Reaching 1 million people in Ukraine with cash assistance: NRC's data-driven approach to aid

Now in its fourth year, the ongoing conflict in Ukraine has caused widespread destruction and rising poverty, leaving 12.7 million people in need of urgent humanitarian assistance. A staggering 3.7 million people are internally displaced and nearly 7 million have fled the country. To respond to this severe displacement and escalating crisis, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) is leveraging KoboToolbox to collect data about needs at scale and deliver targeted aid for the most vulnerable—reaching over 1 million people with critical financial support in 2025 alone.

Delivering responsive aid for displaced people

Since the escalation of the conflict in 2022, NRC has been on the ground in Ukraine, actively delivering crucial assistance for affected communities through an extensive cash assistance program that enables recipients to address their own needs—from food, rent, and utilities to education and medical assistance. NRC’s Multi-Purpose Cash Assistance Program provides flexible financial support so participants can make decisions about their own needs, based on their experiences and priorities.

A resilient system for data at scale

To address high levels of need across the country, NRC relies on their organizational KoboToolbox server, NRC Collect, to manage the cash assistance program’s online application form and handle an enormous volume of submissions. This system allows displaced and vulnerable communities in Ukraine to quickly and easily register themselves for financial aid using an online KoboToolbox form shared on NRC’s official NeedAid site and through their social media channels.

The scale of the data collection is immense:

• During the September 2025 Open Application for cash assistance, the NRC team received applications from 227,940 households via the online KoboToolbox form in just nine days.
• In the same period, the form had nearly 1.5 million views and 411,700 unique users.
• The Open Application in September was NRC’s fifth cash assistance campaign in the past 18 months.
• A previous Open Application in February 2024 received over 430,000 applications, with NRC’s KoboToolbox server handling peak traffic of more than 34,000 requests per minute on the first day.
• In 2025 alone, NRC registered a total of 1,114,196 cash assistance applications using their KoboToolbox server, reaching millions of displaced people in Ukraine.

NRC’s online KoboToolbox application form enables those in need to register themselves for assistance directly, removing intermediaries and eliminating lengthy administrative processes and time-consuming paper-based forms. The self-service application’s ease of use has been critical to the program’s success, ensuring the registration process is not a barrier and making it possible for people across the country to access financial aid—even in remote areas.

“KoboToolbox was essential for securely collecting, storing, and managing large volumes of sensitive data under difficult conditions. Its user-friendly interface and ability to integrate with our internal systems allowed field teams to operate efficiently even in remote areas. Without KoboToolbox, the scale and speed of our registration efforts—and the accuracy of our data—would have been severely limited.” - Muhip Ege Caglidil, Global Data Collection Advisor for NRC

From data collection to informed action

The data collected with KoboToolbox enables NRC to quickly respond to the evolving needs of affected populations by monitoring displacement trends in real time. By analyzing registration data by location, household size, and vulnerability, the team can identify gaps in assistance, prioritize high need areas, and support equitable aid delivery. With data from over 1 million applications, the insights are also crucial for coordination with other humanitarian organizations, making response efforts more efficient and more impactful.

This data-driven approach translates directly into tangible outcomes for communities:

• Since NRC began the program in May 2022, over 170,000 households have received monthly cash support.
• NRC has reached nearly 500,000 people with direct assistance, including women and children, the elderly, and populations with complex needs.
• Direct financial support from the program has helped families buy food, pay rent, and cover essential costs like heating, electricity, and education fees for children.

By ensuring displaced people and vulnerable populations have the power to make decisions about their own needs, NRC’s cash assistance program is providing more responsive and equitable aid, which means better outcomes for communities whose lives have been affected by conflict.

Building resilience and scaling impact

The ability to securely manage sensitive data at scale is crucial for supporting long-term recovery in Ukraine. By leveraging data-driven insights to ensure timely, accessible aid, NRC’s cash assistance program is responding to the diverse needs of millions of people across Ukraine—providing essential resources and empowering families to meet their own needs with dignity.

Looking ahead, NRC plans to build on this success by expanding their use of KoboToolbox for ongoing monitoring, needs assessments, and collecting community feedback. This will provide a more holistic view of the challenges people face and allow the NRC team to adapt the cash assistance program to changing needs. By providing flexible financial support, NRC is helping displaced and vulnerable communities in Ukraine to build resilience and find pathways towards recovery, even amid a prolonged crisis.

For more information about how NRC is using KoboToolbox, please contact muhip.caglidil@nrc.no.