English Archives - Social Science in Humanitarian Action Platform

Briefing

Recommendations: Rapid Synthesis of Social and Behavioural Science learnings on Ebola for the Bundibugyo Virus Outbreak (2026) Ituri, DRC

A rapid synthesis of lessons learned from prior Ebola social and behavioural science (SBS) research to highlight critical insights for locally adapted and contextually informed response efforts.

Multi-Hazard Research Network

2026

Briefing

Ituri Ebola Outbreak 2026 (DRC) – Summary overview of context

This note details relevant contextual factors in Ituri Province, DRC, to inform the response to the outbreak of Ebola disease caused by Bundibugyo virus.

Multi-Hazard Research Network

2026

Briefing

Key considerations: the context of North Kivu province, DRC

This brief summarises key considerations about the context of North Kivu province in relation to the outbreak of Ebola in the DRC, August 2018.

SSHAP

2018

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.

SSHAP

2026

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.

Central and East Africa Hub

West Africa Hub

SSHAP

2025

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,…

SSHAP

2025

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.

Central and East Africa Hub

SSHAP

2025

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.

Central and East Africa Hub

SSHAP

2025

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.

SSHAP

2025

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.

SSHAP

2025

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).

SSHAP

2025

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.

SSHAP

2025

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.

SSHAP

2025

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.

SSHAP

2025

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.

Central and East Africa Hub

SSHAP

2025

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…

Central and East Africa Hub

SSHAP

2018

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.

Central and East Africa Hub

SSHAP

2025

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.

SSHAP

2025

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).

Central and East Africa Hub

Global Policy

2023

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.

Central and East Africa Hub

Global Policy

2025

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…

Central and East Africa Hub

Global Policy

2025

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…

Central and East Africa Hub

Global Policy

2024

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.

Central and East Africa Hub

Global Policy

2025

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…

Central and East Africa Hub

Global Policy

2024

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…

Central and East Africa Hub

Global Policy

2024

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…

Central and East Africa Hub

Global Policy

2025

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…

West Africa Hub

BMC Public Health

2025

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.

West Africa Hub

Social Science & Medicine

2024

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.

Université de Genève

2025

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.

SSHAP

2025

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.

Collective Service

2024

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.

West Africa Hub

SSHAP

2024

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.

West Africa Hub

SSHAP

2024

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.

SSHAP

2024

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.

West Africa Hub

SSHAP

2024

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.

Central and East Africa Hub

SSHAP

2024