Reflecting on two years of war in Ukraine – IMPACT’s ongoing response and insights

On the second anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the country continues to grapple with the impact of ongoing conflict. Over the course of 2022 and 2023, the conflict has caused destruction and damage to houses and infrastructure, disrupting service provision and exacerbating humanitarian needs. On this anniversary, we reflect on IMPACT’s past and latest research and response in Ukraine. 

Using big data and artificial intelligence (AI) to support the Ukraine refugee response: A collaboration between IMPACT and Data for Good at Meta. 

In the early days of the crisis, IMPACT collaborated with Data for Good at Meta and leveraged big data and AI to support the Ukraine refugee response.  

One of the many initial information gaps faced by the response was the need for close to real-time insights on the volume of people leaving Ukraine and their movements in the following weeks and months. Using displacement models developed by Data for Good, the Meta team compiled custom displacement reports during the early months of the war to better estimate the total number of people leaving Ukraine, the gender and age breakdowns of those displaced, and their destination countries. IMPACT was then able to leverage a range of these insights from Meta and its partners to develop several information products on the volume of people displaced to places like Romania and Slovakia. This was data crucial to response planning, as the actors were able to understand population distribution at the subnational level, data otherwise unavailable due to the lag time between arrivals and registration processes. 

If you would like to learn more about IMPACT’s collaboration with Data for Good, read the case study or watch the video produced about the project. 

For more information about Data for Good, visit their website.

Ukraine’s humanitarian landscape 2 years on: What the data tells us about the situation on the ground. 

Two years on, IMPACT continues to support the humanitarian response in and outside Ukraine. In 2023, IMPACT – through its flagship initiative, REACH – once again conducted the Multi-Sector Needs Assessment (MSNA) in Ukraine. This nationwide survey aims to improve the understanding of the current humanitarian situation, providing a baseline of household-level needs across key sectors of service provision and aid.  

To unpack these findings, IMPACT published an interactive StoryMap that outlines the timeline of how humanitarian needs have evolved and provides insights from the latest REACH data regarding the current situation on the ground. You can access the StoryMap here

Two years on, it remains critical to continue monitoring the ongoing crisis. Despite some areas showing signs of stabilisation, with more localised impact near the front lines, the continued generation of multi-sectoral data is crucial to adequately understand the evolving needs of affected populations. 

Stay informed of our latest research in Ukraine through the IMPACT Resource Centre.