How should humanitarian organisations prepare and respond to COVID-19 in humanitarian settings in low- and middle-income countries?
This Rapid Learning Review outlines 14 actions, insights and id
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eas for humanitarian actors to consider in their COVID-19 responses. It summarises and synthesises the best available knowledge and guidance for developing a health response to COVID-19 in low- and middle-income settings as at April 2020
The paper, supported by the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock, will be updated throughout 2020 to reflect emerging knowledge and evidence on the most effective approaches to respond to the COVID-19 Pandemic.
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The Standard consists of nine key inclusion standards, and seven sets of sector-specific inclusion standards for protection – water, sanitation and hygiene, food security and livelihoods, nutrition, shelter, settlement and household items, health and education. Each standard comes with key actions
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, guidance, tools and resources.
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This paper aims to contribute to the reflection on effective practices to address protracted displacement, in support of the GP20 Plan of Action roll-out. It expands on the research conducted by Walter Kälin and Hannah Entwisle Chapuisat for the 2017 OCHA-commissioned study Breaking the Impasse: Re
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ducing Protracted Internal Displacement as a Collective Outcome.1 That study provided a comprehensive picture of the impact of protracted internal displacement, as well as five country case studies in contexts of conflict and disasters.It also offered a road map for addressing such displacement through seven steps, including conducting joint analysis and defining collective outcomes.
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2nd edition. The interagency field handbook on malaria control was developed to set out effective malaria control responses in humanitarian emergencies, particularly during the acute phase when reliance on international
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humanitarian assistance is greatest. This second edition represents a thorough updating and revision of the first edition. The structure remains similar, but includes an additional chapter on humanitarian coordination. All chapters have been revised to reflect changes in best practices, improvements in technologies, availability of new tools, and changes in WHO recommendations.
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Annex I to: To stay and deliver, good practice for humanitarians in complex security environments
The principal findings of the report include that despite overall improvements in aid agencies’ security risk management, national aid workers perceive continued inequities in security suppor
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t compared with their international counterparts. National aid workers, while less subject to major attacks per capita than international aid workers, nevertheless form the majority of victims, and their specific security needs require more attention.
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n Autumn 2013, HHI Executive Director, Vincenzo Bollettino, traveled to the Philippines to participate in an assessment of civil-military engagement in the humanitarian response to Typhoon Haiyan. The report was sponsored by the Center for Excellenc
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e in Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance.
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front cover © Jonathan Hyams/Save the Children
The cluster approach is a mechanism that helps to address identified gaps in response and enhance the quality of humanitarian action
Almost two years after the signing of the Political Accord for Peace and Reconciliation (APPR), the Central African population is still hostage to an unstable and unpredictable security environment. Continuing conflicts in several areas of the country, structural weaknesses combined with the socio-e
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conomic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the devastating effects of natural disasters have plunged 2.6 million people into dire needs. Of this total, 1.6 million have severe humanitarian needs, a figure unmatched for five years, reflecting a deterioration in the physical and mental well-being and living conditions of populations across the country.
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This document is for humanitarian health actors working at national and sub-national level in countries facing humanitarian emergencies. It applies to Health Cluster partners, including governmental
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and non-governmental health service providers.
Based on the IASC Guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings (IASC, 2007), it gives an overview of essential knowledge that humanitarian health actors should have about mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) in humanitarian emergencies.
This document by the IASC Reference Group for Mental Health and Psychosocial Support was developed in consultation with the IASC Global Health Cluster.
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Guidelines for good practice. 3rd edition
The Guidelines for Good Practice are intended to help organizations define their own needs in relation to stress management and develop their own staff care system. The process will be different for each organization. National and international agencies, bi
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g and small organizations, will have to find the process and policies that work for them.
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The report provides lessons and recommendations for other organizations and the wider humanitarian community on engaging persons with disabilities at all levels of humanitarian work. It draws on con
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sultations with over 700 displaced persons—including persons with disabilities, their families, and humanitarian staff—in eight countries.
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The report covers: drivers of humanitarian crises in the region, particularly the intensification of violence in the DRC; manifestations of humanitarian needs, including record levels of displacemen
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t and food insecurity; and constraints to meeting humanitarian needs, including obstacles to humanitarian access and inadequate funding
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With its expert practical advice on security in situations of armed conflict, this updated set of guidelines will prove invaluable to humanitarian personnel working at the operational level. Following on from the success of the first edition, publis
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hed in 1999, it addresses new and developing threats such as chemical, biological and nuclear hazards and includes new chapters on, among others, first aid, staying healthy on mission and how international humanitarian law protects humanitarian workers.
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Across Zimbabwe, 7 million people in urban and rural areas are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, compared to 5.5 million in August 2019. Since the launch of the Revised Humanitarian Appeal
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in August 2019, circumstances for millions of Zimbabweans have worsened. Drought and crop failure, exacerbated by macro-economic challenges and austerity measures, have directly affected vulnerable households in both rural and urban communities. Inflation continues to erode purchasing power and affordability of food and other essential goods is a daily challenge. The delivery of health care, clean water and sanitation, and education has been constrained and millions of people are facing challenges to access vital services.
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Reducing the humanitarian impact of the use of explosive weapons in populated areas is a key priority for the United
Nations, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), civil society and an increasing number of Member States.
The Unite
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d Nations Secretary-General has expressly called on parties to conflict to avoid the use in populated areas of
explosive weapons with wide-area effects.
While the use of explosive weapons in populated areas may in some circumstances be lawful under international
humanitarian law (IHL), empirical evidence reveals a foreseeable and often widespread pattern of harm to civilians,
particularly from explosive weapons with wide-area effects.
Many types of explosive weapons exist and are currently in use. These include air-delivered bombs, artillery projectiles,
missiles and rockets, mortar bombs, and improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Some are launched from the air and
others are surface launched. Whilst different technical features dictate their accuracy of delivery and explosive effect,
these weapons generally create a zone of blast and fragmentation with the potential to kill, injure or damage anyone
or anything within that zone. This makes their use in populated areas – such as towns, cities, markets and camps for
refugees and displaced persons or other concentrations of civilians – particularly problematic. The problems increase
further if the effects of the weapon extend across a wide-area either because of the scale of blast that they produce; their
inaccuracy; the use of multiple munitions across an area; or a combination thereof.
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