Projects

Short Description:

Overall goal

People affected by the conflict are protected in line with applicable international norms and humanitarian principles. Their emergency and longer-term needs, including food, water, sanitation, livelihoods, health, and safety are met.

Expected results

The ICRC aims to achieve following programme results, reaching 6,8 Mio. affected and most vulnerable people:

- Food consumption and production for approx. 70,000 people increased;

- Living conditions and income support for approx. 200,000 people improved;

- Access to water and habitat for approx. 6,500,000 people supported;

- Institutional WASH infrastructure for approx. 5,000 in-patients improved;

- 200 Health centers, hospitals and medical service providers supported

Target group / Beneficiaries

The overall target group is 6,775,000, consisting of the most vulnerable people affected by the conflict, such as wounded and sick, displaced or in transit, women-headed households, small children, people with disabilities and elderly, as well as detainees.

With an Austrian contribution of EUR 1,000,000, the ICRC will be able to reach an additional 61,111 individual beneficiaries:

- 48,889 people under “Water and Habitat” (people without appropriate and sufficient access to potable drinking water will benefit from the repair or upgrade of water systems that are damaged or out of service)

- 12,222 people under “Economic Security” (improved nutritional intake for the most vulnerable target groups affected by the conflict)

The Austrian contribution is a co-funding consisting of contribution from all federal States in the amount of EUR 1 Mio.: Lower Austria EUR 189,430.00, Vienna EUR 214,510.00, Vorarlberg EUR 44,720.00, Burgenland EUR 33,16.00, Tyrol EUR 85,100.00, Styria EUR 139,750.00, Upper Austria EUR 167,590.00, Salzburg EUR 62,720.00 and Carinthia EUR 63,020.00.

Activities

The following activities are envisaged with the contribution:

- Support the provision of material aid or cash to help affected people and households to increase resilience and produce their own food.

- Distribute food rations or cash to ensure an improved nutritional intake among affected and most vulnerable people.

- Provide water companies with water-treatment chemicals, pumps, and pipes as well as technical expertise, to restore the water supply infrastructure.

- Support repairs at crossing points and households and/or provide people with the necessary materials to do the work themselves.

- Support emergency interim solutions, including the distribution of water by tankers for the affected communities.

Context

On 24 February 2022, the armed conflict in Ukraine has entered a new phase, with the intensification and spread of hostilities that are now affecting most parts of the country and causing major concern for the protection of civilians and essential civilian infrastructure. This comes after months of rising political and military tensions and eight years of conflict where an estimated 2.9 million people were already in need of humanitarian assistance and 1.4 million were internally displaced.

The very fluid and rapid evolution of the situation, combined with severe security constraints impeding ICRC teams on the ground, makes it difficult to fully assess the humanitarian consequences of the conflict. The impact is expected to be massive and will affect communities in all regions in the country, with the potential of massive casualty numbers, a significant number of persons being captured, detained or declared missing, members of families being separated, and extensive destruction of civilian infrastructure such as medical facilities, water systems and electricity plants.

Based on estimation figures provided by the authorities and National Societies, the total number of people affected by the conflict can be estimated to be up to 18 million, thereof up to 5 million displaced internally or fleeing the country. On top of that, the COVID-19 pandemic remains an issue in Ukraine, owing to the limited number of people vaccinated against the virus and the high transmissibility of the Omicron variant.

Without urgent action to protect essential services in areas where the hostilities are taking place, large scale humanitarian implications are expected.