Client Case
From commitment to measurement
On how the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation in Ukraine and Voluntās are making locally led cooperation measurable.
In times of crisis, the first people to act are often those already closest to the crisis.
They know which roads are still open, which communities are hardest to reach, which institutions still hold, and which informal networks can move faster than formal systems. In Ukraine, this has been visible since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion. Local and national actors have been central to humanitarian response and early recovery, bringing proximity, trust, cultural understanding, and the ability to respond when speed matters most.
Yet the systems designed to support crisis response do not always reflect this reality.
Ukraine has a large and capable civil society, with more than 4,000 active organizations contributing to humanitarian and recovery efforts. Still, less than one percent of UN-tracked humanitarian funding reaches Ukrainian organizations directly. Most assistance continues to flow through UN agencies and international NGOs, leaving many local actors close to implementation, but further away from the decisions, resources, and recognition that shape the response.
For the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) in Ukraine, this raised a fundamental question: how do you move from supporting local actors to enabling local leadership?
Together with Voluntās, SDC Ukraine set out to answer that question by translating locally led cooperation from a policy ambition into a practical and measurable framework.
Emilie Frijns
Valeriia Sazonova
Localization as a shift in power
Localization is often described through technical language: funding flows, partnership agreements, due diligence, reporting requirements, and coordination mechanisms. All of these matter. But at its core, localization is about power.
Who defines needs?
Who shapes priorities?
Who controls resources?
Who is visible when results are communicated?
And who is trusted to lead?
For SDC Ukraine, this work builds on Switzerland’s broader commitment to subsidiarity and locally led cooperation: the belief that decisions should be shaped as closely as possible to the people and communities affected by them. In Ukraine, this principle meets a context where localization is not abstract. It is operational, urgent, and central to the country’s recovery.
Local leadership is not only about who receives support. It is about whether local actors are heard when needs are defined, whether they can influence how support is delivered, and whether partnerships strengthen their ability to act over time.
As the mayor of Putivl described SDC’s support to his community, what mattered was not only the equipment received, but the way the process was built around dialogue: “Communication was at every stage.” Needs were discussed, options reviewed, procurement coordinated, and implementation followed through with the community.
That is the practical side of localization: not a slogan, but a different way of working.
From reactive response to institutionalized practice
Since 2022, SDC Ukraine’s localization work has evolved from rapid, emergency-driven support toward more structured and institutionalized practice.
Early partnerships with Ukrainian NGOs and volunteer networks were followed by the introduction of Fair Partnership Principles and a Duty of Care Minimum Package for Ukrainian partners. These tools address issues such as partner safety, insurance, psychosocial support, volunteer protection, equitable cost coverage, simplified reporting, and shared visibility. Between 2023 and 2024, around 17 percent of SDC humanitarian funding in Ukraine was channeled directly to national NGOs, above SDC’s global baseline.
The next step was to make this progress visible, comparable, and actionable.
Voluntās supported SDC Ukraine in developing a localization framework around six dimensions of locally led cooperation: ownership, leadership and influence; quality financing; equitable partnerships; capacity strengthening; visibility and recognition; and transparency of resourcing and decisions.
Together, these dimensions create a way to assess whether localization is happening not only in intention, but in practice. The framework links SDC’s role as actor, donor, and advocate, ensuring that localization is not reduced to one funding question, but understood as a broader institutional shift.
Measuring what usually remains invisible
One of the central challenges in localization is that the most important changes are often the hardest to measure.
It is relatively straightforward to track how much direct funding reaches local actors. It is harder to assess whether local partners meaningfully influence strategic decisions. It is harder to know whether funding procedures feel proportionate, whether risk is genuinely shared, whether duty of care is applied in practice, or whether partners are recognized as co-leaders rather than beneficiaries.
Without better evidence, localization risks remaining a language of intention rather than a discipline of practice.
The purpose of the framework is therefore not to create another reporting layer. It is to create a management and learning tool: a way for SDC Ukraine to see where progress is happening, where barriers remain, and where adaptation is needed.
