Review of Funding and Management Structures of Emergency Medical Teams (EMTs) and International Search and Rescue (ISAR) Teams

When disasters exceed the capacity of the affected country to cope within its own resources, assistance from external source teams is required and typically requested (Bartolucci et al., 2019). Assistance can be Emergency Medical Teams (EMTs - also known as Disaster Medical Teams [DMTs] or Disaster Medical Assistance Teams [DMATs]) and/or International Search and Rescue (ISAR) teams. However, as the structures of these teams differ greatly, their management is paramount to success. Also, the cost of international relief, and the belief that such deployment is cost-effective, has been questioned by the international community. Although overall management and centrally pooled funding is available for EMTs and ISAR teams, this rapid review focuses on organisation and funding at the country and/or regional level. As requested, EMT examples are taken from Australia, China, India, Israel, Malaysia, and the Caribbean. Data on ISAR teams is from Brazil, China, Germany, Indonesia, Scandinavia, and the United States (USA). The assessed ‘grey’ literature included: (i) external evaluations commissioned by funding agencies and/ or humanitarian EMT providers; (ii) institutional reviews of lessons learned; (iii) after-action reports, and (iv) formal reviews commissioned by the authorities of some of the sudden onset disaster (SOD) affected countries. Findings from response to natural disasters (de Ville de Goyet et al., 2003), and conclusions of five Tsunami Evaluation Coalition (TEC) thematic evaluations (de Ville de Goyet, 2007) were used extensively. However, since these publications, there still are few detailed data and evaluations available on EMTs and ISAR teams (Gerdin et al., 2013; Bartolucci et al., 2019). Experts consulted for this rapid review also confirmed this

Responsible Exit from Humanitarian Interventions

This helpdesk report examines the responsible exit of donor agencies, UN organisations, or NGOs from humanitarian interventions. It highlights the key lessons learned from examples of exits. Three exit processes have been identified by a multi-donor evaluation for different contexts and reflecting different management challenges: exit from force majeure situations, exit from aid-dependent countries and aid transformation in graduating countries. Three broad approaches of exit processes undertaken by international non-government organisations (INGOs) are the Full Closure Model, the Localisation Model and the Devolved Programme Model. Possible transition processes are related to measurable indicators, such as phasing out food aid to a limited number of schools. Developing and using short responsible exit criteria helped in a successful exit in Moldova. Senior staff are critical points in an exit process. Operational shifts have been used successfully by the World Food Programme. Both donor and recipient capacities are important factors. Ensuring the financial sustainability of local entities is a critical part of making transitions – and ultimately locally-led development - a success. Also, attempting a hasty exit can result in financial damage to both the donor and the recipient

Stunting, Wasting, and Education in Nigeria

Globally, the number of primary school children with nutritional deficiencies is high. This rapid review focuses on children with such deficiencies (namely stunting and wasting), and how it affects them throughout their primary education. Although the focus is on Nigeria, other country examples and their approaches to address this issue are also included, where available. Key points include as hungry children find it difficult to concentrate (Muiru et al., 2014; Foodbank, 2015; Businge, 2016), their learning needs and outcomes are different to well-nourished children. Countries respond to these children in different ways: the most popular being school feeding programmes, e.g. in India, which has a high prevalence of stunting and wasting, there is the free Midday Meal Scheme, which is the largest such scheme in the world (Singh et al., 2012). However, such approaches have varying impacts: positive effects on measured learning were found in Burkina Faso and Peru (World Bank Group, 2018). However, in Kenya, providing school meals took significant time away from the classroom, and so they had an ambiguous net effect (World Bank Group, 2018). Therefore, it is worth noting that although school feeding gets children to school, it does not always improve learning (FAO et al., 2018)

