Background
Though the public health community has increasingly come to recognize the contribution of non-communicable diseases to morbidity and mortality during emergencies, there remains a dearth of journals focusing on NCDs in humanitarian contexts. As such, NCDs in humanitarian emergencies are less well studied and NCD programming is not well integrated as a component of emergency response.
Furthermore, though “innovation” is often used simply as a buzzword, the frontline volunteers, agents, and other community workers are often innovators or witnesses to innovation in the truest sense. Creating and testing solutions to complex problems with limited resources in challenging environments, these agents of change are also the curators of knowledge that is vital to ensuring well-being, resilience, and saving lives in the communities within which they work. However, these voices are often missing in the conversation.
Aim
This journal aims to provide a platform through which innovators in general and the NCD in humanitarian spaces in particular can share experiences and knowledge that will inform the development and implementation of solutions to (1) reduce the burden of NCDs in emergencies and (2) better support communities facing humanitarian crises (3) report initiatives and innovations at the grass-roots by community workers . Critically, this journal will allow for insights at the grass-roots level to be disseminated globally and will provide space for contributors to share both their successes and failures in the field.
Scope of the Journal
The journal will publish case studies, technical reports, and clinical studies that contribute to: (1) the understanding, assessment, and management of non-communicable diseases in humanitarian contexts and (2) innovative solutions to support communities experiencing man-made, natural, or complex humanitarian emergencies and in development sector for cross learning, particularly those characterized by large population displacements. The journal will prioritize case studies and contributions from frontline workers and others working at the grass-roots level across sectors.
Priority topics for the journal include, but are not limited to:
- Success and failure case studies
- Field-based innovative experiences and initiatives
- Health impact of disasters, primary focus on NCDs
- Climate change and NCDs
- Mass emergencies, causalities, and response, especially for NCDs
- Policy and advocacy for NCDs and humanitarian response
- Screening and referral mechanisms for NCDs in emergencies
- Epidemiology of NCDs in emergencies
- Nutrition, overweight, obesity in emergencies.
- Hunger, food security, and NCDs in emergencies
- Mental disorders in emergencies
- Mental health issues in rescue workers
- Assessment, diagnosis, and management of NCDs
- NCD lifestyle risk factors within emergency-affected populations (e.g., smoking, drinking and lack of exercise)
- Development disorders in children in emergencies.
- Operational research in emergencies
- Good governance in NCD management
- Health system strengthening for NCDs in emergencies.
- Health economics for NCD in emergencies.
- Nutrition in emergencies for NCDs.
