Humanitarian protection initiative
The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) Europe has launched the 'Human protection initiative' (HPI) in partnership with Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA), and support from UK International Development office of the UK government to produce evidence to understand the mechanisms that promote the safety, dignity and rights of people affected by conflict. The HPI has opened its call for proposals to fund research to design, pilot and evaluate solutions to effectively improve protection outcomes by keeping those who are affected by armed conflict safe from violence, coercion and deliberate deprivation while ensuring their dignity and rights.
Today, J-PAL and Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) launch the Humanitarian Protection Initiative (HPI), with support from the United Kingdom (UK) international development funding from the UK Government. The core of this initiative is a research fund dedicated to generating rigorous evidence to inform policies and programs that protect conflict-affected populations from harm and mitigate the effects of conflict where harm has occurred.
As conflicts flare up around the world, protection risks are increasing in complexity and severity. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs projects that nearly 300 million people will need assistance and protection in 2024. These risks range from increased attacks on civilians, rising sexual- and gender-based violence, continued recruitment of child soldiers, exacerbated psychological abuse and distress, to restricted access to deliver humanitarian assistance. Faced with budget constraints, humanitarian actors require evidence to make informed and timely decisions to improve protection outcomes.
Yet there is limited rigorous evidence on the comparative effectiveness of protection interventions, or on the mechanisms that drive effective protection programming. In response, HPI will equip humanitarian actors with a greater understanding of cost-effective, scalable, and context-sensitive solutions to prevent and remedy physical, psychological, social, and legal harm against conflict-affected populations.