This case study is part of our series on academic-practitioner collaborations in humanitarian settings. In this post, we feature the Social Science in Humanitarian Action Platform (SSHAP), a programme focused on the integration of the social sciences into emergency responses.
SSHAP is a collaboration between the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), Anthrologica, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and institutions in regional hubs (Gulu University,ISP Bukavu, Juba University, Sierra Leone Urban Research Centre, CRCF Senegal and Ibadan University). The platform emerged from the recognition, during the 2014–2016 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, that the understanding of local social, political and cultural aspects has a crucial impact on the effectiveness of epidemic response. SSHAP focuses on encouraging contextually informed humanitarian responses based on social science evidence. They are a remote network of social scientists with regional expertise who collaborate to provide evidence, analysis, insight, and advice. SSHAP mobilises this network through its three key initiatives: the SSHAP fellowship programme, resources for emergency responses, and regional hubs. This post outlines key features and strengths across these initiatives.
Pairing social scientists with practitioners to tackle local challenges
The social sciences can enhance humanitarian responses by providing insights into cultural contexts, community and political dynamics, ethical considerations, and effective communications. These contributions can help create interventions that are more adaptive, inclusive and accountable. However, connecting social scientists to practitioners in a timely and effective way is a challenge. Social scientists can struggle to translate their research expertise into tangible recommendations for practitioners, and practitioners may lack an awareness of how social science evidence can inform humanitarian response.
To address this challenge, SSHAP’s fellowship programme pairs social scientists with practitioners from the same region to support interdisciplinary collaboration and knowledge exchange while focused on concrete local challenges and health emergencies. The programme operates on a global scale and has been offered in English, French, and most recently in Arabic. Fellows receive an honorarium of £1000 and participate in 12 weekly online sessions which cover topics like political economy and cultural logics. Throughout the programme, fellows are grouped with their regional counterparts to complete assignments and receive mentoring from the SSHAP team, which includes developing evidence briefs based on humanitarian crises mutually chosen within their region. Testimonials from past fellows highlight the programme’s impact in their daily work, such as in adapting responses to meet community needs during the rapidly evolving COVID-19 crisis across the eastern Caribbean. The focus on concrete local challenges helps to ground the training and build a mutual understanding between the social scientists and practitioners.
Diverse and complementary research outputs
A challenge for practitioners responding to humanitarian emergencies is accessing relevant academic expertise and evidence in a timely manner. In response to this, SSHAP develops a range of tailored resources for different stakeholders to support humanitarian emergency responses, including evidence briefs, research articles, podcasts, policy documents, blogs, and infographics.
In particular, their evidence briefs aim to make existing and emerging evidence available in a timely manner, drawing on academic and grey literature, consultation with experts, and personal experiences. For example, a brief on socio-behavioural insights was used by UNICEF to inform primary data collection among cholera-affected populations in Mozambique. SSHAP has also collaborated with UNICEF to develop question banks for rapid evidence collection to inform risk communication and community engagement in emergencies such as disease outbreaks.
While these formats make it easier to rapidly generate relevant evidence and recommendations for humanitarians by synthesising existing knowledge, SSHAP social scientists also have the opportunity to carry out more in-depth pieces of research in related projects which further inform understanding of the broader sociopolitical and contextual factors that underpin health crises. For example, a recent landscape paper by SSHAP explores the interrelationship of disease outbreaks with socio-cultural, economic and political contexts in Nigeria, Senegal, and Sierra Leone.
Hayley MacGregor, Professor of Medical Anthropology and Global Health at IDS“The challenge for academics is to not lose the complexity and nuance, which is often what one needs to communicate, but to still recognise the need to act and not just critique.”
Dedicated researchers and growing alumni network
Finding the right experts to generate essential research insights in a timely manner is a frequent challenge in humanitarian crises. To address this, dedicated SSHAP researchers from the IDS, Anthrologica, LSTHM, and regional hub institutions are available to produce evidence briefs with a rapid turnaround so that they can be consulted during emergencies. When a brief requires specialised regional expertise, SSHAP also leverages its fellowship alumni network and wider academic networks to identify the right contributors. The alumni network is a key asset, as its social scientists will have both the relevant expertise and a close understanding of the pace needed to generate the insights.
The fellowship programme also feeds into an online forum of past fellows and a community of practice that response agencies can draw on as a resource in case of future outbreaks. For example, SSHAP has been able to assist agencies such as WHO and FCDO in meetings about the ongoing mpox outbreak which sought to involve social scientists. SSHAP were able to leverage their network quickly to identify suitable social scientists with regional expertise who could participate, fostering collaboration between social scientists and practitioners beyond the confines of the fellowship programme.
Localised expertise via regional hubs
While social science expertise is valuable on its own, it becomes much more powerful, relevant and timely in a crisis when delivered by researchers familiar with the local cultural, social, political and environmental context. As a platform originally organised by three UK-based organisations, SSHAP was acutely aware of this. In 2023, SSHAP developed two regional hubs: one in Central and East Africa and another in West Africa. Each regional hub is co-led by three institutions in different countries within the region, with a portion of SSHAP’s grant supporting these institutions.
Localisation through the hubs allows regional social scientists to provide context-specific expertise when responding to emergencies in those regions. For example, the Central and East Africa Regional Hub highlighted humanitarian issues in the South Sudan/north Uganda border region, creating evidence briefs on flooding, forced displacement, and cross-border dynamics. These types of briefings can offer actionable insights for frontline agencies. The hubs are also involved in knowledge exchange activities like roundtable discussions and workshops. Recently, Central and East Africa Hub hosted a roundtable discussion, which convened both local and global social scientists and practitioners to appraise the mpox outbreak situation in the DRC.
Core funding to support diverse types of research and relationship building
While being able to provide both rapid research pieces such as evidence briefs, as well as more nuanced pieces is a strength of the SSHAP programme, this would not be possible without core funding. Access to core funding from donors like Wellcome, UK Aid, and UNICEF has been particularly essential in enabling SSHAP to produce important detailed resources which might not necessarily align with the priorities of commissioning frontline agencies. This financial stability has allowed SSHAP to explore both the urgent and underlying social dimensions of humanitarian crises.
Core funding is also crucial for building strong human relationships, which is essential for fostering effective collaborations. Hosting in-person meetings between social scientists and practitioners has played an important role in this process. Relationship-building also extends to active participation in key forums and engagement with humanitarian organisations such as the WHO. These networks and connections have helped SSHAP to navigate differences in approaches and establish productive partnerships.
SSHAP provides a model for creating shared learning environments where academics and practitioners work together to address humanitarian issues. By targeting a specific area of academic interest through its focus on social science research, the platform is able to build complementary initiatives and services that respond to the priorities of both groups. This model can be adapted to other areas of academic research in the humanitarian sector to facilitate a more impactful exchange of knowledge.