[Teresa Crawford]

Turning crisis into long-term action: Seeding a Collaborative Fund for Central and Eastern Europe, Caucasus, and Central and North Asia (ceeccna) Region

Read more about a new Collaborative is being established for the CEECCNA region

As we cross the mark of one year since the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, it is time not only to count the losses but also to reflect on the lessons learned to do better in crisis and long-term response. The invasion put Eastern Europe on the global philanthropic and humanitarian sectoral maps. Despite the unprecedented influx of resources to the emergency response, funding flows have exposed critical gaps in addressing the roots of deeply intertwined human rights and humanitarian crises regionally in CEECCNA (Central Eastern Europe, Caucasus, and Central and North Asia).

As 2022 was coming to a close, it was clear that many funders’ passion to support Ukraine was wearing off and the funding may be dwindling. As feminist resource activists from the region, we recognized the importance of this moment for the philanthropic ecosystem to shift the perspective—zooming out and widening our understanding of the far-reaching impacts of the Russian imperial anti-rights agenda on the whole region.

After rounds of conversations with funders and regional social justice organizers, we collectively crystallized our vision of funding needs for the region and gaps that the philanthropic sector should approach more strategically. In this spirit, we initiated the CEECCNA Collaborative Fund as a new funding mechanism to facilitate better resourcing of social justice movements in the region.

Discussion