Abstract
BackgroundIn order to elicit the knowledge, experience, and attitudes of individuals involved in disaster response with regard to evidence-based best practices, Evidence Aid and its institutional partners, Georgetown University and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, carried out a Policy Delphi study in 2015–2016.MethodsPurposive and snowball methods were used to select study participants. The Delphi study comprised two rounds of iterative questions, with the questionnaires completed online. In addition, participants at the Evidence Aid conference in November 2016 discussed the findings in focus groups. Excel was used to analyze the quantitative data and Glaser and Strauss (1967) to analyze the qualitative data.ResultsThirty-six participants responded to the first round of the study, 165 responded to the second round, and 30 participated in the focus group discussions. The salient findings include 1) ensuring that all key stakeholders are engaged in planning for and responding to disasters in a collaborative, coordinated manner—including local community members; 2) using, insofar as possible, evidence-based responses; 3) increasing and strengthening research to ensure that such data are available; and 4) addressing ethical, legal and social issues throughout the planning, immediate response, and post-disaster periods.ConclusionsRecent humanitarian disasters, due to natural and man-made hazards or a combination of the two, reinforce the need for more effective, efficient, humane responses at the local, national and international levels. This study has yielded findings that can be used to strengthen planning and response by taking into account, where possible, evidence based on research that has been carried out with the engagement of community members and with support by key stakeholders. The most effective means of facilitating the development and implementation of consistent, coordinated policies and practices might be for the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction to take the lead in engaging key organizations in the required discussions and collaborations.
Highlights
In order to elicit the knowledge, experience, and attitudes of individuals involved in disaster response with regard to evidence-based best practices, Evidence Aid and its institutional partners, Georgetown University and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, carried out a Policy Delphi study in 2015–2016
The purpose of this study was to engage a wide range of key stakeholders in dialogue regarding various elements of disaster response, including, for example, evidence for best practice, approaches to improving investment with systematic review analysis of evidence, identification of gaps in the evidence base; and factors that impact on effective disaster response
Participants were selected by the study-planning group using a purposive sampling method; that is, we identified individuals who had published in the field of disaster/humanitarian response, who were public officials or representatives of Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) engaged in the field, or who had participated in Evidence Aid conferences or other events related to disaster/humanitarian response
Summary
In order to elicit the knowledge, experience, and attitudes of individuals involved in disaster response with regard to evidence-based best practices, Evidence Aid and its institutional partners, Georgetown University and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, carried out a Policy Delphi study in 2015–2016. Disaster planning and response has been largely based on long-standing practices, notwithstanding the fact that for more than a decade there have been calls for evidencebased practices Jillson et al BMC Health Services Research (2019) 19:274 defined) in dialogue regarding a single issue or multiple issues related to a particular topic. The Policy Delphi approach entails a series of rounds of iterative, structured dialogues (through mail or e-mail, questionnaires, meetings or a combination of these), with each building on the other. The responses are summarized and used as a basis for the questions posed in the succeeding rounds. Questions may be added to move toward a rich and substantive dialogue in the study
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