Advancing Health Research in Humanitarian Crises

In collaboration with partner NIH Institutes and Centers, other U.S. government agencies, academic researchers from the U.S. and abroad, nongovernmental organizations and key international organizations, the Fogarty Center for Global Health Studies (CGHS) is leading a project to engage researchers, humanitarian organizations and policymakers to share learning and strategies on conducting health research in the context of humanitarian crises in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

Boy flies a kite, refugee camp in background, after 2010 earthquake in Haiti

Photo courtesy of CDC, CC BY 2.0

Damaged trees and buildings in Haiti after Hurricane Matthew in 2016

Photo by Coralie Giese, CDC, CC BY 2.0

Woman walks through flooded street, water up to her ankles, 2-story wooden buildings on either side of street

Photo courtesy of Dr. Karen Levy

The project seeks to:

catalyze timely, high-quality, ethical and actionable research in humanitarian crises; and
encourage uptake of evidence into the policy and practice of organizations that respond to humanitarian crises.

The project brings together experts and practitioners across disciplines, disease areas and geographies from research, humanitarian and policymaking communities, including representatives from LMICs, and builds on the work of partner organizations, such as the NIH Disaster Research Response (DR2) program and Elrha's Research for Health in Humanitarian Crises (R2HC) .

Humanitarian Health Research Email Discussion Group

Researchers interested in humanitarian health are encouraged to subscribe to Fogarty's Humanitarian Health Research email discussion group. To subscribe, send an email to listserv@list.nih.gov with the text "Subscribe humanitarian-health-research” as the body of the email, with no other text in the subject line or body of the email. Check your email to confirm your subscription.

Global Forum on Humanitarian Health Research

In September 2020, researchers, NGOs and policymakers will gather in Ottawa, Canada, for a pilot Global Forum on Humanitarian Health Research to highlight experiences of LMIC researchers, and discuss challenges and strategies for partnership and knowledge translation. Funding partners for the meeting will include the Wellcome Trust, the U.K. Medical Research Council and Canada's International Development Research Centre.

Workshop

As a part of the project, a small workshop was held at NIH in April 2018 with key research and humanitarian stakeholders from diverse disciplines, areas of expertise and geographic regions. Some of the key highlights from the meeting are:

To mitigate the challenges of humanitarian settings, researchers should be flexible, adapt methodologies to the context, and utilize relevant tools and technologies.
Implementation science is an underutilized tool in humanitarian settings, which can significantly improve the adoption, adaptation and scale-up of interventions.
Humanitarian researchers need to effectively engage with communities and affected populations to build trust and ensure that findings benefit those in need.
Researchers working in humanitarian crises need specialized skills and capacities, interpersonal abilities, and the ability to adapt to rapidly changing environments.
Partnerships are essential to humanitarian health research, and may involve local communities, local governments, nongovernmental organizations, UN agencies and military personnel, among others.
There are many unique ethical questions related to working with populations affected by crises, such as balancing urgent needs with important research questions that may improve future humanitarian responses.

Context

Natural disasters affect nearly 160 million people each year, more than 65 million people are currently displaced from their homes, and biological disasters and armed conflict claim the lives of millions more worldwide, with a disproportionate effect on people living in LMICs. These crises cause severe health issues and disrupt access to health care, food, water, sanitation, medicine and security.

Conducting health research in these settings is very difficult and currently there is a limited amount of scientific evidence that can inform humanitarian responses. High-priority research can help us to understand the short- and long-term impact of these crises on health and inform governments, development agencies and humanitarian organizations on how best to respond to situations ranging from acute emergencies to protracted refugee crises.

In addition to the benefits for the global health and humanitarian communities, this area of much-needed research has significant benefits for the U.S. Evidence-based health interventions improve the government’s ability to respond to disasters in the U.S. and can help prevent the spread of infectious diseases across borders, resulting in better health outcomes for Americans.

Planning Committee

Iman Nuwayhid, American University of Beirut, Co-Chair
Brandon Kohrt, George Washington University, Co-Chair
Rima Afifi, University of Iowa
Grace Akello, Gulu University, Uganda
Andrea Beckel-Mitchener, National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)/NIH
Ananda Galappatti, The Good Practice Group, Sri Lanka
Rita Giacaman, Birzeit University, Birzeit, West Bank
Anne Harmer, Research for Health in Humanitarian Crises (R2HC)
Rebecca Henry, National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR)/NIH
Naoko Kozuki, International Rescue Committee (IRC)
Vesna Kutlesic, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)/NIH
Adam Levine, Brown University
Aubrey Miller, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS)/NIH
Bayard Roberts, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Barbara Sina, Fogarty International Center (FIC)/NIH
Robert Sorenson, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)/NIH
Paul Spiegel, Johns Hopkins University
Carrie Teicher, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)/Epicentre

Inquiries

Amit Mistry, Ph.D.
Senior Scientist
Center for Global Health Studies
Fogarty Division of International Science Policy, Planning and Evaluation
Email: amit.mistry@nih.gov
Blythe Beecroft, M.S.
Global Health Research and Policy Analyst (Contractor)
Center for Global Health Studies
Fogarty Division of International Science Policy, Planning and Evaluation
Email: blythe.beecroft@nih.gov

Updated January 10, 2020