Over 200 million people are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance across the world today.  In 2017, the UN-coordinated appeals reported a shortfall of 41 per cent, despite receiving a record amount of funding. As the demands on these limited funds increase, there is a concurrent increase in the need for high-quality evidence on the most effective ways to improve humanitarian programming.

Carlos Oya and colleagues recently published a systematic review of agricultural certification schemes that stands out for me as useful research for informing policy and programming. Why do I say that? Agricultural certification schemes set and monitor compliance to voluntary standards with the objective of making production socially sustainable and terms of trade fairer for smallholder farmers and workers.

A mother with a six-month old girl receives a voice reminder in her local dialect to take her daughter for her next vaccination. She comes to the local health facility where the health worker takes off a small pendant attached with a black thread from the child’s neck, which has an embedded digital microchip. She places it on the tablet, and all the immunisation information related to the child appears on the screen. The health worker finds that second dose of pentavalent vaccine is due. She administers it to the child.

India is responsible for the majority of the world’s open defecation – a practice that spreads disease and cuts lives short. To address the issue, the Indian government’s Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM; Clean India Mission), which completes its third year, has been providing toilets, particularly in rural areas where they are most needed.  SBM has also made explicit the importance of behaviour change and getting people to use those toilets.