On March 5, Anastasia Donska, Program Director of Teach For Ukraine, took part in a panel discussion during Humanitarian Networks and Partnerships Week 2026 — one of the largest global platforms for discussing humanitarian cooperation.
The event, organized by the United Nations Development Programme together with partners in Geneva, brings together representatives of governments, UN agencies, civil society organizations, academia, and the private sector to exchange expertise and develop solutions for crisis contexts. In 2026, HNPW took place online from March 2–6, followed by a hybrid segment on March 10–12.
Anastasia joined the panel Sustaining Coordination Beyond Cluster Deactivation: Practical Actions for Locally Led Cluster, which focused on how humanitarian coordination mechanisms can transition toward stronger national leadership following the gradual deactivation of international cluster systems.
Currently, Anastasia Donska serves as Co-Chair of the Education in Emergencies (EiE) Thematic Working Group, representing national civil society organizations alongside the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and the international humanitarian organization Save the Children.
During the discussion, she shared Ukraine’s experience of transitioning from the international Education Cluster system to a nationally led coordination model in the education sector.
Below are five key takeaways from her contribution.
Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Education Cluster has played a critical role in coordinating the humanitarian response in education. More than 100 organizations joined the effort, addressing mass displacement, school disruptions, and significant psychosocial challenges.
“The beginning of the full scale invasion in Ukraine, education cluster was always really active. We had more than 100 participants, national, international NGOs. Millions of children were displaced, a lot of psychological stress, disruption of schools. So, this all what was dealing with the education cluster, and it plays critical role in coordinating humanitarian response and ensuring that education remains a priority for broader emergency contacts.”
At the same time, the question emerged of how to make this system more sustainable and better integrated into national education policy.
“We always faced the question how can we transmit humanitarian coordination within the national governmental system in Ukraine, because national education system is quite strong.”
To support the transition to a nationally led coordination model, a transformation process was launched in 2025 in cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine.
“In March 2025, we launched the transition and together with the Ministry of Education and Science established a dedicated transition task team.”
As a result, the Education in Emergencies Thematic Working Group was established within the Ministry’s of Education and Science of Ukraine sectoral coordination structure, bringing together representatives of international and national civil society organizations. Its goal is to align humanitarian efforts with the Ministry’s priorities and strategy, and to develop a shared framework for education response during the war:
“Now we have 37 members. It is eight international NGOs, eight national NGOs, and 21 members of the sectoral working group.”
One of the key principles of the new structure is a co-leadership model, ensuring shared governance between government, international, and national actors:
“One of the main ideas of the architecture of education in emergency coordination is that we have a co-leadership model. We have a representative of Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, international organization Save the Children, and national non-governmental organization Teach for Ukraine.”
Teach For Ukraine became co-chair of the working group representing national NGOs through an open call among cluster partners.
On November 6, 2025, the working group held its official kickoff meeting. Later, on November 27, a dedicated session focused on catch-up interventions to address learning losses. In response to ongoing disruptions caused by blackouts and damage to critical infrastructure, the working group, together with UNICEF, also developed a joint advocacy statement to support education through the winter period.
As Anastasia emphasized:
“We need to appeal common to international community to donor, and here is really important the expertise that we have, like different actors within one sector. So, for us, coordination became as an instrument for decision-making and accountability, but not also only information sharing”.
Anastasia highlighted that national organizations have a key advantage: they work directly with communities and have a deep understanding of the needs of children and teachers:
“First of all, we are directly in the field… we are working a lot to provide education in emergencies as close to our beneficiaries as possible. And also, it is important that we can gather this experience and bring it to the system, a decision to the system actors who work and productively try to manage any crisis that occur. And Teach for Ukraine actually now is the only one NGO who is represented in the sectoral working group.”
However, participation in large coordination mechanisms remains challenging due to limited resources and funding.
“Because of lack of funding, it could be challenging for other NGOs also to proceed such work and continue it effectively.”
Currently, Teach For Ukraine is the only national organization represented in the sectoral working group, which also creates additional challenges.
“And like being alone as a national NGO in this big sectoral working group, it is also a challenge to be heard and to have this actually voice in decision-making. We can be flexible as national NGO, so we can take decision fast, we can quickly operate in the field. When it goes to some policy decisions, it may take a lot of time to proceed with one decision or with one implementation activity. That is why in emergency it might be not so flexible and not so adjustable to the needs that really emerge in that context.”
In her conclusion, Anastasia emphasized that localization is not only about transferring responsibilities, but about building long-term partnerships:
“Localization is really the instrument that allows to go into strong and contextualized education in emergency support.”
Sustainable localization requires institutional investment and continued support from international partners.
“There should be a lot of institutional investments and structural international expertise involved into this process.”
Ukraine’s experience shows that strengthening national ownership can make humanitarian coordination more effective.
“If it is possible to move to stronger national ownership and humanitarian coordination, it can give even more effect. Every transition requires trust, partnership, and a sustained support from international communities where we really thank you.”
