This new study explores how the COVID-19 pandemic intensified existing inequalities faced by Venezuelan trans women refugees in Brazil, including barriers related to employment, housing, safety, and social support. Drawing on interviews with 18 trans women refugees, the paper examines how participants navigated overlapping systems of transphobia, xenophobia, and economic exclusion during a period of heightened precarity. The research also highlights the adaptive and entrepreneurial strategies participants developed — both online and in person — to survive, mitigate risk, and build networks of solidarity during the pandemic.

Authors: Yvonne Su, Tyler Valiquette, David J. Kinitz, and Clara de Oliveira Cunha.

This study explores the use of a virtual case-based community of practice (VCOP) to support trauma care learning among healthcare professionals in Ukraine during armed conflict. Implemented through a collaboration between the Emergency Health Systems Program at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, Project ECHO, and Global Medical Knowledge Alliance, the program connected Ukrainian trauma trainers and international experts through ten interactive virtual sessions focused on case-based discussions. Findings demonstrated high participant engagement, with most participants reporting application of knowledge to clinical practice and teaching, increased professional connectedness, and interest in participating in and leading future sessions. The study highlights the potential of virtual learning models to sustain training and support health workforce capacity in conflict settings.

Authors: Léa Sinno, Yesser Sebeh, Marta Antoniv, Paola Arenas, Nelya Melnitchouk, Katie Murray, Brigg Reilley, Iiris Rinne, Bruce Struminger, Alexandra Zuber and Sean M. Kivlehan

Dynamic Leadership for Humanitarian Leaders helps emerging and established leaders build a practical playbook for leading through crisis, uncertainty, and change. Through case studies, guest interviews, peer discussion, and optional faculty sessions with Dr. Michael VanRooyen, learners practice the skills needed to communicate, negotiate, build teams, manage change, and make decisions when the stakes are high.

The ALIGN team conducted an intensive field visit to Manila, Philippines in March to explore partnerships at the intersection of climate change and health. Through meetings with academic institutions, government agencies, hospital leaders, and local partners, the team identified key opportunities to strengthen climate-informed health planning, leadership training, and resilience efforts across the region. A major theme that emerged was the need to better connect existing scientific tools and data with frontline decision-makers, including local governments and health system leaders. The visit also laid the groundwork for future training initiatives and regional collaboration to support climate-resilient health systems in the Philippines and beyond.

HHI Emergency Health Systems Program

The Emergency Health Systems Program, in collaboration with Project ECHO, GiveInternet, and the Islamic University of Gaza (IUG), implemented a virtual case-based series to support continuity of medical education for fourth- through sixth-year medical students at IUG. The series connected students with international clinicians who have recent experience working in Gaza through interactive case-based discussions.

Over the program period, the series delivered 16 sessions across multiple clinical specialties aligned with the students’ medical curriculum and engaged 131 unique participants. Despite ongoing disruptions to medical education and daily challenges, students remained highly engaged across sessions, with a committed core group attending more than half of the series and actively presenting their own clinical cases. Participant feedback highlighted the role of the series in compensating for disrupted clinical learning, strengthening clinical reasoning, helping students reconnect with their medical journey and fostering connection with the broader medical community.

Our colleagues at the Johns Hopkins Center for Humanitarian Health have released a landmark new report: Health in a World of Crises and Impunity, produced by the CHH–Lancet Commission on Health, Conflict, and Forced Displacement.

The report offers a critical examination of health in contexts of conflict and forced displacement, and is essential reading for those working in humanitarian response, global health research and education, conflict and policy spaces, philanthropy, and human rights.

02/2026 - HHI was honored to host Dr. Christos Christou, former International President of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)/Doctors Without Borders (2019–2025), at Harvard earlier this year.

During his visit, Dr. Christou met with HHI team members to learn more about our global portfolio and joined discussions with staff and faculty on the current state of humanitarian aid, including the challenges facing the sector and the outlook for the future. He also visited the GHP 537: Field Methods in Humanitarian Crises course, where he spoke with students about his career journey and shared insights from leading MSF and delivering emergency medical care in crisis settings around the world.

We are grateful to Dr. Christou for his time, candor, and continued leadership in the humanitarian space.

04/2026 - The Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI) was honored to host Dr. Hanan Balkhy and Miriam Holm of the World Health Organization Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean for a strategic discussion on regional health priorities and opportunities for collaboration.

The conversation focused on shared priorities, including strengthening health systems, responding to emerging public health and humanitarian challenges, and identifying pathways for deeper collaboration across research, training, and humanitarian response.

HHI looks forward to continuing to build on this exchange and advancing joint efforts to improve health outcomes across the region and beyond.

We’re excited to welcome Hannah Kim to the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative team. Hannah is a Boston University alum (B.S. in Advertising) and communications strategist with experience across nonprofit, higher education, and brand marketing. She works on social media, newsletters, websites, and digital community building, with a focus on turning complex research and global work into clear, engaging stories.

Before joining HHI, she led communications for Climate Health CAFE, a public health and climate change research coordinating center, and worked with the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project on advocacy-focused communications around privacy and civil liberties. She’s looking forward to bringing her storytelling and strategy experience to HHI’s work at the intersection of humanitarian response, public health, and global crisis research.

Vittorio Bruni is a final-year DPhil candidate in Migration Studies at the University of Oxford and an ESRC Scholar with an Advanced Quantitative Methods award. He holds an MSc in Public Policy and Human Development from UNU-MERIT/Maastricht University and a BA in Development Economics from the University of Florence.

His research lies at the intersection of development economics, humanitarian aid, and migration, with a focus on experimental and quasi-experimental methods.

His doctoral project examines humanitarian aid reductions and delays in refugee camps, analysing how these dynamics shape household strategies and local markets. Alongside his doctoral work, he has served for four years as a teaching assistant for the MSc in Migration Studies quantitative methods course. He currently works as Researcher and Fieldwork Coordinator with the Refugees Economic Programme at the Oxford Development for International Development (ODID), where he oversees large-scale data collection in displacement settings.

He brings seven years of experience with the International Organization for Migration (IOM), where he led primary research on migration and displacement across South and Central Asia.

Beyond academic publishing, he has written for national and international newspapers and co-founded VEC, an independent magazine published annually in English and Italian.

Geoffrey Anderson is a trauma surgeon at LA General Hospital and an Associate Professor of Clinical Surgery at the University of Southern California Medical School. He did his training at the Massachusetts General Hospital and LA County Hospital and has an MPH from Harvard School of Public Health. Dr Anderson is also a Lt Col in the US Air Force Reserves where he works in critical care air transport. He has research interests in global surgery, surgical education, long-term patient reported outcomes, and the social determinants of health.