UNHCR

Communicating Complexity in the Humanitarian Sector

UNHCR’s Innovation Service is testing a new communications framework to understand and shift behaviours within the organisation and to better align with innovation competencies. This framework is helping UNHCR move beyond thinking about innovation from the Innovation Service’s point of view and to dig into some of the beliefs and behaviours the organisation desires to change. UNHCR focused on using social, behavioural, and cognitive science to gain insight to: - Ensure work aligns with the science behind how people form beliefs and adopt new behaviours; - Build support for innovation within the organisation; - More quickly transmit promising practices and “bright spots” to those who will benefit the most from them; and - Embed skills and qualities associated with innovation throughout UNHCR and the humanitarian sector.

Go to Project

More Recent Projects

February 17, 2022

Bike Ambulances to improve Emergency Obstetric Care in Rural Areas

Maternal mortality and morbidity rates remain high in Cote d’Ivoire. It is estimated that more than six women out of a thousand are dying while delivering birth, while 0.7% of the women of childbearing age have fistula in the country (MICS, 2016). While the strengthening of the health system is taking place, women in the country, especially in the rural area, stay vulnerable to the high risk of maternal death and morbidity. From behavioral perspectives, the barriers that leads to the three delays–(1) deciding to seek care; (2) identifying and reaching a medical facility; (3) receiving adequate and appropriate treatment may include the following (Cichowitz et al., 2018): Factors related to the first delay: social norms (community prefers to deliver at home), limited transportation and health care services at night, and negative experience in hospitals in the past (lack of trust). Factors related to the second delay of reaching a medical facility: a lack of available transportation, long travel times, and perception of high medical costs (walking 36.5%, car 34.6%, bus 13.5%, and motorcycle 13.5% in case of a study in Tanzania). In this context, this rapid prototyping initiative seeks to develop a new low-cost, safe transportation for women to prevent maternal mortality and morbidity in rural areas, by tackling the barriers that often lead to delay of emergency obstetric care (EmOC). It also aims to collect and utilize the GPS data/information of the bike ambulances to enable regional hospitals and the government to make better decisions in providing care, utilize hospital ambulances efficiently, and enhance communication between the care-seeker and care-provider.
Back to Projects Library