The following resources are produced by, or in collaboration with, the Health in a Humanitarian Crises Centre and are free for anyone to access.
Pneumonia: Rethinking vaccine strategies to save lives
Pneumococcal pneumonia is a leading cause of death amongst children worldwide. Displaced populations often experience: high prevalence of malnutrition, crowded living conditions, limited access to curative care, and disrupted routine immunisation services. These health threats put displaced populations at particularly high risk of pneumococcal infection.
The Evaluating Strategies for Pneumococcal Immunisation Campaigns in humanitarian Crises (ESPICC) study aimed to estimate the effectiveness of strategies for delivering pneumococcal vaccines on the health of children living in a camp for internally displaced people (IDP) in Somaliland.
Watch this animated video explaining the benefits of providing pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCV) to children in crisis settings to protect against infections and substantially contribute to reducing mortality in populations affected by crises. This video is also available in French.
Read the briefing note (also available in French).
Crisis in Gaza: Wartime food availability
Researchers from the Health in Humanitarian Crises Centre at LSHTM and the Johns Hopkins Center for Humanitarian Health at Johns Hopkins University are collaborating on a project to estimate the potential public health impact of the crisis in Gaza under different future trajectories to support decision-makers. In November 2024, the team released a report entitled Wartime food availability in the Gaza Strip, October 2023 to August 2024: a retrospective analysis.
As the war in Gaza enters its second year, assessing the extent to which food is available to the civilian population remains challenging due to conflicting reports and restrictions on monitoring. The team conducted a retrospective analysis of food availability during the first ten months of the war in north and central-south Gaza. The study estimated caloric availability per person by compiling data from six food sources: existing household stocks, humanitarian warehouses, private stores, agricultural production, airdrops and maritime deliveries, and trucked food aid. A forthcoming paper will explore how caloric availability may have affected nutritional outcomes.
Contact the research team at info@gaza-projections.org.
Crisis in Gaza: Projected deaths due to traumatic injuries in the Rafah governorate
Researchers from the Health in Humanitarian Crises Centre at LSHTM and the Johns Hopkins Center for Humanitarian Health at Johns Hopkins University are collaborating on a project to estimate the potential public health impact of the crisis in Gaza under different future trajectories to support decision-makers. In February 2024, the team released a report entitled Crisis in Gaza: Scenario-based Health Impact Projections.
Since the majority of Gazans fled to Rafah by December 2023 there has been an intense focus on the war there. Following the 6 May 2024 evacuation order for Gazans to leave eastern Rafah, bombardment and land incursions began, with hundreds of thousands of Gazans fleeing the area and an increase in deaths occurring due to traumatic injuries. Phase 2 of the Gaza Projections Project aims to provide a projection of the number of deaths due to traumatic injuries in the Rafah governorate from 20 May to 17 August 2024 (90 days).
The researchers project 3,509 traumatic injury deaths to occur between 20 May to 17 August 2024 solely in the Rafah governorate. That is the equivalent to nearly 40 deaths/day for 90 days. In comparison, from 6-19 May, there have been 16 deaths/day due to traumatic injuries in Rafah as reported by ACLED. The report is not a “worst case scenario” and does not include projected deaths from other causes or projected traumatic injury deaths elsewhere in Gaza.
Contact the research team at humanithealth@jhu.edu
Crisis in Gaza: Scenario-based health impact projections
Researchers from the Health in Humanitarian Crises Centre at LSHTM and the Johns Hopkins Center for Humanitarian Health at Johns Hopkins University are collaborating on a project to support decision-makers with projections of expected excess mortality in the Gaza Strip under future scenarios. The project is funded by the UK Humanitarian Innovation Hub and its first set of projections covers the period 7 February to 6 August 2024. The research team plan to release periodic updates to the projections.
The projections will feature estimates of overall excess deaths, with stratification by age and broad cause of death (infections, non-communicable diseases, maternal and neonatal health problems, and trauma injuries, with malnutrition as an underlying cause). In subsequent reports the researchers expect to also present projections of mental health impacts. For each update, the team will present projections for different scenarios of how the crisis could evolve.
Contact the research team at info@gaza-projections.org
Estimates of crisis-attributable mortality: South Sudan & Somalia
The conflict in South Sudan has likely led to nearly 400,000 excess deaths in the country’s population since it began in 2013, with around half of the lives lost through violence, according to a major report by the Crises Centre that broke in The Washington Post.
