Humanitarian health programming and monitoring in inaccessible conflict settings: a literature review

Abstract Increasing global conflicts and risk to humanitarian aid workers have necessitated innovative approaches to deliver humanitarian assistance. Remotely managed operations aim to continue the provision of services where grave risk to expatriate staff and restrictions by authorities inhibit access. This review of peer-reviewed and gray literature identified these remote approaches and collated lessons learned and best practices for humanitarian health programming and monitoring in inaccessible conflict settings. Analysis identified key principles, including the importance of capacity building and frequent communication, comprehensively assessing and addressing the risks to national staff, increasing monitoring and evaluation efforts despite difficult conditions, and planning for the possibility of a transition to remote programming and having an exit strategy to prevent falling into the remote operations trap. Evidence on how to effectively carry out remote operations is limited; rigorous documentation and evaluation of remotely managed humanitarian operations are required to further build the evidence base