led channels, for funding to reach local and national organisations as directly as possible.

The pilot builds upon Start Network’s due diligence framework, which moves beyond the traditional ‘pass-fail’ model, and has proven successful in upholding transparency, integrity, and accountability. 

Flexible Funding Mechanism for Women’s Rights Organisations arrow

Start Network Local Pooled Fund arrow

Focus Area: Accountability to Affected Populations

The active commitment to use power responsibly by taking account of, giving account to, and being held to account by the people humanitarian organisations seek to assist. The overall aim is to allow affected populations to shape the aid they recive.

Women take part in a psychological support session in their village's new community centre in Eastern Ukraine, on 14 June, 2024. Image: Katya Moskalyuk/DEC

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CCEA in the Ukraine Humanitarian Response

CCEA is Collective Action on Communication, Community Engagement, and Accountability.

Effective communication is a lifeline in times of crisis. In the early stages of the Ukraine conflict affected populations reported that information was more of a priority for them than food and shelter. However, information-sharing between large global and smaller local humanitarian actors at the beginning of the response was poor, and many local groups did not have the up-to-date information they needed for aid recipients.

Noting the need for clear and effective communication, community engagement and accountability (CCEA), this region-wide project by the CDAC Network focused on system level change - moving away from limited, one-way communication towards two-way dialogue and community engagement across the Ukraine humanitarian response. The objective of this work was to enable the co-creation of a more locally led, cost effective and impactful response that is accountable to affected populations. 

DEC funding for CDAC ended in July 2023. The Ukraine resource portal remains accessible online.

CDAC: The state of communication, community engagement and accountability across Ukraine response arrow

Ground Truth Solutions

Due to its scale and rapid onset, independent data was lacking in the initial phases of the Ukraine humanitarian response. A large-scale needs assessment exercise had not been undertaken and efforts to engage communities at scale were limited.  

In June 2022, the DEC commissioned the NGO Ground Truth Solutions, to work on the Ground Truth Solutions Perceptions of Aid study, as a shared service for members and their partners. The study provided real time evidence of the needs and experiences of aid recipients. This enabled aid providers to make evidence-based decisions and tailor their programmes. A summary of key findings can be found in the Evidence & Learning section of this page.

Ground Truth Solutions also worked with the Collaborative Cash Delivery Network on the specific experiences of cash recipients.

A locally informed humanitarian response: Insights from Ukraine arrow

Focus area: Safeguarding

The responsibility that organisations have to make sure their staff, operations, and programmes do no harm to children and vulnerable adults, and that they do not expose them to the risk of harm and abuse. Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) and protection come under this umbrella term.

Yana* a refugee from Ukraine living in Poland, attends a school setup by the Unbreakable Ukraine Foundation on 5th October, 2022. Image: Paul Wu/DEC

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Empowering Schools: Child Protection and Safeguarding for children and adolescents

Partners: Plan International UK, World Vision & Child Rights Information Centre

This initiative aims to enhance the understanding of Child Protection and Safeguarding in schools in Moldova, including updating and adapting their referral pathways, mechanisms, policies, and procedures. The initiative is also fostering collaboration between schools, service providers (health, psycho-social support, etc.), and local authorities, to create a vibrant and functional network and ensure students from both Ukraine and Moldova benefit from a safer and more inclusive educational environment.

Safeguarding Hub Eastern Europe 

This initiative is a resource for organisations and individuals responding to the conflict in Ukraine, providing practical and accessible safeguarding resources that aim to reduce harm to refugees and displaced people.

DEC funding for the Safeguarding Hub ended in 2023. Practical and manageable steps to ensure safeguarding measures are in place are proposed in the Safeguarding Essentials for Eastern Europe pack.

Eastern Europe Hub: What is safeguarding? arrow

Focus Area: Capacity Strengthening

Activities or other types of support provided with the aim of strengthening the knowledge, ability, skills and expertise of individuals or teams in certain areas of their work, in order to help them achieve their goals.

