SP4: Severity, people in need, planned reach and people prioritized
“We spent our whole lives in Bakhmut, we raised our children there, watched our three grandchildren grow up and celebrated every family occasion. But after our son was killed by shelling, we simply couldn’t stay; every corner reminded us of the loss. We found shelter in a collective site in Dnipro, and even when last winter’s blackouts left us without light or heating, we slept in several sweaters and wrapped ourselves in everything we had. We are grateful for the support that helped us cope during those hardest moments,” — Valentyna and Oleksandr, an older couple from Donetska Oblast who currently reside in Dnipro City.
Summary of Needs
In 2026, approximately 2.7 million displaced people and severely vulnerable groups who are not covered by social protection systems will need humanitarian assistance. Prolonged displacement is deepening vulnerabilities for many displaced people, who are unable to connect to functioning state support systems, find adequate housing and secure income to meet their specific needs long after the initial shock of displacement. As a result, their circumstances worsen, and they are increasingly exposed to risks of secondary displacement, premature returns to unsafe areas, negative coping strategies, further harm and growing psychosocial distress, steadily constraining their access to rights. The 41 per cent of displaced people with specific needs, including older people, people with disabilities, those with chronic illnesses, single-headed households, children and women at risk, and survivors of war-related violence and human rights violations, have the lowest coping capacity and face the greatest barriers to accessing essential services and integrating into host communities.
Vulnerabilities are even more pronounced in collective sites or other institutional settings, where residents experience substandard conditions: overcrowding, lack of privacy, need for urgent repairs, inadequate heating and winter support, weak links to services and limited access to water and sanitation—highlighting the need for more appropriate accommodation solutions alongside stronger local integration and access to services. Fifty-five per cent of collective sites require upgrades to meet accessibility needs for people with disability and older people. While collective sites are intended as temporary accommodation for displaced people, and not designed for long-term stays, up to 82 per cent of residents have lived there for more than 2 years, a situation that compounds vulnerabilities and prolongs dependency.
Pockets of severe multi-sectoral needs remain for the most vulnerable displaced people outside collective sites, particularly in protection, housing, food security, livelihoods, health and education. Housing vulnerability is a key driver of risk for 86 per cent of displaced people who rely on rented accommodation or reside in collective sites and face high tenure insecurity. Nearly 60 per cent of households who tend to remain in collective sites cite financial constraints as their primary barrier to moving on, and 80 per cent report they would not leave regardless of assistance, showing how prolonged displacement continues to affect residents’ safety, stability and well-being, according to IOM’s CCCM IDP Profiling. One third cannot access housing compensation for their damaged or destroyed housing due to missing documents or limited awareness of the programme. The most vulnerable displaced people face significant barriers in accessing health and education services, including financial obstacles and information gaps. Particularly, people with disabilities, those with chronic conditions or in psychological distress, survivors of war-related violence and human rights violations, and GBV survivors have limited access to inclusive primary care, rehabilitation and specialized services. Children face emotional distress and learning loss with 77 per cent of school-aged children reported to be impacted due to displacement, requiring sustained psychosocial and catch-up learning support.
Protection risks intensify as displacement is prolonged. Many vulnerable displaced people require legal aid, case management, information provision, referrals to access their rights, including for specialized protection, GBV, child protection, house, land and property services and continuity of learning. GBV survivors and children at risk struggle to access confidential case management, psychosocial support, medical assistance, safe accommodation and legal counselling, particularly in collective sites. Disrupted community networks further weaken social cohesion and amplify the need for local integration. Without livelihood support, these groups remain dependent on aid, heightening vulnerability to exploitation and negative coping. Older people and people with disabilities without social and family support networks face significant obstacles in accessing social protection, specialized services and dignified accommodation, resulting in higher exposure to risk of institutionalization.
Scope of Strategic Priority and Managing Overlaps
This Strategic Priority focuses on internally displaced people living beyond 20 km from the front line who, after receiving short-term post-displacement assistance, continue to face compounded risks and individual barriers to essential services and local integration. Response aims to prevent further deterioration of their vulnerabilities, ensuring continuity of basic care, mitigating protection risks such as premature returns to unsafe areas, secondary displacement or further harm, and reducing reliance on negative coping strategies. The geographic scope is nationwide, excluding the 20 km front-line zone and focuses on “pockets of humanitarian needs” among displaced people in hosting communities across central, western and other relatively safer regions where they can be linked with Government services, to reduce their long-term reliance on humanitarian assistance and strengthen pathways for local integration. This Strategic Priority also includes highly vulnerable rural groups, such as small-scale farmers living inside the entire front-line zone (0–50 km).
