Shaping the future: Our strategy for research and innovation in humanitarian response.
The last 12 months have been ones of great change for humanitarian actors. Armed conflicts and the ever-more-serious impacts of climate change have left 305 million people in need of assistance and displaced almost 123 million. This growing global need and increasingly squeezed funding have forced the sector to rethink its aims and priorities.
This year has also seen great change at Elrha, as we bid farewell to our founding CEO, Jess Camburn, who stepped down from her position after 15 years at the helm.
One thing that remained unchanged: our commitment to demonstrating the value and transformative potential of humanitarian research and innovation (HRI).
HRI can keep INGOs informed on effective, low-cost interventions, tailored to different contexts; champion locally led solutions to help communities to stay resilient and responsive to shocks; and produce cross-sector insights to support policymakers and strengthen the humanitarian system.
As 2024 draws to a close, we’d like to share our highlights from the year and offer a preview of what we’ve got coming up in 2025, along with a message from our colleagues in the UK Humanitarian Innovation Hub. Explore the drop-down boxes below to find out what 2024 has looked like for us!
We supported three aid agencies working in high-severity humanitarian settings to adopt innovations funded through our Humanitarian Innovation Fund (HIF). SOS Children’s Villages are now implementing mental health intervention Problem Management Plus (PM+) in Haiti; Mercy Corps are using the mid-upper arm circumference bracelet to identify malnutrition among young children and pregnant and lactating women in Yemen; and Oxfam are distributing Reemi menstrual underwear in Central African Republic, Mali, Somalia and Gaza.
We progressed our work on the prevention of undernutrition in food insecure contexts. In September we published our evidence synthesis, analysing the available literature on interventions for the prevention of undernutrition for children under five, adolescent girls and pregnant and breastfeeding women in food insecure/humanitarian settings. This report will inform the development of “prevention packages” to test in Phase 2.
We announced the ten innovations funded through our AI for Humanitarians: Shaping Future Innovation challenge.The diverse teams are exploring how artificial intelligence can address critical challenges, ranging from disaster management to healthcare and community support. These teams were selected for their vision and readiness to investigate how AI technology can be integrated into their projects to make a real difference.
The culmination of two years’ intensive efforts through our Global Prioritisation Exercise for humanitarian research and innovation (HRI), the Global Insights report draws on 16 thematic, regional and country-level consultations to offer the most comprehensive overview of the(HRI ecosystem to date. Capturing findings, conclusions, and actionable recommendations to drive policy and practice changes, this report aims to inspire change in the humanitarian community and beyond. For more insights, catch up on our launch webinar, and read our key takeaways.
Non-communicable diseases are a growing and often overlooked threat in humanitarian crises. Our 2024 report and interactive tool highlight the priority research questions for NCDs in these contexts with a particular focus on cardio-metabolic syndrome. Our launch webinar invited specialists from the research, practice and patient communities for NCDs in humanitarian settings to discuss the questions, challenges and recommendations raised in the report.
Scaling humanitarian innovations remains a significant challenge. Our recent study, explores the challenges humanitarian innovations face in achieving scale, drawing on in-depth interviews, workshops, and desktop research. When we asked people what “scale” means, it was clear that humanitarian scale is not as simple a concept as it might be in other settings.
In collaboration with the Fogarty International Center, we co-hosted a record-turnout webinar exploring the intersection between climate change and humanitarian health research. The event sparked conversations around the risks and linkages between climate change and humanitarian health, and raised issues around public health response, community engagement and the priorities, opportunities and challenges for researchers.
In 2015, we funded the International Rescue Committee and Columbia University to carry out research on how humanitarian practitioners were responding to adolescent girls’ and women’s menstrual hygiene needs. The research went on to inform the development of the landmark Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) toolkit. Our 2024 event brought together specialists from across the sector, to take stock of the changes to MHM in humanitarian response in the past decade, examining what we have learned since this research was funded, and the outstanding challenges and knowledge gaps for mainstreaming MHM in emergencies.
As part of Humanitarian Networks and Partnerships Weeks 2024 (HNPW) we hosted a webinar showcasing a series of innovations in Protection Sector programming, specifically gender-based violence (GBV) and inclusion of persons with disability and older persons. The webinar highlighted eight innovations supported through our HIF, and we invited innovators to present their work, share successes and lessons learnt, and to shine a light on new approaches developed through the innovation process.
Our webinar series on addressing GBV in humanitarian settings returned for the 2024. The events focused on specific challenges affecting the delivery of GBV interventions, including the knowledge-attitude-behaviour of programme and clinical staff, and how monitoring and evaluation can be more effectively used to improve and inform GBV work.
From forensic documentation innovations to enhancing water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) interventions, recent conferences have showcased promising humanitarian solutions addressing gender-based violence (GBV), climate crises, and public health challenges. This blog summarises key insights from the Sexual Violence Research Initiative (SVRI) Forum in South Africa, the Global Health Practitioners Conference (GHPC) in Kenya, and the UNC Water and Health Conference in the USA, highlighting innovations and progress in these critical areas.
The next year is set to be a busy one, as we continue our work on the prevention of undernutrition, guiding our grantees on their AI learning journey and facilitating the adoption and uptake of our funded research and innovations.
We’ll also be supporting the ongoing response to the mpox outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, launching a new research agenda for sexual and reproductive health and sharing the findings of our latest gap analysis on the inclusion of older people and people with disabilities. Most exciting is that we’ll be hosting two forums in Nairobi, bringing together humanitarian research and innovation specialists to discuss the key issues affecting the sector.
This year, UKHIH supported a range of impactful reports and practitioner-oriented outputs. Below are three highlights to add to your end-of-year reading list – each one challenged us to think deeply, question the status quo, and demonstrates the diversity of our work:
We launched three unique directories this year, each aimed at making existing humanitarian endeavors more visible. These tools help humanitarians connect, better understand available resources, and avoid duplication.
Our Systems Innovation Partnerships aim to address historically fragmented thematic areas. Through a phased approach, we identify and prioritise system-level innovations that benefit a range of actors, enabling good ideas to have transformational impact. Here are three initiatives we’re excited to be exploring:
Be the first to hear about our work in the new year by signing up to our newsletter and following us on LinkedIn.
You can also find out more from the UK Humanitarian Innovation Hub by subscribing to their mailing list, and following their LinkedIn for regular updates.
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