Adapt and transfer on?

On 24 January it was introduced that america Company for Worldwide Improvement, or USAID, could be suspending funding for all its programmes and tasks. This adopted a US State Division directive on 20 January ordering a 90-day pause in USAID for the aim of ‘assessment of programmatic efficiencies and consistency with United States foreign policy’.

Voluntary sector organisations and native authorities our bodies in Ukraine working in financial improvement, humanitarian support, democracy promotion and human rights who had been receiving USAID funding discovered themselves in varied conditions. Some had been in a position to proceed working, as a result of the USAID funds weren’t their major income. However others have needed to put tasks on maintain and seek for methods to outlive.

Gwara Media talked to 4 organisations based mostly within the Kharkiv area which have misplaced US funding and at the moment are compelled to adapt to the brand new situations.

‘A blow to freedom of speech’

‘Especially for local or hyperlocal media, the suspension of USAID funding will cause an information desert,’ says Olena Leptuha, head of the Kharkiv Disaster Infocentre and editor-in-chief of the Nakypilo media group. ‘This void has been filled over the years thanks to the dedicated work of media professionals and the support of foreign funds. I see a huge threat here, because the enemy is unlikely to reduce the informational pressure and we may lose the high-quality media outlets that have resisted it.’

The Infocentre emerged in 2014 as a response to the outbreak of the struggle in Ukraine and has been working as a multi-platform organisation ever since. It consists of a platform for press conferences, briefings and cultural occasions, in addition to an editorial workplace that produces information and multimedia. After organisational adjustments in 2022, the radio station ‘Nakypilo’ grew to become a separate organisation. It broadcasts on FM frequencies that function within the Kharkiv Oblast and its sign now reaches so far as Belgorod in Russia. An academic organisation, ‘Nakypilo Education,’ which performed media literacy coaching has additionally emerged.

‘In 2014–2015, USAID supported the newspaper Forum, which we published for a year,’ says Olena Leptuha. ‘It was distributed free of charge in Kharkiv and the oblast. The paper included analyses of reforms, analytical and explanatory materials, and photo reports. We also made QR codes that linked to our videos. Basically, we provided information that was difficult to obtain in some districts. Later, USAID also supported the radio. But we did not have institutional support.’

The withdrawal of USAID funding for the Nationwide Endowment for Democracy (NED) has additionally had knock-on results for the Kharkiv Disaster centre. The suspension of NED funding for Internews has meant that the Kharkiv Disaster centre has been unable to hold out an Internews-supported challenge to create supplies to counteract Russian disinformation. The Infocentre has been instructed that tasks presupposed to have been applied by June 2026 have additionally been suspended. This impacts the work of radio Nakypilo, for the reason that funds would even have lined workplace rental and fundamental salaries.

Solely a small fraction of USAID funds was directed to media improvement, in accordance with Leptuha. Infrastructure tasks had been a better precedence. When journalists from Nakypilo filmed the results of a Russian missile strike on Izium, they noticed how gear emblazoned with large USAID logos arrived on the location. USAID was involved with broader processes in Ukraine. In Izium, for instance, 80% of the infrastructure has been destroyed. ‘It definitely needs foreign investment,’ says Leptuha.

‘As for media organisations, this is a blow to freedom of speech,’ she famous. ‘People exhausted by the war will receive less information and it will be easier to manipulate them. In the context of elections, this issue becomes even more acute. If only those who are financed by politicians or exclusively pro-government media remain, then it will be a step back to the time before independent media appeared in Kharkiv, working to strengthen civil society.’

‘The state will have to deal with these problems’

The Chuhuiv Human Rights Group (CHRG) has been working since 2011. It focuses on offering authorized help and enterprise instructional actions on upholding human rights. It additionally runs a veterans’ centre, the place its workers work with navy personnel and their households freed from cost.

This isn’t the primary time the organisation has discovered itself with out funding, says Roman Likhachov, the top of the CHRG. On earlier events it was supported by contributions from its crew members. When USAID suspended its funding, one of many Group’s tasks had simply been accomplished.

‘Funded projects generally permit the organisation to expand its activities,’ Likhachov observes. ‘However, if an organisation cannot otherwise undertake any activities, then the issue is with the organisation itself. In our opinion, the organisation must ensure its sustainable development in a way that these projects make it possible to expand or reduce its activities. It should not be the case that if there is a financed project, then the organisation functions, but if there is no such project, then the organisation does not operate.’

For instance, the CHRG offers free authorized help and knowledge to veterans’ organisations, veterans, and displaced individuals. Even after the USAID funding was terminated, the scenario for the CHRG didn’t change considerably. Its representatives continued their actions, albeit on a smaller scale. In accordance with Likhachov, specialists beforehand paid through USAID now work voluntarily.

Funds had been additionally used to pay courtroom prices, which, in accordance with Likhachov, not everybody can afford. The CHRG plans to proceed serving to this goal group, as well as to looking for assets. In parallel with these areas, CHPG is drafting new tasks and coordinating its work with varied organisations.

In accordance with Likhachov, there’s at present a distorted understanding in Ukraine of how funding works. Individuals typically assume that funds are used to pay volunteer staff. Whereas the event of the voluntary sector was certainly one of many objectives of USAID, many of the funds had been obtained by the state and native authorities.

