Project lead
Esther Charlesworth
Summary
Building a research network in the global humanitarian shelter and public health sectors [GAHSPH]
The aim of the proposed GAHSPH symposium (co-hosted by RMIT & UNHCR) was to identify how innovations in refugee housing design can improve the health outcomes of its user’s. The significance of the project was in building research collaboration between the (often ‘siloed’) shelter, education and public health sectors.
While there are, innovative ideas emerging continually to solve humanitarian problems in the fields of education, health and shelter, a lack of global collaboration across these disciplinary sectors means the potential impact of these ideas is often lost or goes unfunded. The GASPH symposium was both an ambitious and industry-led research project that aimed to bridge this sectoral gap that also lead to the submission of my 2017 Laureate application: “Towards a Humanitarian Architecture: Designing shelter for communities displaced by conflict and disaster”.
Through the platform of the emerging GASPH research network, RMIT academics collaborated with leading shelter and health agencies (including UNHCR and UNISDR) in discussing future policy agendas on how the future design of refugee housing might be radically improved to ensure better health outcomes, globally.
Outcomes of the symposium included:
1. Expanding RMIT research capacity in the humanitarian sector, through partnering with UNHCR and UNISDR to build a network of humanitarian agencies that can collaborate on future projects in the shelter and health fields
2. Translating the findings of the GASPH research network into a 2017 ARC Laureate application: “Towards a Humanitarian Architecture: Designing shelter for communities displaced by conflict and disaster”.
