Centre for Health Systems in Fragile and Conflict Affected Settings

In fragile and conflict-affected settings (FCAS) such as South Sudan, where health needs are immense, resources are scarce, health infrastructure is rudimentary or damaged, and government stewardship is weak, adequate health intervention priority-setting is especially important. There is a scarcity of research examining priority-setting in FCAS and the related political economy. Yet, capturing these dynamics […]

Community health workers (CHWs) are crucial for increasing access to health services to communities. Due to decades of conflict and under-funding, access to health care in South Sudan remains severely limited. To improve equitable access to healthcare, the government has introduced “the Boma Health Initiative (BHI)”, a strategy to harmonise community health programmes across the […]

The humanitarian crisis in Iraq remains one of the largest and most unstable in the world. In 2014, over 2.5 million civilians were displaced in Iraq; between 2015 and 2017 more than 3 million people continued to be displaced. While health-related research concerning internally displaced persons (IDPs) population has been conducted in many settings, very few have looked […]

The World Health Organization recommends postnatal home visits to improve maternal and newborn health, but there is limited evidence on the effectiveness of postnatal home visits effectiveness in humanitarian settings. This paper evaluates postnatal home visits implemented in the constrained humanitarian context of Gaza.

This article contextualises experience within the history of previous efforts to measure maternal mortality in Afghanistan, reviews lessons learnt and reflects on their implications. ‘Particularly hard hit by Afghanistan’s 23 years of war, civil strife and Taliban misrule are Afghan women, who are experiencing what health officials call ”catastrophic”death rates associated with pregnancy and childbirth’. […]

An Analysis of Health-Financing Policy Integration in Three Fragile and Conflict-Affected Settings As performance-based financing (PBF) is increasingly implemented across sub-Saharan Africa, some authors have suggested that it could be a ‘stepping stone’ for health-system strengthening and broad health-financing reforms. However, so far, few studies have looked at whether and how PBF is aligned to […]

Performance based financing (PBF) has been increasingly implemented across low and middleincome countries, including in fragile and humanitarian settings, which present specific features likely to require adaptation and to influence implementation of any health financing programme. However, the literature has been surprisingly thin in the discussion of how PBF has been adapted to different contexts, […]

Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV) is one of the greatest protection, human rights and public health challenges that is present in all societies and is further exacerbated during humanitarian emergencies. In Yemen a nine-year-long conflict has prompted one of the largest humanitarian crises in the world. More than 23.4 million people are in need […]

The research for change project is a research project focusing on assessing sexual violence responses in the context of disaster-prone and conflict areas. The project was executed by KIT Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) and Save the Children. The studies were initially planned in three different countries: Haiti, South Yemen and Northeast Nigeria. The project started […]

Findings from Borno State, Nigeria Almost thirteen years have passed since the conflict in northeast Nigeria erupted into violence, killing 41,596 people,1 displacing 1.7 million, contributing to 5.1 million at risk of being critically food insecure, and putting 8.7 million in need of urgent assistance.2 The conflict has had significant gendered effects, including in terms […]

Not many people know about a large-scale programme that is bringing basic health improvements to the population of Afghanistan. Talk to an average person in Europe or English speaking countries and chances are not one will tell you that Afghanistan has been making substantial progress thanks to some novel approaches. Between 2002 and 2016 Afghanistan’s […]

Dans le contexte du projet ENSEMBLE: liaison et apprentissage sur SDSR dans l’ère digital au Sahel, vingt chercheurs, enseignants, docteurs, et chargés de programmes se sont retrouvés à Bamako, Mali, pour le premier atelier du projet sur le concept et l’établissement d’une communauté de pratiques. L’atelier était facilité par Charlotte van Tuijl et Olivier Makambira, liés à Share-Net International. Vingt participants du Département des Études […]

KIT is pleased to join and contribute to the Fragility Forum 2022 hosted by the World Bank from 7 to 15 March 2022. The Fragility Forum provides the opportunity for organizations that work on development in fragile and conflict-affected settings (FCAS) to exchange ideas on development approaches to foster peace and stability. KIT has years of […]

Over the past decades, patterns of sexual violence in humanitarian settings have been influenced by a rise in conflict, mass displacement and disruption in the rule of law. Sexual violence is a form of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) that is present in all societies. SGBV and especially sexual violence are usually exacerbated by disruption […]

Many countries, particularly those afflicted by conflict and instability, face critical challenges concerning human resources in the health sector. This includes a shortage of health workers, geographic maldistribution, and performance issues. “In Western Africa, for instance, we have found that most health workers are concentrated in urban areas, and there are very few in rural […]

The people of the Occupied Palestine Territories (OPT) have been exposed to armed conflict for decades and have a high risk of developing mental health issues. The COVID-19 pandemic has only served to aggravate the issues further. Although the need for mental health services is high, access is limited due to a lack of mental […]