IDP Councils began to appear in Ukraine as early as 2020. These are associations of public activists, lawyers, representatives of local authorities and simply caring people (often from among IDPs) who are looking for systemic solutions to integrate displaced persons into host communities and solve their urgent problems.
After the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the IDP Council was the first to be established under Chernivtsi City State Administration. We asked our regional coordinator Tetyana Sihayeva how this Council works today and what are its features.
Chernivtsi IDP Council is kind of unique in that it was created very, very quickly. Compared to other regions of Ukraine, where an initiative group of local activists first gathers and for a long time promotes the idea of creating a consultative and advisory body under the local government, in Chernivtsi the IDP Council appeared almost instantaneously.
Why? The city administration was extremely interested in the existence of such a Council and the integration of IDPs. “The city government really wanted the Council to be functional, and not just to exist on paper. For me, this is a new experience when officials are so involved in engaging the public in activities. It seems to me that there are certain features about it. They readily communicative and try to do everything not according to procedure, but according to efficiency. Of course, certain procedures still exist — for example, to obtain information. However, if it is possible to jump over it and somehow speed up the process of important social changes, they would support us in this in every possible way,” says Ms. Tetyana.
During the four months of its existence, Chernivtsi IDP Council has already created a strategic plan and is gradually moving towards the outlined goals. This is both the development of IDP housing programs and the relocation of businesses.
However, there are also certain issues, that Ms. Tetyana openly talks about. The main goal of any IDP Council is to develop systemic solutions that would solve the problems of IDPs in the region in the long term. So far, the team does not always manage to act systemically, rather than situationally. The public sector representatives — and it’s them who are the members of the Council — are used to finding solutions here and now, without resorting to long discussions. For example, from time to time, conflicts arise in IDP shelters between people who temporarily live there. But instead of thinking about a global solution to this problem, involving psychologists, mediators who have experience working with the displaced persons, creating a separate working group that will be responsible for mitigating conflicts in places of compact settlement, someone from the IDP Council team simply comes to a specific shelter and resolves the dispute. Unfortunately, the practice of situational response does not solve the issue, because such cases can be repeated.
“However, it’s normal, it’s always been like that, because not all people understand the value of discussions, planning, someone is just a person of action with less strategic vision, notes Tetyana Sihayeva. — Some confuse the IDP Council as a consultative and advisory body with the IDP Council as an emergency group that will help to obtain medicine or clothes for displaced persons or settle conflicts. That is, I, as a person, can go to the shelter and calm people down, but as a member of the IDP Council, I have to develop some systemic solution so that these conflicts do not arise again. That’s what we’re working on now.” Nevertheless, such cases do not prevent the Council from taking care of IDPs in their town, but on the contrary, they think about improving the conditions of their stay there.
And we would like to remind you that IDP Councils are created in the frames of the United Voices in Action program, which is implemented by our Foundation together with IREX in Ukraine. Currently, similar consultative and advisory bodies exist in more than ten regions of Ukraine in order to integrate the IDPs in their new places of residence as quickly as possible and give them the right to vote.
Do you want to create an IDP Council in your region? Write to us to join the initiative groups: [email protected].