Response will focus on displaced people in prolonged displacement, beyond six months, who still experience critical unmet needs and remain outside adequate state support, including older people, people with disabilities, single-headed households, children and others facing high protection risks, including gender-based violence, war-related violence and human rights violations. For these groups, prolonged displacement continues to restrict access to rights, services and safety.
This Strategic Priority remains distinct from Strategic Priority 3 (response after strikes) and Strategic Priority 1 (front-line responses) by the nature and purpose of assistance provided. It complements Strategic Priority 2 (evacuations) by enabling continuity of care and assistance for the most vulnerable displaced people who continue to face protection risks or be in need of specialized protection services beyond their initial displacement phase (6 months).
Response Strategy
Through Strategic Priority 4, 1.1 million displaced people identified as the most vulnerable will be supported with humanitarian assistance and services in 2026. The multisectoral response under this Strategic Priority will address the compounded risks and vulnerabilities faced by internally displaced people who remain in precarious conditions due to prolonged displacement. Guided by a strong protection lens and aligned with HNRP Strategic Objectives, the response will provide life-saving, assistance that ensures continuity of care for the most vulnerable, mitigate individual barriers to essential services, reduce protection risks and negative coping mechanisms, such as premature returns to unsafe areas or secondary displacement, and address the impacts of unmet and compounded critical needs among high-risk groups.
The response will be delivered as an integrated package, recognizing the interconnected needs and complementing Government services, particularly where vulnerable displaced people face barriers to access state services. The response package will address the most acute protection concerns, including war-related violence and rights violations, through social support services, such as case management, psychosocial support, information provision on rights, access to services, continuity of learning, legal assistance for civil documentation and housing, land and property issues. Humanitarian partners will strengthen and streamline referral pathways for high-risk protection, GBV, child protection and learning disruption cases, while reinforcing community-based approaches to enhance safety networks, promote social cohesion and facilitate integration with host community structures and state services. Specialized services for GBV survivors will include confidential case management, psycho-social support, emergency accommodation, legal counselling and safety planning, complemented by Women and Girls Safe Spaces and capacity-building for non-GBV actors on safe referrals. Displaced children at risk will be assisted with child-friendly mental, health and psychosocial support, case management and other specialized services, such as support to unaccompanied children or children at risk in alternative family-based care or family tracing and reunification. Children will also be connected to catch-up education to mitigate displacement-related learning loss and disruption.
To ensure safe and dignified living conditions, shelter and non-food items (NFI), and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) support will address substandard conditions in collective sites and private accommodation. Interventions will include essential household items, winterization support, insulation, small-scale repairsxlix, accessibility improvements, rental assistance and people-centred assistance to social institutions. Complementary case management and information services will help vulnerable displaced people access state health services, livelihood opportunities and pathways to more sustainable housing outside collective sites, which are intended as temporary accommodation for displaced people and not designed for prolonged stays. Displaced people eligible for state allowances but unable to access them will receive tailored cash assistance.
In front-line rural areas (0-50 km), small-scale farmers, who are among the severely vulnerable groups at risk of not being covered by social protection networks, will receive emergency and short-cycled food production interventions to sustain household consumption, reduce economic vulnerability, prevent adoption of negative coping strategies and maintain their basic living standards. In addition, humanitarian partners will advocate for their inclusion in any state social protection schemes through strategic partnerships.
The response will focus on service delivery, combined with tailored cash and in-kind assistance. It will complement and link towards government systems to prevent aggravation of risks and vulnerabilities where state capacity is overstretched, particularly in social and legal services, and collective site support. Humanitarian action will remain time-bound, with a planned, progressive reduction of reliance on humanitarian assistance through localization, tailored, service-oriented capacity building to maintain quality programming and stronger accountability to affected people.
Targeting and Prioritization
Vulnerability indicators—based on UNHCR’s Protection Survey and IOM Displacement Tracking Matrix—were applied to determine the most vulnerable displaced people prioritized under Strategic Priority 4. These indicators reflect geographic scope, service disruptions (housing, access to essential goods and services, reliance on crisis-level coping mechanisms), and rights-based factors, including the lack of mental health and legal counselling, presence of specific needs (disability, chronic illness, single-headed households, children at risk, pregnant or lactating women), family separation, challenges in accessing education, worsening economic capacity and absence of social assistance.
At the operational level, a people-centred approach to prioritization will guide implementation. This will include protection-lens profiling and household-level/individual assessments, prioritizing displaced and vulnerable rural groups at heightened risks: older people, people with disabilities, single-headed households, children and women at risk, survivors of protection violations, those in inadequate housing and people unable to access state systems without support. Robust protection monitoring and community-based approaches will ensure timely identification of individuals with complex risk profiles and multi-sectoral vulnerabilities.