Report
A review of the social and behavioural science research landscape for mpox in African settings
This report maps and synthesises social and behavioural science studies on mpox in sub-Saharan Africa from 2017 until December 2025.
English
Case study
SSHAP learning note: Building a localised approach
This learning note shares insights, experiences and lessons from SSHAP's approach to the localisation of its operational responses in sub-Saharan Africa.
Evidence review
Rapid evidence synthesis: Mpox community protection
This note presents a rapid synthesis of evidence related to community protection in countries affected by the mpox clade 1b outbreak. Synthesising evidence related to community protection for mpox Medline, Africa Journals Online and Global Index Medicus were searched. IFRC,…
Report
Meeting report: The impact of global aid funding cuts on people and programmes in South Sudan
Report of a roundtable with government actors, academics, development partners and journalists in South Sudan on the sweeping impacts on people and programmes of aid cuts and multiple, intersecting crises.
Briefing
Key considerations: Home-based care for mpox in Central and East Africa
This brief outlines key considerations on health system requirements for safe and inclusive home-based care for mpox.
Question Bank
Tools
Questions bank for healthcare workers during infectious disease outbreaks
This question bank is a menu of qualitative questions related to healthcare workers’ knowledge, perceptions and practices during infectious disease outbreaks.
Question Bank
Tools
Climate change question bank part 2
This resource is a menu of qualitative questions related to socio-behavioural factors and drought response.
Question Bank
Tools
Climate change question bank part 1
This resource is intended to help responders determine organisational priorities and needs to develop a localised preparedness and response strategy for the multi-hazard impacts of El Niño and other relevant climatic events (e.g., drought, flooding, cyclones).
Briefing
Mpox response in urban informal settlements
This brief highlights key issues and good practices that can be carried into the design and delivery of mpox response activities in urban informal settlements.
Briefing
Introducing experimental vaccines during health emergencies
This brief provides an overview of the experimental stages of vaccine development during a disease outbreak and highlights key considerations at each stage from a social science perspective.
Briefing
Supporting the mpox response for people with diverse sexual orientation, gender identity and/or gender expression in contexts where their rights are restricted
This brief provides a socio-behavioural analysis of the vulnerabilities, risks and operational key considerations for working with people with diverse sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression in the mpox response.
Briefing
Mpox in the Busia-Malaba border region linking Uganda and Kenya
This brief summarises how mpox is perceived and managed in the Busia-Malaba border region that links eastern Uganda and western Kenya.
Factsheet
Remote response to Ebola outbreak in DRC
The Social Science in Humanitarian Action Platform is supporting UNICEF, WHO, IFRC and other partners in the Democratic Republic of Congo to respond to the Ebola outbreak in Equateur Province. The Platform has four key streams of action: 1) Rapid…
Briefing
Cross-border dynamics between Burundi and Tanzania in the context of viral haemorrhagic fever outbreaks, 2025
This brief summarises key considerations regarding cross-border dynamics between Burundi and Tanzania in the context of viral haemorrhagic fever (VHF) outbreaks in Tanzania and Uganda.
Briefing
Using social and behavioural science to inform the use of vaccines during health emergencies
This brief synthesises social and behavioural science research on the use of vaccines during health emergencies in sub-Saharan Africa, including experimental vaccines undergoing clinical trials.
Article
Hiding in plain sight: IDP’s protection strategies after closing Juba’s protection of civilian sites
This article examines how former Protection of Civilian site (PoCs) residents are staying safe and protecting themselves after the United Nations Mission in South Sudan's (UNMISS) handing over of the PoCs to the Revitalised-Transitional Government of National Unity (R-TGoNU).
Article
Safety among displaced South Sudanese in Khartoum: the role of Christian faith communities
Christianity occupies an integral part of South Sudanese journeys through wars and displacement. This article explores the role of Christian faith communities in providing protection during South Sudanese displacement in Khartoum.
Article
Seeking safety: Identifying protection gaps for artists in South Sudan
Protection of artists during times of conflict has no specific framework in international humanitarian law. However, cultural sites, artefacts and institutions are protected. This article contributes empirical evidence from South Sudan to reveal how artists experience the protection gap and…
Article
Negotiating faith in exile: learning from displacements from and into Arua, North West Uganda
Humanitarians have recently championed faith actors as valuable resources in delivering humanitarian aid. This paper explores how faith has been entangled within the dynamics of two spatially connected crises: Ugandans fleeing post-Amin reprisals in the mid-1980s, and South Sudanese fleeing…
Article
Protection and containment: surviving COVID-19 in Palabek refugee settlement, Northern Uganda
Humanitarian assistance is framed around ‘protection’. Deciding whom to protect and against what is not straightforward, particularly during a pandemic. This article critically explores containment and protection by focusing on refugee self-protection in Uganda.
