Product/Service Development

Our innovation addresses the global cooking crisis plus related thermal energy needs like space heating and water sanitation. Those living in conflict regions are often among the energy impoverished. In those desperate situations, almost any combustible material may be used as fuel, even if it is dangerous, creates harmful emissions, or results in illegal deforestation. Sun Buckets is an energy platform that sources free, renewable energy in a way that is safe and free of emissions.

Children and young people with disabilities are at increased risk of illness, injury, abuse and death during humanitarian emergencies. Humanitarian standards emphasise participatory, inclusive humanitarian action, but humanitarian actors struggle to effectively reach people with disabilities – especially children and young people. Innovative approaches are urgently needed to improve access to health services and supplies for children with disabilities in humanitarian settings.

Thousands of people with disabilities (PWDs) live in three refugee camps and the surrounding communities in Kigoma, Tanzania. Faced with financial, material and human resource shortages in and out of the camps, PWDs in need of prosthetic limbs cannot access appropriate, specialised prosthetics and orthotics (P&O) services. Without the appropriate assistive devices or care, affected PWDs struggle to complete day-to-day tasks, like traveling, collecting food and earning a living.

Due to conflict, IDPs in Zamzam have limited access to land, water, nutritional food and income. IDPs have been living in the camp since 2014, with humanitarian funding gradually decreasing, but the levels of food insecurity and malnutrition remaining high. The proposed hydroponics project will provide IDPs with new ways of growing food and animal fodder for both own consumption and sale, thus improving their food and nutrition status as well as offering them a much needed income source.

The main problem addressed by the innovation is dependency of health systems in conflict on unreliable diesel fuel for electricity and mobility, as well as the shortage of sufficient qualified human resources. In conflict, unreliable energy sources could prevent the health system from performing its core functions. Likewise, qualified human resource become scarce as many flee the conflict areas. Those two problems as part of one core issue: health system operational resources deficiency.

The occurrence of difficult-to-control epidemics of infections is a major threat in Syria (1). The concern involves both hospital-acquired Gram-negative bacterial infections (2, 3), and community-acquired infections (such as polio, measles, tuberculosis, hepatitis, leishmaniosis) (4). Maintaining appropriate clinical diagnostic services is usually a neglected aspect in war-affected countries. The extreme shortage of skilled laboratory doctors and technicians is a key factor behind this problem.

Maintaining electricity supply for life-saving health services is a continuous challenge in humanitarian settings where energy supplies are regularly disrupted. Renewable energy systems and backup electricity for when diesel generators cannot be used are prohibitively expensive and not versatile enough for humanitarian purposes. Without adequately mobile, sustainable, and low-cost options for electricity storage and supply, health facilities risk interruption to life-saving activities.

SurgiBox addresses three problems team members saw while delivering surgery in conflict zones and humanitarian crises. 1) Patient safety - high infection risks in nonsterile facilities. 2) Provider safety - infection risks worsened by inadequate personal protective equipment, as highlighted by but not limited to the Ebola crisis. 3) Surgical capacity - facilities are targets of attack and teams must be nimble, so minimizing footprint infrastructure and simplifying supply chains is key.

Civilians are increasingly the target of hostilities and represent the majority of casualties in current conflicts due to lack of personal protection and greater vulnerability to injury – often from explosive weapons. Mass casualty response and ongoing wound care is difficult because of shortages in medical supplies and personnel. Injury and poor hygiene in austere care settings (conflict as well as disasters and poverty) lead to antibiotic resistant infection and the loss of limbs and lives.

One of the most severe form of malnutrition, acute malnutrition remains a significant problem throughout the developing world. The Community-based management of acute malnutrition (CMAM) approach attempts to address acute malnutrition in scale by reducing the cost of treatment and at the same time maximizing coverage through community engagement. But this is not enough. It is necessary to provide tools so that the community has a more active role in solving the problem.