Humanitarian Assistance

Humanitarian crises affect millions, especially in countries affected by protracted conflicts, including Nigeria, Somalia, Syria and Yemen. While humanitarian assistance provides a crucial lifeline in these areas, reliable data to inform, monitor and evaluate its delivery remains a huge challenge in an age of distrust and disinformation. Vulnerable populations in these regions are in need of a technology that will allow them to make verified, secure reports on their needs and access to aid.

We seek to address the availability of P-IV serums and oral rehydration solution (ORS) in post conflict medical facilities located in rural areas of the DRC. The majority of hospitals located in these post conflict areas suffer shortages of medical supplies due to the poor quality of transportation infrastructure. Poor road quality frequently causes potentially fatal accidents which contributes to loss of life and loss of medical supplies This situation limits the supply chains of many essential medical supplies including pharmaceutical water, P-IV and ORS.

Current humanitarian needs assessment approaches often require interviewers to convert complex responses into simplified quantitative data. More nuanced insights require the use of qualitative methods, but language barriers and lack of resources make proper transcription and translation almost impossible in conflict settings. As a result, operational decisions frequently fail to consider nuanced information about the specific needs and views of affected people - especially the most vulnerable.

Yearly, 1.3 billion dollars of humanitarian aid funding is wasted due to outdated supply management practices in refugee camps (Van der Laan, 2016). As a result, an estimated 1,880,000 children, women and men per year cannot be provided with essential humanitarian supplies to keep them safe and in good health. Empirical evidence shows that this enormous human toll can be avoided through implementing better demand forecasting techniques within refugee/IDP camps.

Our innovation addresses the global cooking crisis plus related thermal energy needs like space heating and water sanitation. Those living in conflict regions are often among the energy impoverished. In those desperate situations, almost any combustible material may be used as fuel, even if it is dangerous, creates harmful emissions, or results in illegal deforestation. Sun Buckets is an energy platform that sources free, renewable energy in a way that is safe and free of emissions.

Children and young people with disabilities are at increased risk of illness, injury, abuse and death during humanitarian emergencies. Humanitarian standards emphasise participatory, inclusive humanitarian action, but humanitarian actors struggle to effectively reach people with disabilities – especially children and young people. Innovative approaches are urgently needed to improve access to health services and supplies for children with disabilities in humanitarian settings.

Thousands of people with disabilities (PWDs) live in three refugee camps and the surrounding communities in Kigoma, Tanzania. Faced with financial, material and human resource shortages in and out of the camps, PWDs in need of prosthetic limbs cannot access appropriate, specialised prosthetics and orthotics (P&O) services. Without the appropriate assistive devices or care, affected PWDs struggle to complete day-to-day tasks, like traveling, collecting food and earning a living.

Due to conflict, IDPs in Zamzam have limited access to land, water, nutritional food and income. IDPs have been living in the camp since 2014, with humanitarian funding gradually decreasing, but the levels of food insecurity and malnutrition remaining high. The proposed hydroponics project will provide IDPs with new ways of growing food and animal fodder for both own consumption and sale, thus improving their food and nutrition status as well as offering them a much needed income source.

The main problem addressed by the innovation is dependency of health systems in conflict on unreliable diesel fuel for electricity and mobility, as well as the shortage of sufficient qualified human resources. In conflict, unreliable energy sources could prevent the health system from performing its core functions. Likewise, qualified human resource become scarce as many flee the conflict areas. Those two problems as part of one core issue: health system operational resources deficiency.

The occurrence of difficult-to-control epidemics of infections is a major threat in Syria (1). The concern involves both hospital-acquired Gram-negative bacterial infections (2, 3), and community-acquired infections (such as polio, measles, tuberculosis, hepatitis, leishmaniosis) (4). Maintaining appropriate clinical diagnostic services is usually a neglected aspect in war-affected countries. The extreme shortage of skilled laboratory doctors and technicians is a key factor behind this problem.