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The new joint partnership aims to promote the use of evidence in the humanitarian sector.

This is now an exciting opportunity to continue building on this partnership, providing much needed training internationally, bringing humanitarians and academics together and using social media to communicate the value of generating and using evidence in the humanitarian sector.
- Dr Kamal Mahtani, University of Oxford.

Evidence Aid, an international charity based in Oxford, and the University of Oxford's Centre for Evidence Based Medicine (CEBM), are to formally launch their partnership with an event taking place at Rewley House in Oxford, on Thursday 27th October from 5.00pm. 

Professor Mukesh Kapila CBE, Professor of Global Health and Humanitarian Affairs at the University of Manchester will be the keynote speaker. Professor Mukesh Kapila recently drew international attention at the World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul, when he declared that “effectiveness is a moral issue and a duty” this summer. He will be addressing the moral dimension to evidence-based humanitarianism.

With more than $24 billion (USD) is spent annually on international humanitarian aid. Since Evidence Aid was established in December 2004, nearly 1.6 billion people have been affected by disasters globally, with the estimated total cost of damages totalling over $1.3 trillion (USD). Despite this real and pressing need, robust evidence of the effects of interventions in humanitarian response is hard to find, yet recognition of the need for evidence-based decision-making is increasing.

The sector is increasingly seeking to improve effectiveness and ‘value for money’ and recognises that it needs to know what works and what doesn’t in order to do so. There is a need for more evidence and a more evidence-based approach to humanitarian action. Those who wish to pursue this are faced by information in tens of thousands of reports spread across thousands of journals, books and websites with a wide range of methodologies and sometimes conflicting information. They need better access to high-quality collections of the evidence, highlighting its relevance to them.

Jeroen Jansen, Director of Evidence Aid, said: “Within the humanitarian sector many talk about an evidence-based approach, but too often this seems relegated to the background and appears to be mostly an afterthought within wordy presentations of lofty commitments.”

Dr Kamal R. Mahtani, a GP and the Deputy Director at CEBM added: “Evidence Aid and CEBM are already collaborating on joint research projects. This is now an exciting opportunity to continue building on this partnership, providing much needed training internationally, bringing humanitarians and academics together and using social media to communicate the value of generating and using evidence in the humanitarian sector”.

The evening will be chaired by Evidence Aid founding Trustee and Treasurer, Lady Deborah Dixon and the panel will include: Professor Mike Clarke of Queen’s University Belfast and founder of Evidence Aid, Jeroen Jansen, and Dr Kamal R. Mahtani.

Invited guests are being drawn from humanitarian agencies and supporting organisations, which will include academia, NGOs, INGOs, government, publishing companies, as examples, together with Oxford students on related educational modules. 

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