Nutrition in Syria

The K4D helpdesk service provides brief summaries of current research, evidence, and lessons learned. Helpdesk reports are not rigorous or systematic reviews; they are intended to provide an introduction to the most important evidence related to a research question. They draw on a rapid desk-based review of published literature and consultation with subject specialists. Most of the evidence concentrates on the nutrition of vulnerable groups - mainly very young children and CBA. The little data available on nutritional status of the elderly is for those living in residential homes. For men, published evidence relates to Syrian refugees in neighbouring countries and is therefore not given here. The report includes findings from BSG areas such as Damascus, Deir-ez-Zor, Hama, Homs, Madaya in Rural Damascus, as well as hard-to-reach (HTR) areas, e.g. Al-Hassakeh. Data from newly accessible areas in Aleppo, Lattakia, and Tartous governorates is also included

Consequences for Adolescents When They Become Pregnant, and Become Mothers

When an adolescent becomes pregnant, her life can change radically – especially if the pregnancy is unplanned. This rapid review presents information on consequences of adolescent pregnancy and adolescent motherhood in low-income countries, low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), and middle-income countries from Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). Treatment and effects on the adolescent in terms of health, education, employment opportunities, as well as after-effects on their family members are noted. This review finds that Evidence on the consequences of girls returning to school after they become pregnant is limited. Available information focuses more on whether pregnant girls go back to school after giving birth, but not so much on whether the conditions are favourable for adolescent mothers to re-enter school and concentrate on their studies.FCDO (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

Period Poverty Impact on the Economic Empowerment of Women

The aim of this review was to present the recent evidence on the period poverty (lack of access to sanitary products, WASH facilities, dignity, and information about menstruation) impact on the economic empowerment of women. Improving menstrual health management (MHM, also known as ‘period poverty’) can substantially improve girls’ education, health and wellbeing. The literature, as well as experts consulted for this rapid review, confirm that that MHM has an impact on the lives of women and girls, albeit indirectly (expert comment). Given the shortage of information on period poverty globally, the expected sensitivities around the topic, and the lack of standardised tools and methods (Phillips-Howard et al., 2016), evidence is predominantly provided from qualitative, participatory, and descriptive methods. It is difficult from the qualitative studies to determine the extent to which period poverty impacts any of these outcomes or economic empowerment, or how influential period poverty contrasts with other challenges facing women and girls in the contexts studied

The Projected Impacts of Climate Change on Food Security in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)

Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is already highly dependent on food imports, making it also vulnerable to price shocks on the global markets and harvest failures in other world regions. This rapid review will focus on literature discussing the impact of climate change on food security, in terms of future water use and food import changes, for the region as a whole. Evidence is gender blind and does not focus on disability. Peer-reviewed literature shows that the region will continue to be affected by future climate change, depriving more and more people of water of decent quantity and quality, as well as food security. Grey literature assessed for this rapid review include reports by experts and international institutions, including the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the Food and Agricultural Organization (OECD-FAO, 2018) and the World Bank (2018). However, few assessments of climate change consider MENA as a whole. This makes it considerably more difficult to understand climate change from a regional perspective (Jobbins & Henley, 2015)

Agriculture in Syria

The K4D helpdesk service provides brief summaries of current research, evidence, and lessons learned. Helpdesk reports are not rigorous or systematic reviews; they are intended to provide an introduction to the most important evidence related to a research question. They draw on a rapid desk-based review of published literature and consultation with subject specialists. Although the agricultural area of the Syrian Arab Republic is spread over large areas of the country, the agricultural sector is facing many difficulties in light of deteriorating security conditions and the high cost of farming

Vaccine Hesitancy: Guidance and Interventions

Research shows that vaccine hesitancy (i.e. ‘the delay in acceptance or refusal of vaccines despite the availability of vaccination services’ (WHO SAGE, 2014a) is rising, resulting in alarming figures on disease outbreaks reported globally. Despite availability of vaccines, the number of countries reporting hesitancy has steadily increased since 2014 (Lane et al., 2018). Therefore, there is a need to understand what governments and partners can do to tackle this problem. The evidence for this rapid review is gender blind and taken from grey literature, including systematic reviews, interviews, research reports, and peer-reviewed academic papers from vaccine-related projects (e.g. Vaccine Confidence Project). Strategies aimed at specific populations in grey literature differed from those in peer reviewed literature (WHO SAGE, 2014a). This review does not focus on anti-vaccination (anti-vaxx/anti-vac) sentiments or movements. Drivers of vaccine hesitancy are also not explored in this review