The OCHA Pooled Funds’ Response in Ukraine (2024 Update)

After a decade of hostilities and the Russian Federation’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, Ukraine has faced ongoing war and destruction. Continued escalation of the war has by mid-2024 led to the prolonged internal displacement of nearly 3.3 million people – including nearly one million children , the disruption of livelihoods and social services, and the destruction of vital civilian infrastructure. This has left over 14 million people in Ukraine vulnerable and in need of humanitarian assistance.

Since February 2022, OCHA’s Pooled Funds – the Ukraine Humanitarian Fund (UHF) and the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) – have allocated over $600 million to the humanitarian responses in Ukraine, to support over 7 million people affected by the war.¹

In the first year of the scaled-up response, the UHF and CERF funding was strategically allocated in a complementary manner to maximize the Pooled Funds’ joint impact. At the onset of the crisis in February 2022, CERF funding from the Rapid Response window helped jump-start the humanitarian response within hours of Russia’s invasion. With the speedy and substantial increase in donor support to the UHF, the Fund launched a series of allocations to complement CERF funding and ensured a critical scale-up of the response across the country – with most of the funding supporting front-line responders such as national and local organizations. The complementary UHF and CERF allocations enabled a fast and comprehensive response by UN agencies and NGOs in hard-to-reach areas and have been instrumental in delivering aid to vulnerable populations, including internally displaced people, people with disabilities, women, children, and older people.

¹ Allocations launched or endorsed between February 2022 and October 2024