Featured Resources
-
The Signal Code: A Human Rights Approach to Information During Crisis
Visit the Signal Code Minisite
The Signal Code is the result of a six month study by the Signal Program on Human Security and Technology at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI) at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health to...
-
Negotiation with Non-State Armed Groups at the Frontlines
In many of today’s frontline humanitarian environments, access is increasingly difficult to obtain and maintain, and continued engagement with non-state armed actors is an integral aspect of ensuring assistance and protection activities and advocating for compliance with international legal...
-
Data preparedness: connecting data, decision making and humanitarian response
Signal Program Standards and Ethics Series - Issue 1
Data are a central component of humanitarian response. Frequently, however, there is a disconnect between data, decision-making and response. Informed decisions need to be made in the first hours and days of an emergency, and if the...
-
KoboToolbox’s Question Library
The KoBoToolbox Question Library enables users to create, store, share and re-use validated questions across surveys. This speeds up the process of creating new forms and contributes to the standardization of survey questions.
For more information, visit...
-
Humanitarian Needs Assessment Training
The Humanitarian Needs Assessment E-learning program is designed to provide an overview of the Humanitarian Needs Assessment process. The process can look very different depending on the scale of a disaster, the role of humanitarian organizations involved and the resources available to any...
-
Building a Better Response
The Building a Better Response e-learning course provides users with a comprehensive and practical introduction to engaging with the international humanitarian architecture. The e-learning component is publicly accessible free of charge.
All Resources
| Image | Title | Description |
Published |
Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
Network Analysis of Actors Working to Support Disaster Preparedness and Resilience in the Philippines |
The Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI) partnered with Root Change to conduct a network analysis of actors working to support disaster preparedness and resilience in the Philippines. The study design is modeled after a summative phase external evaluation that HHI conducted in 2016-2017... |
Oct 2020 |
|
 |
Ukraine - Conflict in the Donbas: Civilians Hostage to Adversarial Geopolitics |
Since 2014, the war in the Donbas, fueled and sustained by local and regional political priorities, has inflicted a heavy burden of civilian death, injury, displacement, destruction, and lasting trauma. As the conflict continues, the people of Donbas are more isolated than ever from the rest of... |
Aug 2020 |
|
 |
الترجمة العربية (Arabic Version): "Never Forget: Views on Peace and Justice Within Conflict-Affected Communities in Northern Iraq" |
This survey offers a snapshot of the perceptions and attitudes about peace and justice within communities affected by the conflict with the Islamic State (IS). It is based on 5,213 interviews conducted in 2019 among a representative sample of internally displaced persons in northern Iraq... |
Jun 2020 |
|
 |
English Version: "Never Forget: Views on Peace and Justice Within Conflict-Affected Communities in Northern Iraq" |
This survey offers a snapshot of the perceptions and attitudes about peace and justice within communities affected by the conflict with the Islamic State (IS). It is based on 5,213 interviews conducted in 2019 among a representative sample of internally displaced persons in northern Iraq... |
Jun 2020 |
|
 |
Bangladesh Network Analysis Report | May 2020 |
|
|
 |
Case Study: Academic/NGO Collaboration to Understand Climate Change and Disaster Resilience Implementation in Bagerhat District, Bangladesh | May 2020 |
|
|
 |
Household Disaster Resilience Assessment, Bagerhat District, Bangladesh | May 2020 |
|
|
 |
Harvard Humanitarian Initiative 2018-2019 Annual Report |
This Harvard Humanitarian Initiative Annual Report covers the 2018-2019 period of activities. Within it readers can find an overview of HHI's humanitarian research & efforts, including HHI's role at Harvard University and finances for the time period. ... |
Apr 2020 |
|
 |
Displacement & Destruction: Analysis of Idlib, Syria 2017-2020 |
As the Syrian civil war enters its tenth year on March 15, the Signal Program on Human Security and Technology conducted satellite imagery analysis to capture the rapid expansion of displaced people’s camps and the widespread impact of aerial bombardment in Idlib, Syria. This work was... |
Mar 2020 |
|
 |
Perceptions of Vulnerability, Preparedness, Assistance, and Barriers: Regional Infographics, the Philippines |
This report provides a regional breakdown of household perceptions and self-reported activities on several key questions related to disaster preparedness and recovery in the Philippines. These are: who and what is vulnerable? What preparedness activities have households undertaken? What... |
Jul 2019 |
|
 |
Realities and Myths of the “Triple Nexus”: Local Perspectives on Peacebuilding, Development, and Humanitarian Action in Mali |
