Evidence Aid Newsletter: 16 November 2023

Welcome to Evidence Aid’s November newsletter, where we turn our attention to two elements of emergency crisis response. The first, health systems. Possessing the capacity to maintain functioning health services, particularly during humanitarian crises, is integral to saving lives in the face of emergencies. As such, this month’s newsletter further highlights Evidence Aid’s Resilient Health Systems (RHS) evidence collection and its provision of essential information for decision-makers. . The second, a spotlight on cash transfers and their potential power to shift autonomy back into the hands of affected communities.

We hope you enjoy this month’s newsletter and regardless, we request that you complete our survey about your opinion on and use of our Resilient Health Systems collection. The form will be available until Monday, 20 November 2023, but in the meantime, if you have any issues, please do not hesitate to contact Epa La Bella at elabella@evidenceaid.org. As always, we value your insight and opinions, all of which are essential to the functioning of Evidence Aid.

Upcoming webinar: Strategic Approaches to Implementing Resilient Health System Frameworks in the Context of Emergencies and Disasters: Insights from Advisors of the Resilient Health System Evidence Collection

On 13 December 2023, from 10:30 – 11:30AM EST, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) and Evidence Aid will join forces once again, to deliver an educational webinar focused on strengthening, promoting, and implementing resilience within health systems, particularly when emergency response coordinators, PAHO personnel, and policy-makers continue to prepare for, respond to, and recover from emergencies and disasters. Building on the collaborative work of our Resilient Health Systems (RHS) evidence collection, this webinar will feature a number of keynote speakers whose expertise includes health information services, parasitology, public health, disaster medicine, among others, To register use this link.

Related Evidence Aid Summaries:

Organising healthcare services for persons with an intellectual disability
Citation: Balogh R, et al. Organising healthcare services for persons with an intellectual disability. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2016;(4):CD007492.

Resilience of health systems to infectious disease outbreaks and natural hazards
Citation: Nuzzo JB, et al. What makes health systems resilient against infectious disease outbreaks and natural hazards? Results from a scoping review. BMC Public Health. 2019;19:1310.

Thematic analysis of research on cities and the COVID-19 pandemic
Citation: Sharifi A. An overview and thematic analysis of research on cities and the COVID-19 pandemic: Toward just, resilient, and sustainable urban planning and design. iScience. 2022;25:105297.

Spotlight: Cash Transfers

“Cash in a crisis can mean the difference between getting what you want,
or what someone else thinks you want.”
– Karen Peachy, CALP’s Director

The latest State of the World’s Cash report, published by the CALP Network, highlighted the potential of cash assistance in better addressing the needs of humanitarian needs of people. In 2022, it was reported that $7.9 billion was transferred as cash or vouchers to crisis affected people, noting a 41% increase from the year before. These numbers, albeit data points, similarly reflect an evolution of humanitarian aid, thus establishing a form of human-centred aid that is rooted in giving people a choice.

Related Evidence Aid Summaries:

Health impacts of unconditional cash transfers for reducing poverty and vulnerability in low- and middle-income countries
Citation: Pega F, et al. Unconditional cash transfers for reducing poverty and vulnerabilities: effect on use of health services and health outcomes in low‐ and middle‐income countries. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2022;(3):CD011135.

Community-level interventions for improving access to food in low- and middle-income countries
Citation: Durao S, et al. Community-level interventions for improving access to food in low- and middle-income countries. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2020, Issue 7. Art. No.: CD011504.

Additional Information

Social media: Four of our volunteers (Vidhi Ramnarain, Sophie Deardon, and Emily Meier) promote our summaries and the work of Evidence Aid through several social media accounts. Please follow us to continue to stay up to date on our work and share any content you think is useful.

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Commissioned projects: Read more about our ongoing projects here.

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Thank you for your support and continued reading!

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