Supporting mutual aid, without unmaking it
A study of what happens to Ukraine`s volunteer mutual aid groups, their autonomy, their priorities,their speed when international funding and structure arrive. Ukraine`s case study is led by Open Space Works (OSW) and is part of a five-country research project spanning Ukraine, Haiti, India, Palestine, and Sudan. The study is initiated by ALNAP in partnership with Local to Global Protection (L2GP).
Why this study
Since February 2022, thousands of volunteer groups have carried humanitarian response intofrontline areas and IDP communities across Ukraine — often reaching people before, or instead of,the formal aid system could. The same pattern repeats across crises worldwide: communitiesorganize first, formal actors arrive after.What happens next is the open question. Financial support, organizational backing, and technicalmethodology from international humanitarian organizations, philanthropic foundations, anddiaspora networks all reshape a mutual aid group — sometimes strengthening it, sometimesreshaping it into something it wasn`t built to be. There has been no systematic evidence base for which is which.
“The question of how external support affects the autonomy, priorities, and flexibility of these groups remains open — and requires a systematic evidence base.”
Research focus
Three things the Ukrainian case study sets out to answer
Effect of support
What different kinds of support actually change
Analyzing how financial, organizational, and methodological forms of international support shape the outcomes of Ukraine`s volunteer mutual aid groups — not just whether they help, but how.
Risk of support
Where support quietly costs something
Identifying and analyzing the risks that come with external support — loss of autonomy, pressure toward formalization, distortion of local priorities and developing concrete strategies to minimize them.
Scaling responsibly
How to grow support without breaking what works
Developing practical learning materials and recommendations for donors and intermediaries on scaling support for mutual aid approaches without undermining the qualities that make themeffective in the first place.
The final results of this study will be published in November 2026.
Our Team
Maryana Zaviyska
Research co-lead
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Nataliia Harasivka
Research co-lead
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Svitlana Zuieva
Engagement and data collection
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Oleh Ovcharenko
Engagement and data collection
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Sofiia Rozumenko
Data analysis support
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