Article
Community self-protection, public authority and the safety of strangers in Bor and Ler, South Sudan
Protection is not simply something done or delivered to people by states, humanitarian organisations and armed peacekeepers. We use interview data from communities in Bor and Ler, South Sudan, long affected by conflict, to show how attention to the relationship…
Article
Humanitarian protection activities and the safety of strangers in the DRC, Syria and South Sudan
Many contemporary humanitarian organisations derive their legitimacy from their claims to protect civilians. Yet, what these organisations do in its name includes a diverse and contested range of activities that are often far from what global publics and affected populations…
Article
The safety of strangers: the realities and politics of protecting civilians in times of war
Recent wars have brutally shown that civilians are not safe. This is despite high-level global commitments and multi-billion-dollar humanitarian spending to keep civilian strangers protected. The high civilian death tolls in recent armed conflicts are prompting new questions about how…
Research paper
Diagnosis, treatment, and management of mpox in urban informal settlements in southwestern Nigeria: an ethnographic approach
This paper, based on an ethnographic study in southwestern Nigeria, seeks to contribute to a more nuanced understanding of not only the health care access barriers, but the complex geographical, economic, and sociocultural factors that shape how and when people…
Research paper
Infrastructures of epidemic response: mpox and everyday repair work in southwestern Nigeria
This paper examines community-based surveillance and primary health care as intersecting infrastructures to draw learning from lived experiences of mpox and the response to the mpox outbreak in southwestern Nigeria during 2022-23.
Tools
Mapping community engagement tools for vaccination in LMIC settings
This resource, which maps and characterises community engagement tools used for vaccination in low and middle income settings, is the results of a study from the Pulse project.
Question Bank
Tools
Viral haemorrhagic fevers question bank
This Question Bank is relevant to outbreaks where person-to-person transmission has been identified as significant to an outbreak's spread and where patient experiences must be understood for a community-centred response.
Tools
Rapid qualitative assessment training – 10 modules in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese
This training aims to contribute to more effective and community-centred responses by strengthening systems for the utilisation of community data in emergency response by ministries of health, government and partners.
Briefing
Post-trauma impacts in conflict-affected communities in northern Nigeria
This Key Considerations brief compares the biomedical framing of post-traumatic stress disorder with the social science understanding of the drivers of and possible solutions for mental health impacts of trauma.
Briefing
Addressing the kush epidemic in Sierra Leone
This Key Considerations brief contextualises and provides insight into an epidemic which is symptomatic of deeper, long-standing issues which require sustained and comprehensive solutions beyond immediate emergency measures.
Briefing
Female genital mutilation among Sudanese displaced populations in Egypt
A Key Considerations brief considering the drivers and dynamics of FGM practices in the context of forced displacement to inform culturally sensitive strategies for FGM prevention and response.
Briefing
Addressing the humanitarian needs of forced rural-to-city migrants in north-west Nigeria with a focus on mental health vulnerability
This Fellows Brief calls for action to address the needs of a hitherto underserved, internally displaced people.
Briefing
Mutual aid lessons and experiences from Emergency Response Rooms in Sudan
A Key Considerations brief based on the first case study of the volunteer networks known as Emergency Response Rooms, conducted June to August 2024.
Briefing
Humanitarian responses to famine and war in Sudan
This Key Considerations brief offers key information about the background to the civil war in Sudan, responses to the humanitarian crisis and reasons why relief has been inadequate, setting out opportunities to push against the obstacles or constraints to relief.
Briefing
Food assistance prioritisation in refugee settlements in Uganda and its impacts
This brief considers the humanitarian and policy implications of the general food and cash assistance prioritisation strategy in Uganda’s refugee settlements.
Briefing
Outbreak of Marburg virus disease in Rwanda, October 2024
Key Considerations regarding the outbreak of Marburg virus disease in Rwanda, including national response capabilities, local governance structures, and regional and economic implications.