Likhachov remarks that funding companions often cowl the prices that the state needs to be offering. ‘We work a lot with veterans and military personnel,’ he says, ‘and I see a substantial demand for legal aid which the state does not cover with free legal aid centres. If USAID and other organisations do not help the state, then local self-government organs will have to take responsibility for solving this problem, because it is not going anywhere.’

‘We are not sitting still’

Dobrobat’s mission is to take part within the restoration of housing and infrastructure amenities which might be broken by Russian strikes. Its volunteers are among the many first to reach on the scene of a Russian strike. Together with different volunteer organisations, they assist to dismantle rubble, cowl roofs, and block home windows in destroyed buildings. Its branches function in varied areas of Ukraine.

The withdrawal of USAID funding has additionally affected Dobrobat, says the top of the Kharkiv department, Pavlo Filippenko. A just lately agreed ‘global grant’, a 3rd of which was from the USAID ‘Heart of Europe’ fund, was presupposed to have been used to coach 60 veterans in Kharkiv to introduce photo voltaic power and preserve photo voltaic panels in native communities.

‘We had only just received the funds, says Filippenko, and literally three days later we received a letter stating that the programme would have to be suspended. We were also required to provide information about what had already been spent. But we had not yet had time to spend anything. The funds in the account are now frozen. We were told that this is pending clarification of the circumstances. However, no one knows when that will occur. We have applied to several other funds, such as Nova Ukraine and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit, in the hope that they can replace the portion of funding from USAID and thus allow us to carry out this project. There has been no response from them as yet.’

It’s one factor when an organisation has not but began implementing the agreed challenge, as was the case with Dobrobat. Nonetheless, it’s fairly one other when work has begun and the funds are already being spent. Most of the programmes being funded from the USA beforehand obtained a portion of their funding from USAID. All have now needed to droop their programmes fully.

‘For example there is a programme for the repair of some dormitories for internally displaced persons,’ says Filippenko. ‘They started spending money, purchasing material, making windows, installing heating, whatever was required. Then the funding was abruptly suspended. The team came, started renovating the buildings and now everything has to be put on hold.’

The identical factor occurred with gear for cogeneration crops, equipped to Ukraine partly through USAID. In accordance with Filippenko, it’ll merely be left unused, as a result of there isn’t any solution to join or correctly register the gear. The programme has been suspended, and people immediately implementing it haven’t any proper to proceed the challenge.

‘That’s why the scenario is each sophisticated and incomprehensible,’ Pavlo Filippenko. ‘It’s not assured that after 90 days, every part will likely be restored and the work will proceed. However we’re not sitting nonetheless, we’re addressing different funds, writing letters and ready for optimistic responses. Thank God, funds have emerged that, understanding the necessity to proceed programmes in Ukraine, are able to finance the share that USAID was supposed to supply.’

‘We will have to stop operating, at least in the short term’

The suspension of USAID funding has additionally affected Buduyemo Ukrainu Razom (We Construct Ukraine Collectively / BUR), a volunteer organisation whose representatives journey to Ukrainian communities, the place they assist create youth and public areas and renovate housing for individuals in want of lodging. One in all BUR’s centre operates in Kharkiv.

Nonetheless, in accordance with the top of its communications division, Anna Sabo, the organisation has discovered itself in a troublesome scenario after shedding funding from USAID and NED and will quickly result in the suspension of actions. These had been primarily BURchiks or short-term development operations based mostly on mutual support and the precept of excellent neighbourliness. These tasks have a brief length of just one to 3 days. The organisation additionally has a BUR camp format that lasts from seven to 9 days.

‘The camp is our long-term project, when volunteers come to several meeting points and are engaged in restoration or construction work on infrastructure facilities,’ says Sabo. ‘These will be shelters, veteran areas, or different buildings, relying on what the group wants and what we will present. The BURchik is a short-term motion, with the utmost involvement of native volunteers. This permits us to undertake reconstruction operations in a brief timescale. In 2024, we managed to implement 19 BURchiks and had deliberate to implement 21 in 2025. These plans have now been suspended as a result of lack of funding.

BUR was additionally a member of the consortium of the Mriyemo ta Diyemo (We Dream and We Act) program, which was applied collectively with IREX and supported by USAID. The consortium  collaborated for 5 years inside the programme’s framework. Greater than 27 socially essential amenities had been restored, together with shelters, youth centres, group and veteran areas. Additionally they managed to implement 5 reconstruction camps in veteran areas. USAID funding lined a major a part of institutional prices and a portion of the crew’s salaries. In April, BUR was to have organized a coaching college to allow girls to qualify for and work within the development business. Six reconstruction camps had been additionally presupposed to have been run that might have concerned over 300 volunteers.

‘This year, 21 activities were planned with NED in Kharkiv Oblast,’ says Sabo. ‘However, after USAID announced its funding freeze, we received information from our key partner about the suspension of all these activities. This situation is now critical for us. Ultimately, if we do not find funding, then the organisation will lose its established institutional capacity. We will have to stop operating, at least in the short term.’

BUR is subsequently looking for different technique of financing its operations, contacting different European companions and speaking with native and nationwide companies about varied partnership codecs. The organisation has launched a raffle, providing one of many organisation’s buses, which it beforehand used to move volunteers, as a prize. Sabo notes that BUR is looking for a solution to stabilise the monetary scenario. It’s, in fact, significantly essential to protect the crew that offers with organisational points.

The unique Ukrainian model of this text was revealed in Gwara Media on 28 February 2025