Interview with Nicolas Ben-Oliel, Première Urgence International’s head of mission in Ukraine.
Alain Boinet : You are Première Urgence Internationale’s head of mission in Ukraine. Could you introduce your work to our readers?
Nicolas Ben-Oliel : Première Urgence Internationale has been present in Ukraine since 2015, following the events of 2014. From 2015 to early 2022 and the February 24 invasion, the mission operated on an annual budget of around 1.5 million euros, which has since completely exploded. Today, we are a team of 200 people. We have a coordination office in Kiev, three operational bases across the country, one in the west in Lviv, one in Dnipro covering our response in the oblasts of Dnipro, Zaporijjia and Donetsk, and one in Kharkiv.
Première Urgence Internationale in Ukraine focuses on integrated emergency health care. We therefore intervene in health, mental health and protection. We have mobile health teams that treat people in the most remote areas, close to the front line, the elderly, others with disabilities, and/or those who cannot necessarily travel to urban centers. We also deploy emergency responses in urban centers after missile strikes, as well as in transit centers where people are displaced when they have to leave their homes close to the front line in a hurry. In terms of mental health response, for the past two years we have been working closely with the Ukrainian Ministry of Social Policy as part of a plan launched by Olena Zelenska, the Ukrainian First Lady, to prioritize mental health issues – no easy task in a post-Soviet country. And yet, there are considerable needs in this area for displaced persons, war veterans and people traumatized by war. We are also developing activities around gender-based violence.
We also operate in other sectors, notably Multipurpose cash assistance, and manage a number of shelter activities, such as repairs and infrastructure rehabilitation in collective centers for displaced persons, or in health centers. We also distribute “non-food” items, even though there are functioning markets in the major towns. While these products remain useful for isolated populations along the front line, cash distribution remains the most effective form of support in large towns, as has been the case for some ten years now in humanitarian intervention contexts. We also run WASH projects – water, hygiene and sanitation in particular – as part of our health response. We rehabilitate showers and toilets in health centers, and install water heaters in hospitals affected by the consequences of fighting close to the front line.
AB. To better understand what your humanitarian action represents, what are the key figures that allow us to measure it in concrete terms.
NBO. There are 200 of us today, including around 15 expatriates. We work a lot in partnership with other international organizations and Ukrainian civil society organizations. In particular, Première Urgence Internationale is the leader of a large consortium financed by BHA (Bureau of Humanitarian Affairs of the US government), made up of 5 French NGOs: Handicap International, Solidarités International, Action Contre la Faim and Triangle Génération Humanitaire.
The consortium operates with almost $100 million over 27 months. The annual program implemented directly by Première Urgence Internationale represents around 14-15 million; if we include the consortium’s international partners, it is around 40-50 million euros. These amounts are particularly high in 2023 and 2024, and will fall in 2025 as there is a general decrease in humanitarian funding, even if the war continues and shows no signs of ending.
AB. In Ukraine, there are war zones, territories where relative calm reigns, and places that are home to people and families displaced by fighting and bombing. How do you respond to such diverse needs in remote areas ?
NBO. Yes, completely. We really try to link our ability to respond to emergencies and shocks, particularly close to the front line, with our activities behind the scenes. In Ukraine, there are very frequent drone and missile attacks on the main urban centers; quite regularly, we have to deploy a response in urban centers far from the front line but which have suffered civilian casualties.
Our intervention along this frontline now represents the bulk of our humanitarian response in Ukraine. We support healthcare structures and help people who are farthest from urban centers.
We are also developing mental health projects, which are necessarily long-term. All the more so in a post-Soviet country where this issue is not yet sufficiently considered. So we know that this will be a long-term, in-depth project.
Finally, we provide structural support for the healthcare system, notably through the “affordable medicines” program launched by the Ministry of Health. Its aim is to facilitate access to medicines for all populations, whatever their resources.