Despite decades of development programming for a country once upheld as a “model democracy” in Africa, Mali remains a country destabilized by extreme poverty; escalating violence and instability; and diminishing prospects for Malians’ futures in education, livelihoods, and stability. Even in... |
Jun 2019 |
|
 |
Institutional trust and misinformation in the response to the 2018–19 Ebola outbreak in North Kivu, DR Congo: a population-based survey |
The current outbreak of Ebola in eastern DR Congo, beginning in 2018, emerged in a complex and violent political and security environment. Community-level prevention and outbreak control measures appear to be dependent on public trust in relevant authorities and information, but little... |
Mar 2019 |
|
 |
Revisiting the Sphere standards: comparing the revised Sphere standards to living standards in three urban informal settlements in Nairobi, Kenya |
Humanitarian actors have long used the Sphere Handbook and its minimum standards to guide operational practice. The new revision attempts to update these standards partly to address urban crises that have challenged the humanitarian system. Yet, these indicators have never been based on a... |
Mar 2019 |
|
 |
Natural Hazards Governance in South Asia |
South Asia is faced with a range of natural hazards, including floods, droughts, cyclones, earthquakes, landslides, and... |
Jan 2019 | |
 |
DEPP Evaluation Summative Phase Report |
This report provides the summative results from the three-year external impact evaluation of the Disasters and Emergencies Preparedness Programme (DEPP) conducted by a team at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI). The DEPP was a £40 million programme funded by the Department for... |
Jan 2019 |
|
 |
DEPP Evaluation Summative Phase Report Annexes |
This report provides the summative results from the three-year external impact evaluation of the Disasters and Emergencies Preparedness Programme (DEPP) conducted by a team at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI). The DEPP was a £40 million programme funded by the Department for... |
Jan 2019 |
|
 |
Fragile Future: The human cost of conflict in Afghanistan |
This context analysis examines the humanitarian, political, societal, and economic dimensions that make the protracted conflict in Afghanistan intractable and precarious for civilian populations. The report is based on field visits to numerous regions in Afghanistan in July 2018 — which... |
Dec 2018 |
|
 |
Precision Health in Disaster Medicine and Global Public Health |
Current debates about precision medicine take different... |
Dec 2018 | |
 |
Humanitarian Access Obstruction in Somalia: Externally Imposed and Self-Inflicted Dimensions |
Access obstruction in conflict settings has emerged as a critical operational and policy concern across the humanitarian sector, but there remains a dearth of analysis regarding the ways in which humanitarian organizations perpetuate self-inflicted access obstacles. Drawing on qualitative... |
Nov 2018 |
|
 |
Cordillera Administrative Region: Household Preparedness |
Typhoon Ompong (Mangkhut) has had a major impact on the north of the Philippines displacing more than 50,000 people in Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) and resulting in over PhP 14 billion in agriculatural damages (equivalent to approx. USD 270 million). The Philippines government and many... |
Sep 2018 |
|
 |
Cagayan Valley Region: Household Preparedness |
Typhoon Ompong (Mangkhut) has had a major impact on the north of the Philippines damaging in excess of 76,000 homes in Cagayan Province (Region II Cagayan Valley) and completing destroying more than 10,000 homes there. The Philippines government and many national and international non-... |
Sep 2018 |
|
 |
Perceptions of Disaster Resilience and Preparedness in the Philippines |
Learn more by filling out our contact survey!The Philippines is one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries. Located along the boundary of major tectonic plates and at the center of a typhoon belt, its islands... |
Jul 2018 |
|
 |
An Innovative Global Diplomacy Public Health Student Program – Lessons from the Field in a Post-Conflict Medellin, Colombia |
For over fifty years, Colombia has been embroiled in conflict, displacing nearly seven million people, second only to Syria for the highest number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the world. Most are displaced to urban environments into dense informal settlements with inadequate... |
Jun 2018 |
|
 |
Signal Code: Ethical Obligations for Humanitarian Information Activities |
Humanitarians today lack sufficient ethical guidance adapted to the realities of humanitarianism in the information age to responsibly navigate the challenges and realities of the digital age. The Signal Code: Ethical Obligations for Humanitarian Information Activities translates and... |
May 2018 |
|
 |
Refugee Connectivity: A Survey of Mobile Phones, Mental Health, and Privacy at a Syrian Refugee Camp in Greece |
The report, Refugee Connectivity: A Survey of Mobile Phones, Mental Health, and Privacy at a Syrian Refugee Camp in Greece, is the result of 2017 field research by Data & Society, the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative’s (HHI) Signal Program on Human Security and Technology, and Centre for... |
Apr 2018 |
|