This rapid literature review examines the lessons learned in terms of providing humanitarian access and protection for civilians in besieged areas. The focus is on the following besieged areas: Syria (e.g. Raqqa, Aleppo, Deir-Ez-Zor and Eastern Ghouta), Hudaydah in Yemen and Mosul in Iraq. The recent literature is dominated by the conflict in Syria while there is very little ...» more
Humanitarian response
Cost-Effectiveness in Humanitarian Work: Preparedness, Pre-financing and Early Action
Rigorous evidence of the cost-effectiveness of investments in disaster preparedness is limited. However, overall the available data points to disaster preparedness leading to clear reductions in both humanitarian costs and losses due to crises (lost lives, assets, livelihoods). While there is general consensus on the importance of preparedness, significant challenges mean it ...» more
Cost-Effectiveness in Humanitarian Aid and Development: Resilience Programming
The results of the review show a gap in the literature in terms of providing conclusive evidence/data and analysis of the cost-effectiveness of resilience-related responses. Most of the reports, papers, briefs and notes that were reviewed tend to make normative assertions as to how important is to provide humanitarian assistance early enough and to direct efforts towards ...» more
Joint Operating Principles among Humanitarian Actors to Improve Access
This six-day helpdesk review provides an overview of academic, policy and practitioner literature that explores lessons or evidence from efforts to establish joint operating principles agreed by humanitarian actors to improve humanitarian access and factors that contributed to their success or failure? While there is some general guidance on strategies to address access ...» more
Maternal, Newborn and Child Health in Emergency Settings
More than 500 women and girls die in emergency settings every day due to complications arising from pregnancy and childbirth (UNFPA, 2018, p. 3). In 2017, an estimated 535 million children (nearly one in four of the world’s children) lived in countries affected by emergencies (UNICEF, 2017). This report provides examples of organisations working in maternal, newborn and ...» more
Humanitarian interventions for food/nutrition support in Ethiopia
There are many evidence gaps in the delivery of humanitarian food/nutrition aid. Evaluation of the relative cost‐effectiveness of dietary response projects is confounded by the fact that different projects can have different objectives (USAID, 2015). Ethiopia has made progress in meeting emergency needs, including through the Government of Ethiopia-led Productive Safety Net ...» more
Supporting and rebuilding agriculture in protracted crises
The agriculture sector holds great potential before, during and after crises such as conflict and disasters caused by natural hazards, to save lives and contribute to livelihoods, support rural households, and provide decent employment (Eynon, 2017, p. 2; Mayen, 2016, p. 2). This rapid review looks at recent available evidence on the impact of conflict, protracted crises, and ...» more
Leveraging change to policies, laws and practices in refugee hosting countries
This rapid review synthesises data from academic, policy and NGO sources on influencing government polices on refugees, with a particular focus on Rohingya in Bangladesh. However, it must be noted that this is an under researched topic with only the work of Jacobsen (1996) focusing specifically on the subject. Additionally, there are very few successful cases in the literature ...» more
Wastewater Treatment Plants in rapid mass displacement situations
This rapid review report has identified the wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) options used in emergency settings, with decentralised wastewater treatment systems (DEWATS) and mobile wastewater treatment units performing most effectively and with minimal costs. Examples are taken from refugee camps and internally displaced people (IDP) settlements due to the Iraq war, the ...» more
Rohingya refugee crisis: impact on Bangladeshi politics
The huge Rohingya refugee influx into Bangladesh is seen in the literature as likely to strengthen the position of the Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Awami League party. However, there are concerns that it will lead to further authoritarianism in the country, as well as fuel extremist sentiment. The Bangladeshi public are generally supportive of the ...» more
Waste management in situations of rapid, mass displacement
Solid waste and faecal sludge management in situations of rapid mass displacement are important to public health and providing for a better environment. Despite this, both have been neglected in WASH programmes, which tend to have a focus on water. However increasing efforts are being made to find solutions to challenges in solid waste and faecal sludge management in difficult ...» more
Environmental Impact Assessments in refugee crises
Although much of the literature found by this rapid review emphasises the necessity of including environmental considerations into the planning of mass displacement camps, and the role of environmental impact assessments (EIAs), there is little publically available literature on the assessments carried out, and the quality of these. The literature specifically highlights the ...» more
Lessons from the coordination of refugee responses
The literature review found little evidence of successes in coordination of refugee responses involving multiple lead agencies. Rather, it identified some clear lessons to emerge from recent experience of refugee response coordination, in particular from the Syrian refugee crisis in Lebanon. While host governments are assigned primary responsibility for refugee responses in ...» more
Innovative WASH options in situations of severe overcrowding
A rapid review of the literature has found a selection of innovative WASH options available for situations of severe population overcrowding and limited spaces. Case study information was collated from African, Middle Eastern, South Asian and Caribbean countries. As requested, a number of experts were consulted for their opinion where there was a lack of project evaluations ...» more
Managing risks in securitisation of refugees
This rapid review synthesises data from academic, policy and NGO sources on the securitisation of refugees, with a particular focus on Rohingya in Bangladesh. Although not referred to as refugees in Bangladesh, this report refers to Rohingya fleeing Myanmar as refugees. There is limited research on managing the risk of securitisation of refugees, rather the focus tends to be on ...» more
Effectiveness of various refugee settlement approaches
This review of the effectiveness of different approaches to refugee settlement shows that the ‘traditional’ approach of setting up refugee camps is ineffective in many respects - particularly in terms of promoting self-reliance - and hence to be avoided. The recommendation in policy circles is now for alternatives to camps that provide economic opportunities to refugees, allow ...» more
Emergency humanitarian response to longer-term development in refugee crises
This report provides a rapid literature review of the evidence on emergency humanitarian response to longer-term development in refugee crises. While the scope of the report did not allow for complex judgements to be made about the quality of the body of evidence, or of the strength of individual pieces of evidence, an evidence table is provided in Annex A to enable the reader ...» more
Syrian refugee onward migration from Jordan to Europe
There has been a massive influx of Syrian refugees into Jordan since the Syrian conflict began: the official figure is over 650,000 but the actual number is likely to be much higher (ACAPS, 2016: 1). Only 21.5 per cent of registered Syrian refugees are living in camps; 78.5 per cent are in urban areas, distributed as follows: Amman (26.4 per cent), Mafraq (23.9 per cent), Irbid ...» more
International humanitarian law and peace processes
There is limited research and no empirical evidence exploring links between the degree to which IHL is respected (or ignored) and the success (or failure) of peace processes. The literature focuses on various related issues, including negotiating with non-state armed groups, the question of why conflict groups may comply with international humanitarian norms, and the need to ...» more
Humanitarian contingency plans for military operations
The majority of the literature seems to focus on humanitarian contingency planning for the invasion of Iraq in 2003, and other older cases such as Kosovo. It is difficult to identify what pre-planning may or may not have been undertaken, as political sensitivities and the tendency for military secrecy around large-scale military operations means that few specific details are ...» more