AB. Yesterday we visited the Okmatdyt hospital, which was hit by a Russian missile on July 8, killing and injuring many people and destroying and damaging several buildings. Okmatdyt is the reference pediatric hospital in Ukraine, the equivalent of the Necker hospital in Paris. What can you do in such a situation ?
NBO. We don’t work in the Kiev region; we are mainly present in the eastern crescent, the south-east and a little in the west of Ukraine.
However, as our office is located 800 meters from this hospital, we had to intervene. Using the resources of our medicine warehouse in Kiev, we made a donation to enable the hospital to replenish its destroyed stock.
AB. The coordination of humanitarian actors generally ensures that aid is complementary and synergistic, making collective relief efforts more effective. How do you proceed in Ukraine ?
NBO. NGO coordination is a real issue in Ukraine if we consider the reality of the country’s network of nearly 600 NGOs involved in the international and national humanitarian response, including governmental organizations as well as volunteer groups.
For the past year and a half, there has been a platform of NGOs working in Ukraine. It is run by five organizations, including Première Urgence Internationale. It is made up of around a hundred organizations, with an almost even split between national and international NGOs.
The aim of this platform is essentially to bring different types of organization into contact with each other, and to enable national organizations to access funds through international NGOs, as well as coordination mechanisms with which they are not necessarily familiar.
Première Urgence Internationale is also part of the Humanitarian country team, which is the highest-level coordination mechanism in the humanitarian response, and brings together several UN agencies and international and national NGOs. In particular, we are working on issues of area-based coordination, with the aim of creating more links between the cluster mechanism – and, by extension, the classic coordination mechanisms of a humanitarian response – and the most local level of response. In the Kharkiv oblast (there are 24 in the country), for example, groups of Ukrainian volunteers have formed NGOs: one of these is the Relief Coordination Center (RCC), with which Première Urgence Internationale works. RCC has developed an effective coordination mechanism between national and international NGOs, volunteer groups involved in evacuations, and the main state structures involved in humanitarian response.
A small group of NGOs is looking to develop similar models of coordination between the various players in the country-wide response, and to ensure that the local level can be directly connected to the more macro levels, notably the Humanitarian Country Team.
AB. Not only is the war in Ukraine continuing, particularly in the Donetsk region around the city of Pokrovsk, but we are also witnessing a permanent escalation in weaponry and offensives. At the same time, humanitarian aid budgets are falling sharply. How should we understand this paradox ?
NBO.
NBO. The reality of declining resources is problematic in terms of responding to a crisis that has not diminished in intensity. In its current form, the war began two and a half years ago, and is far from over, with the front line as volatile as ever. The fairly significant advances made by the Russian armed forces along the front line are leading to new population displacements, which in turn require support for us as a medical NGO, in the health centers, particularly along the front line. Some health centers that are now 5 or 10 kms from the front line have to relocate elsewhere, and we have supported several to evacuate over the summer. In other words, there are still as many humanitarian and emergency needs as there were a year ago, and the situation is even more volatile in some areas close to the front line.
And yet funding is decreasing. This can be explained by several factors. I think there’s a natural weariness, as with every humanitarian response, characterized by less media attention, less attention from donors. This also goes hand in hand with the fact that, unfortunately, there are many other crises in the world, some of which are particularly high-profile, and I’m thinking more specifically of the Middle East and Gaza.
And then, in my opinion, in this humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, the question of the nexus, of the link between humanitarian response and longer-term response, of rehabilitation, does not find its place, nor the right way to operate. Over the past few months, a great deal of funds have been invested in long-term development mechanisms, which is necessary, but emergency needs remain as present as ever. This drop in resources is obviously harmful for the populations concerned.
Lastly, as a corollary to the drop in humanitarian funding, donors are putting more pressure on organizations to focus on areas where populations are most vulnerable, i.e. mainly along the front line. However, this incentive can also have somewhat perverse effects, as it encourages populations to stay along the front line, or even to move to areas where they know resources are being invested.
