HERE-Geneva

The Humanitarian Exchange and Research Centre works to close the gap between policy and humanitarian practice.

Founded in Geneva in 2014, the Humanitarian Exchange and Research Centre (HERE) works to close the gap between policy and humanitarian practice. We endeavour to understand and promote the steps that need to be taken in order to uphold the rights of crisis-affected people.

Spotlight

NEW | The Future of Humanitarian Coordination

Supported by the governments of Sweden, Norway and Switzerland, this project aims to provide actionable suggestions on how to address some of the longstanding challenges in the way of effective humanitarian coordination, i.e. to identify what needs revitalisation, reinvigoration, or renewal. The starting assumption about the future humanitarian landscape is that the UN will retain its primary role in coordinating humanitarian action for at least the next decade. This project will also provide humanitarian policy makers with a review of the deeper outstanding challenges for meaningful humanitarian coordination. Starting from working hypotheses on what impedes coordination, major pressure points are identified to offer suggestions for both quick fixes and long-term solutions.

Latest outputs

HERE panel: Small fish in a big pond

February 24th marked one year since Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine. An enormous volume of aid has been raised in response to the crisis, but Ukrainian actors have had very little access to it, despite being primary respondents. Co-produced by Trumanitarian, HERE-Geneva explores this issue with panellists and guests.

Thinking about the evolution of the humanitarian sector: an exploration within the world of ideas

“Thinking about the evolution of the humanitarian sector: an exploration within the world of ideas” is an independent research project by Raphael Gorgeu, Senior Research Associate at HERE-Geneva. This project explores the dynamics of change specific to the humanitarian sector.

More than the sum of the parts? Collective leadership vs individual agency

What incentives exist for collective leadership in humanitarian response? This paper is HERE's contribution to GELI and CHA-Berlin's joint event 'Leadership for an Ever-Changing World: Amplifying Collaboration and Transformation within the Humanitarian Sector'.

UNICEF as a leader

Two members of our research team have been commissioned by UNICEF as part of the team that will evaluate its role as Cluster Lead Agency (CLA) and to conduct a review of the co-leadership arrangement of the education cluster.

The Role of Mandates | Final report

For the past three years, HERE Geneva has been researching the role that mandates – defined broadly as organisations’ goals or missions (the ‘why’) – play in how humanitarian organisations set priorities in situations of armed conflict: arguably the most complex and contested spaces in which humanitarians operate.

Coordination Roadmap Walkthrough Video Series

This video series is a companion piece to HERE-Geneva's 2022 Future of Humanitarian Coordination Roadmap, and provides tools to better understand and use it.

Watch the walkthrough

Evaluation of UNICEF’s role as Cluster Lead (Co-Lead) Agency

HERE staff members led and were involved in an evaluation looking at the four UNICEF (co-)led clusters (namely, nutrition, education, water, sanitation and hygiene and the child protection area of responsibility) to investigate how UNICEF carries out its Cluster Lead (Co-Lead) Agency (CLA) role at the global and country levels.

Read the report

Principled Humanitarian Programming in Yemen | January 2022

Supported by ECHO, the research behind this report has aimed to develop an understanding of the challenges and decisions related to negotiations, access, and coordination that organisations pursue to uphold principled humanitarian action in Yemen.

Read the report

ongoing work

Evaluation of UNICEF's L3 response in Yemen

The evaluation of UNICEF’s L3 response in Yemen has accountability and learning purposes. If fulfils the requirement of the UNICEF Evaluation Policy (2018) whereby all L3 emergencies must be evaluated, and is expected to help generate learning to support programming strategies and operational planning, while shaping the ongoing response in Yemen. The evaluation is further expected to capture learning and make actionable recommendations to inform UNICEF efforts across future L3 emergencies.

IAHE - Provision of humanitarian services in Northern Ethiopia

HERE has been contracted by OCHA on behalf of the Inter-Agency Humanitarian Evaluation Steering Group to undertake the Inter-Agency Humanitarian Evaluation of the collective response to the crisis in Northern Ethiopia.

Evaluation of the contribution of prevention work to the protection of civilians' engagement

Contracted by our partner GPPi , HERE is involved in conducting an evaluation of the contribution of the ICRC’s prevention engagement to its protection work. This study aims to investigate the effectiveness and challenges of selected prevention responses.

CHS Verification Scheme review

This review aims to provide analysis of what it will take for the CHS Verification Scheme to meet its ambition, as many organisations as possible measuring how they are meeting the commitments to people in crisis and making the needed improvements. Its focus will be on what is required from the perspective of national actors.

HERE Publications

We carry out applied, mixed-methods research and analysis, engage in dialogue with operational humanitarian actors, and feed the humanitarian community with independent reports, policy papers, and studies. Browse through our library!

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