Students practice professional manicuring techniques during a vocational training class supported by Oxfam’s local partner Shchedryk, in Ukraine 15th June, 2024. Image: Katya Moskalyuk/DEC

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Shifting power to local actors

This initiative seeks to address the root causes of obstacles for local civil society actors in Ukraine to grow, through a capacity strengthening approach that goes beyond buzzwords like ‘participation’ and is instead partner-developed, partner-driven, and partner-led.

It focuses on increasing local capacity building and learning, through training of trainers, peer to peer learning and small-scale grants. Topics for the training of trainers are selected by partners and the community of local responders who have been at the forefront of the Ukraine response. To foster local solutions coming from local actors themselves, the initiative includes a peer-to-peer learning forum with representatives from civil society hosting capacity sharing sessions for small-scale and grassroots civil society organisations.

Partners: Action Against Hunger, ActionAid, Age International, STAN and Pomogaem

Ivanna* takes part in a psychological support session at community centre 14 June, 2024. Image: Katya Moskalyuk/DEC

Pathway to Practitioner

Up-skilling Ukrainian humanitarians in person-centred and trauma-informed approaches to supporting vulnerable, at-risk and trauma-affected people.

As the humanitarian response in Ukraine evolves into a protracted crisis, there is a need to support local and national actors to develop sustainable approaches to providing humanitarian assistance across the country. This initiative focuses on providing a training package to Ukrainian civil society on person-centred and trauma-informed approaches to supporting vulnerable, at-risk and trauma-affected people. The aim is to improve the quality and effectiveness of services and ensure a more sustainable recovery and reconstruction process in Ukraine.

Partners: CAFOD, Christian Aid, Depaul, Alliance for Public Health, NGO Resource Centre 

Strengthening local response capacities

This initiative focuses on building the capacities of local organisations, including youth-led groups, in Romania to extend services and mentor the next generation of youth-driven organisations through: a Political Economy Analysis, civil society consultations and mapping of DEC actors and their challenges to improve understanding of the role of civil society in the Ukraine response; targeted capacity building of civil society organisations; and a comprehensive outreach, mental health and wellbeing support for NGO staff and volunteers and support on engaging Ukrainian youth.

Partners: ActionAid and Plan International, National Youth Foundation (FNT) and the Association for Development through Education, Information and Support (DEIS)

Oleksandr* and 13 year-old Bogdan* are preparing muffins at a bakery class at Happy Bubble centre in Bucharest, 2022. Image Adrian Catu/DEC

evidence and learning: Dec funded learning & research

Mavka* helps her daughter, Olesia* with her homework in a public bomb shelter in Kharkiv, 2022. Image: Maciek Musialek/DEC

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Ground Truth Solutions: Perceptions of Aid Study

Perceptions of aid in Ukraine remained almost the same from September - October 2022 to February - March 2023, and broadly people were satisfied that the aid they received met their needs. However, the study by Ground Truth Solutions also highlighted challenges experienced by aid recipients and people in need in Ukraine, which were also shared by refugees in Poland, Moldova and Romania. 

Key findings on the challenges include: 

 - People did not feel sufficiently informed about available aid and wanted humanitarians to ensure a more proactive information flow, using diverse information channels.

 - People asked for more transparency about aid, specifically on who is delivering it, how aid money was spent, and why certain regions and people are selected over others.

  - People said they were not sufficiently consulted about their needs. They recommended that the humanitarian response be better adapted to meet diverse needs. 
 
- Many people did not know how to provide feedback to aid providers, did not trust available mechanisms, or were afraid of negative consequences. They want affective feedback mechanisms and more information about how they can share their opinions. 
 
 - Aid is not always accessible for vulnerable groups, such as older people or people living with disabilities. To ensure that aid is more inclusive, people suggest helping these groups with aid applications, delivering aid to their home, and collaborating with specialist organisations.  
  
 -To address some of the issues, local aid providers in Ukraine suggested decentralising the coordination of aid and empowering local aid organisations and volunteer groups. They also want easier and streamlined applications for funding, and transparency around rejections. 
 
 - Refugees from Ukraine in Poland, Moldova and Romania shared their distinct experiences of their journeys to the host country. While they were mostly warmly welcomed and grateful for the support, conditions in shelters were often poor, and some faced issues when registering for aid. Mobility challenges, language barriers and occasional discrimination by locals made their experience difficult. Many had feelings of shame when having to ask for help. 