AB. Who are the main donors financing humanitarian action in Ukraine today ?
NBO. The US government’s Bureau of Humanitarian Affairs (BHA) is still the main donor in Ukraine.
The European Union is still present, despite a drop in funding. The United Nations (UN) also continues to fund humanitarian aid, with a particular focus on national organizations.
At the same time, several countries are also funding humanitarian programs, including France, the UK, Germany, Switzerland and Sweden.
Alain Boinet. How do you see the coming months in Ukraine, and how would you like to conclude this interview ?
Nicolas Ben-Oliel.
Nicolas Ben-Oliel. From my very personal point of view, I think the war is going to drag on for a long time. Unfortunately, for several months, if not longer, there will most certainly be developments on the front line, with one side or the other taking territory.
I don’t believe that an entire oblast will fall to the Russians or that, conversely, the Ukrainians will succeed in retaking an entire oblast as they did in 2022 in Kherson or Kharkiv. There is every reason to believe that the war in its current form will be prolonged.
The humanitarian response is going to have to pay close attention to several key points, not least the coming winter and all the winterization efforts underway here. Since March, i.e. since the end of last winter, the Russians have launched a campaign of recurrent, targeted attacks on the country’s energy infrastructures – in addition to those on the logistical, rail and road infrastructures, etc. – which produce electricity. -which produce electricity and heat, in concrete terms. During the summer, fairly drastic power cuts in major cities, such as Kiev, prevent the use of air conditioners, but they have much less impact than in winter when it becomes impossible to turn on the heating, and winter in Ukraine is particularly cold: it can be minus 15, minus 20 degrees for several months.
It is therefore essential to continue thinking about the best way to continue supporting Ukraine, to ensure that solutions are put in place to “repair” the situation over the long term; as for us humanitarians, we need to be able to help people take shelter from the cold, particularly when they have lost their homes or are displaced.
We also need to think more broadly about the most appropriate and effective ways of responding, guided by humanitarian principles and the real needs of populations. The emergency response to humanitarian needs is also less funded, while populations continue to flee their homes along the front line, which continues to evolve, and find themselves in transit centers with often saturated reception capacities.
In conclusion, while it’s essential to keep reminding people of the reality of humanitarian needs throughout Ukraine, it’s equally important not to forget the poorly-documented needs in areas under the control of the Russian Federation, where very few players are able to gain access to meet these needs.
Alain Boinet. Nicolas, I’d like to thank you for this long and detailed interview with Défis Humanitaires. It will enable our readers to better understand the reality of the situation and of humanitarian action. Good luck to Première Urgence Internationale in its humanitarian action for the populations in danger in Ukraine.
Nicolas Ben-Oliel is the Country Director for Première Urgence Internationale in Ukraine since October 2022. PUI deployes activities in several oblasts of Ukraine, and leads a multisectoral consortium of five NGOs. Based in Kyiv, he oversees a dedicated team of 200 staff members split between 5 field offices. Nicolas is committed to enhancing the organization’s expertise in delivering essential healthcare services, providing mental health and psychosocial support as well as protection services, and assisting displaced populations to cover their emergency needs amid the ongoing humanitarian crisis.
With over 9 years of experience in the non-governmental sector, particularly in Iraq, D.R.Congo, Nigeria and Cameroon, Nicolas now plays an active role representing Première Urgence Internationale on the Non-Governmental Organizations Platform Steering Committee, as well as in the Ukraine Response Humanitarian Country Team. Fostering collaboration among organizations and promoting the exchange of knowledge, Nicolas also focuses on strengthening partnerships with local stakeholders, government entities, and other humanitarian responders to foster the quality and the impact of their interventions.
Website of Première Urgence Internationale : Première Urgence Internationale – Aider les populations touchées par les crises humanitaires (premiere-urgence.org)
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