Some indicators track what can be counted: the share of direct funding to local and national actors, the presence of duty of care standards, or the availability of communication products in Ukrainian. Others ask more difficult questions: whether local partners experience dialogue as respectful and transparent, whether their priorities influence strategic decisions, whether capacity support reflects their own needs, and whether they are recognized as co-leaders rather than beneficiaries.
In doing so, the framework moves beyond activity counts.
A workshop does not necessarily mean influence.
A partnership agreement does not necessarily mean equity.
A funding transfer does not necessarily mean autonomy.
A consultation does not necessarily mean shared decision-making.
The framework asks a more demanding question: are local actors leading, shaping, deciding, and being recognized?
“Projects with international partners make it possible to do what we would never be able to do with our own resources.”.
Mayor of Putivl
Partnership as a system, not a transaction
The process itself reflected this ambition.
Voluntās’ work moved through four phases: understanding the localization landscape, co-defining the framework, validating it with SDC teams and partners, and preparing the baseline that will measure progress over time. Each phase was designed to connect policy alignment, participatory design, and evidence-based measurement.
This matters because local partners consistently describe the quality of the relationship as central to meaningful cooperation. For Dobrobat, a Ukrainian civil society organization working on rapid response after attacks, partnership is not only about receiving funds. It is about direct communication, clear responsibilities, shared planning, and being treated as a partner rather than a subcontractor.
As Mykhailo Bryzhko from Dobrobat explained, “We do not call them donors, we communicate with them as partners.” For him, real partnership depends on two-way relationships, direct contact, and the ability to understand not only local needs, but also the priorities of the international partner.
This distinction is central to localization. A subcontractor delivers against someone else’s plan. A partner helps shape the plan. shaping, deciding, and being recognized?
A condition for resilient recovery
From a Voluntās perspective, the connection to human potential is clear.
Human potential cannot unfold where local knowledge is ignored. It cannot unfold where those closest to communities remain at the margins of decisions. And it cannot unfold where organizations are asked to carry risk without protection, deliver results without fair cost coverage, or implement priorities they did not help define.
Localization is therefore not only about aid effectiveness. It is about dignity, agency, and the conditions for meaningful recovery.
In Ukraine, where response and recovery are unfolding at the same time, locally led cooperation is a way of strengthening the systems that will remain long after international attention shifts elsewhere. Resilience is not imported. It is built through the institutions, networks, and people already rooted in society.
For communities close to the front line, this is not theoretical. As the mayor of Putivl put it, “Projects with international partners make it possible to do what we would never be able to do with our own resources.” In his case, support to water infrastructure, solar energy, equipment, and local service delivery helped the community become more autonomous in a context where outside assistance is often difficult to mobilize.
For SDC Ukraine, the work is still ongoing. But an important step has already been taken: localization has been made visible, discussable, and measurable.
Because if power is meant to shift, it must be possible to see whether it has.
A condition for resilient recovery
From a Voluntās perspective, the connection to human potential is clear.
Human potential cannot unfold where local knowledge is ignored. It cannot unfold where those closest to communities remain at the margins of decisions. And it cannot unfold where organizations are asked to carry risk without protection, deliver results without fair cost coverage, or implement priorities they did not help define.
Localization is therefore not only about aid effectiveness. It is about dignity, agency, and the conditions for meaningful recovery.
In Ukraine, where response and recovery are unfolding at the same time, locally led cooperation is a way of strengthening the systems that will remain long after international attention shifts elsewhere. Resilience is not imported. It is built through the institutions, networks, and people already rooted in society.
For communities close to the front line, this is not theoretical. As the mayor of Putivl put it, “Projects with international partners make it possible to do what we would never be able to do with our own resources.” In his case, support to water infrastructure, solar energy, equipment, and local service delivery helped the community become more autonomous in a context where outside assistance is often difficult to mobilize.
For SDC Ukraine, the work is still ongoing. But an important step has already been taken: localization has been made visible, discussable, and measurable.
Because if power is meant to shift, it must be possible to see whether it has.