Somalia has encountered similar problems, where food insecurity and famine were estimated to account for 256,000 deaths. Since 2014 Somalia has experienced recurrent below-average rainfall, with consecutive failed rains in late 2016 and 2017 leading to large-scale drought, displacement and epidemics. We wished to estimate mortality across Somalia from 2014 to 2018, and measure the excess death toll attributable to the 2017-2018 drought-triggered crisis.
- Knowledge hub: Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in humanitarian settings
The knowledge hub collates key resources to support the community of humanitarian organisations, academic institutions, and other stakeholders committed to improving the lives of people living with NCDs in humanitarian settings.
The hub acts as a repository of clinical, operational, and training guidelines and tools, research publications, reports, as well as monitoring, evaluation and research tools. It also maps ongoing projects and stakeholders involved in this agenda.
- A rapid assessment of the gender-based violence (GBV) situation and response in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique
This rapid assessment, carried out by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), in collaboration with the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Mozambique, sought to understand the GBV risks and response for displaced populations in Cabo Delgado.
Download the full report in English and Portuguese
Download the summary in English and Portuguese
This document can be cited as:
D’Odorico G, Hossain M, Jamal E, Scarpassa do Prado D, Roberts C, Palmer J (2021). The gender-based violence (GBV) situation and response in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique: A rapid assessment. UK: London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Mozambique: United Nations Refugee Agency.
- COVID-19 humanitarian resources
Please refer to our dedicated COVID-19 page.
- Social Science in Humanitarian Action Platform (SSHAP)
SSHAP aims to establish networks of social scientists with regional and subject expertise to rapidly provide insight, analysis and advice, tailored to demand and in accessible forms, to better design and implement the social and communication dimensions of emergency responses.
- Guidance for health care worker (HCW) surveys in humanitarian contexts in LMICS
This document has been developed for response actors working in humanitarian contexts who seek rapid approaches to gathering evidence about the experience of healthcare workers, and the communities of which they are a part.
- Roadmap to Accelerate Progress for Every Newborn in Humanitarian Settings (2020 – 2024)
The Roadmap is designed to further the global commitment to improve the health of the most vulnerable mothers and newborns who live in humanitarian settings. The development of the Roadmap is based on global evidence-based guidance and lessons learned from country-level implementation, with contributions from Centre members.
- Integrated Package of Essential Health Services for Afghanistan (2019)
The Integrated Package of Essential Health Services for Afghanistan was launched in Kabul in 2019 by His Excellency Minister Dr Feroz (Public Health Minister of Afghanistan), and Dr Tedros, the World Health Organization Director-General, both of whom are LSHTM alumni.
This approach can also be useful to other countries with on-going armed conflict or chronic emergencies, and is now publicly available. Download the report.- Afghanistan priority package of health services: Guidelines for health interventions (2019)
This report collates implementation guidelines for priority interventions as part of a new package of health services proposed to the Afghanistan Ministry of Public Health. The recommended guidelines are reported according to Disease Control Priorities [third edition] clusters. Prepared by Dr Maureen Seguin.
Download the report.- UCL-Lancet Commission on Migration and Health (2018)
In a time of unprecedented internal and international migration, and their relative public health impacts, the UCL-Lancet Commission on Migration and Health provides a foundation for policy makers, advocates, health systems and communities to improve migration and health locally and globally.
With Cathy Zimmerman as senior author and including the support of Centre Co-director Karl Blanchet, the Commission is the result of a two-year project led by 20 leading experts from 13 countries, and includes new data analysis, with two original research papers, and represents the most comprehensive review of the available evidence to date. The report, including its recommendations to improve the public health response to migration, was launched on 8th December 2018 at the UN Intergovernmental Conference to adopt the Global Compact for safe, orderly and regular migration in Marrakech.Download the policy summary.
- Research Evidence in the Humanitarian Sector: A Practice Guide (2018)
The Health in Humanitarian Crises Centre is pleased to announce the release of ‘Research Evidence in the Humanitarian Sector: A Practice Guide.’ This was written in collaboration with Evidence Aid and Nesta.
This guide is intended for humanitarian decision-makers and practitioners working in the field or with donor, international, national, or non-governmental organisations. It is intended to help with decisions around financing, supervision, delivery, or evaluation of humanitarian interventions. It defines evidence-informed decision making, explores when and which evidence may be of use, and advises how to choose evidence, where to source it from, and how to assess the quality.
Download the report in English.
Download the report in Spanish.
Download the report in French.
* Read Emilie Finch's blog on presenting the guide at the Houses of Parliament.