Resilience to Nested Crises: The Effects of the Beirut Explosion on COVID-19 Safety Protocol Adherence During Humanitarian Assistance to Refugees

To provide services safely to refugees during the COVID-19 pandemic, humanitarian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) instituted public health safety protocols to mitigate the risk of spreading the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

However, it can be difficult for people to adhere to protocols under the best of circumstances, and in situations of nested crises, in which one crisis contributes to a cascade of additional crises, adherence can further deteriorate. Such a nested crises situation occurred in Beirut, Lebanon, when a massive explosion in the city injured or killed thousands and destroyed essential infrastructure.

Using data from their R2HC-funded study on COVID-19 safety protocol adherence during refugee humanitarian assistance in Lebanon, Jordan, and Turkey, a cross-country comparison was used to determine whether the nested crises in Beirut led to a deterioration of protocol adherence or whether adherence remained robust. This paper finds greater evidence for the latter, and therefore makes public health recommendations for service provision occurring in disaster areas.