IDF Europe and the quiet logistics of diabetes care in crisis
- Editorial Team SDG3
- 3 days ago
- 6 min read
Published on 11 May 2026 at 02:14 GMT
By Editorial Team SDG3
IDF Europe occupies a difficult but increasingly important place in humanitarian health: the space between formal emergency response and the daily medical reality of people whose chronic conditions cannot wait for conflict, displacement or disaster to pass. Through Connect Solidarity, the European regional arm of the International Diabetes Federation has sought to help people living with diabetes in vulnerable situations maintain access to insulin, diabetes supplies, medical advice and essential care, particularly when health systems are disrupted by humanitarian emergencies.
The work matters because diabetes is often treated as a long-term public health challenge, but in emergencies it can become an immediate risk. People who depend on insulin, blood glucose monitoring, safe storage, regular meals and clinical follow-up can face serious danger when pharmacies close, transport routes collapse, clinics are overwhelmed or families are forced to move at short notice. In such circumstances, diabetes humanitarian response is not a peripheral concern. It is part of keeping essential healthcare functioning for people who may otherwise be invisible in crisis planning.
IDF Europe is not an emergency relief agency in the conventional sense. It is a regional network representing national diabetes associations across Europe, linking patient organisations, healthcare professionals and advocates. That structure gives it a particular role. Rather than operating as a large frontline logistics provider, it can help coordinate information, connect national associations, identify gaps and support routes through which medicines, supplies and advice reach people affected by crisis.
Connect Solidarity emerged in response to the disruption caused by the war in Ukraine, when millions of people were displaced and many others remained in communities where ordinary healthcare access was damaged or uncertain. The initiative was designed to help IDF Europe member associations and partner organisations connect with diabetes groups in and around Ukraine, including those supporting refugees in neighbouring countries. Its practical focus has been simple but vital: helping people find routes to insulin, monitoring supplies, medicines, advice and continuity of care.
That model reflects a broader lesson from recent humanitarian emergencies. Chronic diseases are no longer rare concerns in crises. Across Europe and globally, people are living longer with conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease and kidney disease. When conflict or disaster strikes, humanitarian systems built mainly around trauma, infectious disease and short-term shelter can struggle to meet the needs of people requiring daily treatment. For diabetes, the consequences of interruption can be rapid, especially for people who need insulin to survive.
The public-interest significance of IDF Europe lies in this gap. Its work points to a basic weakness in many emergency systems: essential medicines and supplies for chronic conditions are often treated as secondary to immediate relief, even when the interruption of those medicines can quickly become life-threatening. In practice, a person displaced from Ukraine, or from any future emergency, may need not only a safe place to sleep but also insulin, test strips, needles, refrigeration, prescriptions, language support and advice on how to navigate a new health system.
The initiative also shows the value and limits of civil society networks. Organisations such as Ukrainian Diabetes Federation, Diabetes UK, T1International and Médecins Sans Frontières have all, in different ways, highlighted the importance of access to insulin and medical continuity in emergencies or fragile health systems. Their roles are not identical. Some focus on advocacy, some on patient support, some on direct medical care. But together they underline that diabetes care depends on a chain of access that can break at many points.
For IDF Europe, coordination is the central task. A national diabetes association may know which refugees need support but lack supplies. Another may have contacts, technical knowledge or donor links but need a trusted route for distribution. A clinician may understand treatment needs but not the local barriers facing displaced families. Connect Solidarity helps make those connections more visible, reducing the risk that support remains fragmented or duplicated while urgent needs go unmet.
The war in Ukraine gave this work particular urgency, but the underlying issue is wider than one conflict. Europe is experiencing a period of overlapping pressures: armed conflict on the continent, migration, stretched public health systems, medicine supply concerns and rising numbers of people living with chronic disease. In that context, access to insulin is not only a clinical matter. It is a test of whether health systems and humanitarian actors can protect continuity of care for people whose needs are predictable, recurring and essential.
There are practical tensions. Insulin and diabetes supplies are not always easy to move, store or match to individual needs. Different countries use different prescribing systems, products, reimbursement rules and clinical pathways. Refugees may not have medical records. People may be separated from doctors, unable to speak the local language, or uncertain about eligibility for care. In remote or conflict-affected areas, even when medicines exist nationally, local access may remain uneven. These are not problems that a single platform or network can solve alone.
There is also a risk that public discussion of emergency health narrows too quickly to the delivery of products. Insulin, test strips and devices are essential, but diabetes care also involves education, nutrition, mental health, follow-up and protection from discrimination or exclusion. A displaced child with type 1 diabetes, an older person with type 2 diabetes in a rural area, and a pregnant woman requiring glucose monitoring may each face different needs. The strength of a diabetes association network is that it can bring lived experience into systems that might otherwise treat patients as logistics cases.
The relevance to the Sustainable Development Goals is direct where health access is concerned. SDG 3 (good health and well-being) includes the prevention and treatment of non-communicable diseases and access to essential medicines. Diabetes sits squarely within that agenda. SDG 10 (reduced inequalities) is also relevant, because emergencies magnify existing inequalities in income, disability, citizenship status, geography and access to care. The work of IDF Europe is therefore not only about one disease, but about whether vulnerable people can retain basic health rights during disruption.
The question for policymakers is whether such civil society coordination is treated as emergency improvisation or as part of preparedness. The experience of Ukraine suggests that patient organisations and disease-specific networks can move quickly, identify needs and support trust among affected communities. Yet reliance on voluntary networks also exposes fragility. Funding can be uncertain, staff and volunteers can burn out, and coordination can depend heavily on personal relationships. Sustainable emergency planning requires governments, humanitarian agencies and public health institutions to recognise these networks before a crisis begins.
IDF Europe operates in a field shaped by difficult economics. Diabetes care depends on global supply chains, regulated medicines and health systems that vary sharply in coverage and affordability. Even within Europe, access can differ by country, insurance status, migration status and location. During emergencies, those differences become more visible. A person who previously relied on a national reimbursement system may suddenly have to navigate unfamiliar rules in another country. A family remaining in a conflict-affected area may find that formal entitlements mean little if the nearest pharmacy has closed.
The importance of Connect Solidarity is therefore less about publicity than infrastructure. It represents a practical attempt to connect need with capacity across borders, using the credibility of diabetes associations that understand both medical requirements and patient realities. Its work is unlikely to attract the same attention as field hospitals or large-scale food convoys, but for people living with diabetes, continuity can be the difference between manageable risk and acute danger.
The wider lesson is that humanitarian response must catch up with the health profile of modern societies. Emergencies do not pause chronic illness. They expose how dependent people are on systems of care that often appear ordinary until they fail. IDF Europe, through Connect Solidarity, shows how specialist civil society networks can help fill the space between emergency relief and long-term health rights. That contribution is modest in scale compared with the size of the need, but it is precisely the kind of work that makes humanitarian health more realistic, more inclusive and more accountable to the people it is meant to serve.
Further information:
IDF Europe, the central organisation covered in this article and the European regional network supporting diabetes associations, advocacy and emergency coordination.
Connect Solidarity, the initiative linked to IDF Europe that helps coordinate diabetes-related support for people affected by humanitarian emergencies.
International Diabetes Federation, the global federation working on diabetes advocacy, education and humanitarian relief.
Ukrainian Diabetes Federation, a national diabetes organisation relevant to the Ukraine crisis and the needs of people living with diabetes during war.
T1International, a civil society organisation focused on insulin access and affordability, a core issue in diabetes care during crises.
