Strengthening the humanity and dignity of people in crises through evidence and learning
Research Themes
Evidence and learning should be the cornerstones of good policy and programming decisions everywhere. In crisis settings, generating evidence and facilitating learning are critical, yet particularly challenging. To transform the way evidence is used, we focus on the following themes.
7 Research Themes
Changing Dimensions of Poverty and Vulnerability
Poverty, inequality, population growth, urbanization, and climate change can make people more susceptible to shocks. We seek to better understand these forces so that relief, resilience, and development programs and policies can be more effective for vulnerable communities.
Active Programs and Projects
Selected Previous Programs
- Growth, Health, and Governance, Karamoja, Uganda
- Synthesizing Research on Resilience in Drylands and Fragile Contexts Project
- The Humanitarian Evidence Program
- Planning From the Future
- Livestock Emergency Guidelines and Standards
- Policy Support to the Pastoralist Livelihoods Initiative, Ethiopia
- Winning Hearts and Minds? Understanding the Relationship Between Aid and Security
- Corruption in Humanitarian Assistance
- BRIDGES
- Humanitarianism and Politics: Briefing Note Series
- Crisis and Social Transformation in Nepal
- Humanitarian Agenda 2015
- Humanitarian Horizons
- Humanitarianism and War
Conflict and its Impact on Civilians
We engage in research involving conflict analysis, stabilization, transition, conflict mitigation, protection, and peacebuilding.
Active Programs and Projects
Food Security and Famine
We seek to understand the causes and consequences of famine and food insecurity, the experience of people facing famine, and the longer-term impacts of famine on demographics, power balances, livelihood systems, and national economics.
Active Programs and Projects
Selected Previous Programs
- Secure Livelihoods Research Consortium
- The Humanitarian Evidence Program
- Food Security and Resilience in Somalia
- Programming for Food Security
- Milk Matters: Improving the Health and Nutritional Status of Children in Pastoral Communities
- Food Aid Quality Review
- Livestock Interventions in Complex Emergencies: South Sudan and Somalia case studies
Nutrition
We seek to understand the causes of all types of malnutrition, often driven by a combination of lack of food, diet, health, livelihoods stresses, conflict, gender dynamics, and economic situations.
Active Programs and Projects
- Humanitarian Information Systems: Anticipating, Analyzing, and Acting in Crisis
- Nutrition in Africa’s drylands: updating the conceptual framework for addressing acute malnutrition
- Revisiting the Evidence on Kwashiorkor Malnutrition
- Seasonality of Malnutrition in Eastern Chad
- Feed the Future Uganda One Nutrition in Complex Environments
- Karamoja Resilience Support Unit (KRSU 1 & 2)
Selected Previous Programs
- Synthesizing Research on Resilience in Drylands and Fragile Contexts Project
- The Humanitarian Evidence Program
- The Agriculture Knowledge, Learning, Documentation and Policy Project (AKLDP)
- Promoting Agriculture, Health, and Alternative Livelihoods (PAHAL) in Nepal
- Food Security Measurement
- Impact Assessment of Innovative Humanitarian Projects in Sub-Saharan Africa
- Evaluation of Community-based Animal Health in the Horn of Africa
- Food by Prescription
- Targeting in Complex Emergencies
- Livelihoods Change over Time
- Milk Matters: Improving the Health and Nutritional Status of Children in Pastoral Communities
- Community-based Management of Severe Acute Malnutrition in Bangladesh
- Food Aid Quality Review
- Livestock Interventions in Complex Emergencies: South Sudan and Somalia case studies
People on the Move
We explore and document the experiences of people displaced by armed conflict, persecution, and environmental change. We examine the national and international humanitarian and political systems’ responses to migration flows.
Active Programs and Projects
Selected Previous Programs
- Partnership on Youth, Migration, and Resilience
- UNHCR’s Confidence Building Measures for Sahrawi Refugees
- The Financial Journey of Refugees
- The Humanitarian Evidence Program
- The Agriculture Knowledge, Learning, Documentation and Policy Project (AKLDP)
- Profiling for Displacement Situations
- Refugee Livelihoods in Urban Areas: Identifying Program Opportunities
- Livelihood Programming for Disaster Risk Reduction
Promoting Evidence-based Practice
In the era of information overload, sifting through information to find the best evidence is challenging. We are bolstering our efforts to support effective local, national, and international decision-making.
Active Programs and Projects
Selected Previous Programs
- The Humanitarian Evidence Program
- Planning From the Future
- Livestock Emergency Guidelines and Standards
- Partnerships in Remote Management Settings
- Food Security and Resilience in Somalia
- Evaluation of Community-based Animal Health in the Horn of Africa
- Assessment Capacities Project (ACAPS) Operational Learning
- Corruption in Humanitarian Assistance
- Professionalizing the Humanitarian Aid Sector
- Humanitarian Horizons
- Community Animal Health and Participatory Epidemiology (CAPE)
Resilient Livelihoods
We seek to understand how livelihoods are changing and the impact of these changes on the well-being of households and communities, what factors make households more or less resilient to trends and shocks, and what policies and interventions are most effective in supporting livelihood resilience.
Active Programs and Projects
Selected Previous Programs
- Apolou: Understanding the poor’s interactions with market systems and international programming
- Taadoud Transition to Development Project I & II
- Secure Livelihoods Research Consortium
- Mind the Gap: Bridging the Research, Policy, and Practice Divide to Enhance Livelihood Resilience in Conflict Settings
- Building Resilience and Adaptation to Climate Extremes and Disasters
- Growth, Health, and Governance, Karamoja, Uganda
- Synthesizing Research on Resilience in Drylands and Fragile Contexts Project
- The Humanitarian Evidence Program
- Community Resilience to Acute Malnutrition
- Promoting Evidence and Learning on Pastoralism for Peace Building
- Markets and Trade in Darfur
- The Agriculture Knowledge, Learning, Documentation and Policy Project (AKLDP)
- Livestock Emergency Guidelines and Standards
- Promoting Agriculture, Health, and Alternative Livelihoods (PAHAL) in Nepal
- Engaging Male Youth in Karamoja, Uganda
- Policy Support to the Pastoralist Livelihoods Initiative, Ethiopia
- Impact Assessment of Innovative Humanitarian Projects in Sub-Saharan Africa
- Pastoralism and Pastoralist Livelihoods in Sudan
- Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP) Plus
- Targeting in Complex Emergencies
- Livelihoods Change over Time
- Promoting Evidence-based Livelihood Programming in Karamoja, Uganda
- BRIDGES
- Livelihood Programming for Disaster Risk Reduction
- Pastoralist Areas Coordination, Analysis and Policy Support (PACAPS), East Africa
- Advancing Financial Resilience
- Developing a Conflict-Sensitive Microfinance Model for Darfur
- Regional Policy Support to IGAD