Technical and material support to local organizations and volunteer groups in Ukraine Through this 12-month intervention, ACTED, IMPACT Initiatives (IMPACT) and local civil society organizations (CSOs)/self-help groups/volunteers will provide multi-sectoral assistance to IDPs and conflict-affected populations in Ukraine. Local organizations, ranging from CSOs to volunteer groups, have been at the forefront of the response to the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine caused by the invasion by the Russian Forces on February 24th, 2022. They have been providing immediate and invaluable life-saving support to conflict-affected people in hard-to-reach areas, reaching the most vulnerable, such as the elderly, people with disabilities/special needs, children, and women. They can operate in remote locations, including small communities in rural and peri-urban areas in Western and Central Ukraine, and in conflict-affected areas of Eastern and Southern Ukraine. 
However, the majority of CSOs and volunteer groups are facing lack of funds, supply chain, equipment, and staff. Material support and capacity building are crucial to ensure they keep providing support to affected communities, as well as capitalize on their potential to grow, provide better services and access further international funding. To improve CSOs operating environment and strengthen their capacities, ACTED will provide material and technical support to three categories of partners, according to their capacities and needs:

-	Category 1 partners: organizations working in stable areas in Western and Central Ukraine. ACTED will focus on increasing their capacities, through providing them with capacity building through its GOCA (Grassroots Organization Capacity Assessment) flagship initiative, as well as technical/material support and for the direct implementation of Protection, WASH, Shelter, and FSL activities.
-	Category 2 partners: organizations working in conflict-affected, volatile areas in the South and East of Ukraine. ACTED and IMPACT will offer dedicated technical support, focusing on improving their duty of care, decision-making, their security measures and processes, their planning/use of assessments, the mainstreaming of the Do No Harm principle, and the application to financial grants in the sectors of Protection, WASH, Shelter, and FSL.
-	Category 3 partners (Self-help/volunteer groups): as a pilot project/program, ACTED will provide mini-grants for individual volunteers without resources and working in Lviv and Mykolaiv oblasts. These mini grants will be an extra-flexible form of support for the purchase of in-kind equipment and material.

In the aftermath of the escalation, ACTED has built on its experience, reputation, and capacity to rapidly scale-up and expand programming to deliver gender-sensitive, lifesaving, and life-preserving aid, also  by scaling up the involvement in its programming of local CSO. ACTED has developed a solid local network of over 170 partners, with seven offices located throughout the country, and has the demonstrated capacity to deliver multisectoral assistance to conflict-affected populations in all 24 oblasts. Through this project, ACTED will support and strengthen the capacity of 52 local organizations (15 under Category 1, 27 under Category 2 and 10 volunteers), enabling them to scale up their operations via providing an efficient and tailored response to the needs of the most vulnerable in hard-to-reach rural areas in Ukraine. ACTED estimates to reach 17,724 beneficiaries through the activities implemented by seven identified Category 1 partners. These actions will additionally benefit from a detailed profiling of “Category 2 CSO/NGOs” undertaken by IMPACT to provide information on 1) type of local actors working in the area, 2) type of activities undertaken, 3) concerns and priorities, and 4) their ability to meet the needs of the population in the area. The activity seeks to provide national/international actors with information on the types of intervention that may support greater coordination.