Evidence Aid Charity: Closing on 31 October 2024

It is with great sadness that we announce the closure of Evidence Aid as a charity on 31 October 2024 and the ending of the employment of our two members of staff (myself, and Jane Copsey). Despite best efforts, this difficult decision had to be taken because of insufficient funds to continue to support the operation of the charity and a lack of prospects for further funding.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for the support provided to Evidence Aid during the last 20 years. As a team, we have been privileged to work with so many talented and dedicated individuals who have given their time, contributing to a wide variety of projects and activities to support the aim of saving lives and livelihoods in disasters, by providing decision-makers with the best available evidence and championing its use.

We also thank the organisations who have put their faith in Evidence Aid to deliver projects that met their needs, and the organisations and individuals who provided funding for our infrastructure and to support our work.

Here are some words from Mike Clarke, co-founder of Evidence Aid and Chair of the charity’s Board of Trustees:

Although we are having to close Evidence Aid as a charity, much work remains for the humanitarian sector to continue what we have achieved. We urge all those involved in decision making in the humanitarian sector to collaborate and to continue seeking ways to improve access to evidence to ensure that the lives and livelihoods of vulnerable populations are protected. We hope that the resources we have prepared will continue to contribute to this and we are planning for Evidence Aid summaries to remain accessible and free of charge beyond closure of the charity. We will provide more information on this, as it becomes available.”

As the charity closes, Evidence Aid has much to be proud of. Our legacy includes:

  • Publication of 1300 freely available plain language summaries of systematic reviews on our website across 11 evidence collections including Earthquakes, Refugees, and COVID-19, which are helping people to prepare for, respond to and recover from humanitarian crises.
  • Working with PAHO/WHO to produce more than 250 summaries for the Resilient Health Systems collection, helping policy makers and programme managers to implement resilience when restructuring.
  • Translating our summaries into multiple languages, working with Translators Without Borders (Clear Global) and curating the collections in a way which makes them easy to search, download and embed into users’ own systems.
  • Leading the production of the booklet Use of research in the humanitarian sector: A practice guide with our partners, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Save the Children UK, Alliance for Useful Evidence and NEST.
  • Working with the WHO Kobe Centre to build capacity by providing a suite of free-to-use online learning materials for the WHO Guidance on Research Methods for Health Emergency and Disaster Risk Management.
  • Advocating for the use of high-quality evidence in decision-making in the humanitarian sector.

Jane and I will continue working until 31 October 2024, so please contact me (callen@evidenceaid.org) before that date with any questions or to discuss our situation in more detail.

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