A locally informed humanitarian response: Insights from Ukraine arrow

Refugee Integration through Support and Employment (RISE)

Partners: International Rescue Committee and Save the Children  

At the beginning of the conflict the majority of refugees from Ukraine reported that they planned to return. Almost three years later, the percentage of refugees wishing to return to Ukraine has significantly decreased. Looking at social and economic integration is therefore becoming increasingly important, including the need to secure access to sustainable livelihoods.

Refugees face multiple barriers to finding sustainable employment in their host country, including lack of language proficiency, caregivers’ responsibilities, skills mismatch, limited or no procedures for skills recognition, limited information on employment policies, and the lack of social and financial capital, among others.

The overall objective of this initiative is to assess the barriers and ways forward for refugees from Ukraine, with a particular focus on refugee youth, to access sustainable livelihood opportunities in Poland, through employment or through running their own businesses.

Results to be shared later in 2025

Navigating Mental Health Challenges and Support for Ukrainian Men and Boys

Partners: Plan International, Care International & FONPC Romania (Federation of non-government organisations for children).

Young people impacted by the war in Ukraine have spoken about the gendered impact of the conflict, and the toll it has taken on both women and girls, and men and boys. Meanwhile, key findings from a 2023 study on various worldwide military conflicts showed that there is a clear lack of mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) programming that targets the needs of conflict-affected men. The study concluded that male trauma and its implications for individuals and communities must be better understood to inform treatments and efforts must be made to reduce stigma.  

This research study aims to better understand the mental health needs of men and boys in Ukraine, Poland, Romania and Moldova - including their experience of access and barriers to MHPSS services - and to provide actionable recommendations for government, civil society and service providers to better address those needs.  

Plan International: Young People on the War in Ukraine report arrow

Plan International: Navigating mental health challenges for boys and young men report arrow

Key Terms

Adaptation

Adaptation involves matching a solution to a problem and context, identifying the changes that are required, then implementing and testing those changes. 

Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA)

The direct provision of cash transfers and/or vouchers for goods or services to individuals, households, or group/community recipients. In the context of humanitarian response, CVA excludes payments to governments or other state actors, remittances, service provider stipends, microfinance and other forms of savings and loans.

Communication, community engagement and accountability (CCEA)

An area of humanitarian action based on the principle that communication is aid. CCEA gives priority to sharing lifesaving, actionable information with people affected by disaster using two-way communication channels so aid providers listen to and act on people’s needs, suggested solutions, feedback and complaints, and people receiving assistance have a say in and lead decisions that affect them. It also prioritises keeping people in crisis connected with each other and the outside world.

Data Governance

The processes and policies for managing and using data. Think of it as how decisions are made about data sharing that not solely about technology.

Data interoperability

The ability of two or more computer systems to exchange understand, and use data from each other without any errors or inconsistencies. It involves using common standards, file formats, and protocols for data exchange. This term is often used in the context of cash and voucher assistance. 

Data portability

Data portability refers to the ability of individuals to move their personal data from one platform or organisation to another in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format.

Group Cash Transfers (GCTs)

An approach to provide resources in the form of cash for selected groups to implement projects that benefit either a sub-section of the community, or the community at large. GCT is a type of response that seeks to transfer power to crisis-affected populations (typically delimited by geographical location) or community groups to respond to their own needs and priorities.

Multi-Purpose Cash Assistance (MPCA)

Transfers (either periodic or one-off) corresponding to the amount of money required to cover, fully or partially, a household’s basic and/or recovery needs that can be monetized and purchased. Cash transfers are “multi-purpose” if explicitly designed to address multiple needs, with the transfer value calculated accordingly.

Proof of concept

Preliminary evidence, typically based on a pilot, which demonstrates the feasibility and efficacy of a solution in addressing the problem it is trying to solve. 

Sustainability

In 1987, the United Nations Brundtland Commission defined sustainability as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."

Transformative

Can refer to an activity, action, process or programme that results in system-wide (positive) change.