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People affected by humanitarian crises face growing risks from non-communicable diseases (NCDs), particularly the subset of cardiometabolic diseases (CMDs) which includes diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular conditions. Yet care is often disrupted or overlooked during humanitarian responses, resulting in life-threatening emergencies.
We are working to strengthen the evidence for locally led innovations that help maintain CMD prevention and continuity of care during crises, and to understand what is needed to take promising innovations to scale.
Why this matters
Conflict, displacement, food insecurity and disrupted health systems can make it harder for people to access medicines and ongoing care. When treatment is interrupted, people living with CMDs can face serious and potentially life-threatening complications.
Despite this, there is limited evidence on how to deliver and sustain CMD care in humanitarian settings – particularly during acute crises. Meanwhile, innovators, many community-based, innovators are developing approaches that can help maintain care despite these challenges.
Our work
The silent emergency of chronic diseases in humanitarian settings: The case for scaling innovative cardiometabolic care solutions
Our policy brief makes the case for making care for CMDs a core humanitarian health priority. It highlights how scalable locally led, and context-adapted innovations can sustain care, strengthen health systems and prevent avoidable deaths, and calls for the financing, integration and support needed to scale them.
Innovations for cardiometabolic disease care in humanitarian settings
Our first project, funded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation, identified promising scalable locally led innovations across sub-Saharan Africa and explored what enables them to deliver sustainable impact.
The findings are captured in our report, conducted and developed in collaboration with the African Population and Health Research Center.
Scaling non-communicable disease innovations in crisis settings
Building on this research, our second project, funded by the Broadreach Foundation, will support a small cohort of innovators to develop pathways for scaling their work and generating the evidence needed to attract future funding and investment.
The project will bring together innovators with humanitarian, research, policy and donor communities through peer learning and knowledge exchange, while laying the foundations for a community of practice around community-driven CMD and NCD innovation.
From innovation to impact
Sustaining CMD care requires more than scaling individual projects. It means strengthening the health systems, partnerships, financing and evidence needed to deliver care in challenging contexts.
By supporting locally led innovation and exploring pathways to scale, we aim to contribute to more resilient and equitable approaches to both CMD and wider NCD care in humanitarian settings.
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