The Institute of Development Studies (IDS) has established a formal Memorandum of Understanding with two longstanding and valued partners, Anthrologica, and The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), to help strengthen global responses to humanitarian crises such as Covid-19, Ebola and cholera.
The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been set up under the umbrella of the Social Science in Humanitarian Action Platform (SSHAP) which plays the vital role of establishing networks of social scientists with regional and subject expertise to rapidly provide insight, analysis and advice, to better design and implement the social and communication dimensions of emergency responses.
In the unprecedented context of Covid-19, the importance of partnerships and knowledge sharing are greater than ever. Together we are working to integrate social science perspectives into response strategies, and improve coordination and solidarities across and within governments, operational partners and communities.
Anthrologica CEO, Olivia Tulloch, said:
“The Covid-19 pandemic has made this a crucial time for SSHAP to be stepping up to the next level. This means ensuring social science contributes to all the pillars of emergency preparedness and responses. This partnership of our three institutions allows us to consolidate our strong networks of experts to generate clear, useful and relevant evidence and advice based on social understanding to those pillars. The voices and concerns of communities remain, and so they must, at the core of our work.”
IDS Director, Melissa Leach said:
“We are delighted to formalise our longstanding partnerships with LSHTM and Anthrologica with this MoU, recognising our joint work as implementing partners of the Social Science in Humanitarian Action Platform. As Covid-19 is illustrating so clearly, responses to epidemics and other major disasters need to be informed by good social science advice, including understandings of complex local contexts and perspectives, engaged in real-time with agencies who can use it. SSHAP’s active work in the current pandemic provides a valuable model both for now, and for future global challenges.”
LSHTM Assistant Professor for the UK Public Health Rapid Support Team, Hana Rohan said:
“Both localised epidemics like the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s ongoing Ebola outbreak, and wide-reaching events like the Covid-19 pandemic highlight the critical importance of social science research, knowledge and expertise to contextualise what is happening locally. Operational partners and policymakers need to make informed decisions about ways to design, adapt, and implement public health interventions, and SSHAP plays a crucial advisory and evidence-generating role during public health emergencies. This partnership draws on the strengths of all three institutions to help ensure SSHAP continues to advocate for communities and help adapt outbreak response to local settings, for more effective public health delivery.”
The partners
Anthrologica is an independent research-based organisation specialising in applied anthropology in global health and is a founding partner of SSHAP. Anthrologica’s specific expertise lies in incorporating the needs and perceptions of intended beneficiaries into health and humanitarian policy and programming to ensure that interventions are contextually relevant and that opportunities for improving health are maximised through the active participation of affected communities.
IDS has been collaborating with Anthrologica on the social science rapid response to Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in which Anthrologica led the rapid-response briefs on key contextual issues and socio-cultural considerations that provide responding agencies and partners with relevant evidence-based insights to help shape effective interventions for the affected communities. Since 2017, we have worked together to develop SSHAP.
The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) is a world-leading centre for research and postgraduate education in public and global health, named University of the Year 2016 by Times Higher Education, in recognition of their response to the Ebola epidemic. Together with colleagues from the University of Sussex and University of Exeter, IDS and LSHTM coordinated the Ebola Response Anthropology Platform, set up during the West African Ebola outbreak of 2013-2016. This platform then developed into the Epidemic Response Anthropology Platform (ERAP), a resource to support and guide a humane and effective response to epidemics, based on deep understanding of culture, context and social networks of the most affected and at-risk population.
The Memorandum of Understanding
The MoU provides the principles which will guide the partnership between IDS, Anthrologica and LSHTM as the core implementers of SSHAP. SSHAP, now funded by the Wellcome Trust, is responding to an increasing demand for specific written and verbal briefings, as well as addressing key issues which may be overlooked, as they arise, for round table events in relation to crises, and for a fellowship scheme for practitioners and social scientists, and overall building an active network.
How you can engage with the Social Science in Humanitarian Action Platform
The briefings, developed by the SSHAP partners and a network of expert advisors, on socio-cultural considerations relevant to the control of Covid-19, cover the themes of: policy, evidence and governance; public health measures; deaths, burials and mourning; vulnerabilities and precarity; communication and engagement; and lessons from previous epidemics. SSHAP welcomes contributions which add to the social science discussion on these cross-cutting themes and emerging or ongoing crises, and invite you to explore and use our repository of evidence, knowledge and learning. Resources are available on the SSHAP website and any queries and contributions can be sent to [email protected].
Key contacts
