Development and Pilot Implementation of a Crisis Modifier Framework

This report presents the development and evaluation of a framework designed to respond to and mitigate likely but unpredictable crises that commonly affect services and populations in fragile settings and that can stop humanitarian and development programmes from functioning.

The Crisis Modifier framework was conceived as a preparedness plan designed to protect programmes and services from disruption and provide the means to anticipate unpredictable but likely crises, identify their emergence at an early stage with a targeted surveillance mechanism, and address them with an adequate mitigating, pre-agreed response. The concept went beyond traditional approaches to risk-management to develop a robust, operational framework supported by protected resource that could provide an effective safety net around a programme.

The report explains the context in which this framework was piloted in Yemen between 2018 and 2020 as part of a GSK-Save the Children health programme in Lahj Governorate (pictured right). Yemen has been devastated by six years of conflict and is experiencing the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. The programme area is vulnerable to shifting conflict dynamics, influxes of refugees and internally displaced persons, natural phenomena such as flash floods, frequent outbreaks of diseases, and high levels of malnutrition.

This report describes the development of the Crisis Modifier mechanism and its activation within this programme, going on to present and discuss quantitative, qualitative, observational and indicator data collected for evaluation.