Our Mission
The Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI) is a university-wide center involving multiple entities within the Harvard community that provide expertise in public health, medicine, social science, management, and other disciplines to promote evidence-based approaches to humanitarian assistance.
The mission of the Initiative is to relieve human suffering in war and disaster by advancing the science and practice of humanitarian response worldwide. HHI fosters interdisciplinary collaboration in order to:
- Improve the effectiveness of humanitarian strategies for relief, protection and prevention;
- Instill human rights principles and practices in these strategies;
- Educate and train the next generation of humanitarian leaders.
Issue in Focus
HHI Leads Innovation in Crisis Mapping
Crisis mapping initiatives and early warning systems hold promise for providing humanitarian actors with much needed tools for conflict prevention, mitigation, and response. Using mainstream technologies, HHI is working to refine tools and promote innovative practices to save lives.
A recent blog post by HHI Fellow Patrick Meier provides key insights into the development of this humanitarian technology. Find out more in: "A Brief History of Crisis Mapping."
Homepage News
HHI's Gregg Greenough in the Journal Science
HHI's Director of Research was recently profiled in Science's Science Careers.
HHI Holds Darfur Disaster Simulation
Events
Learning from the Rwandan Genocide, Remembering Alison Des Forges
April 30, 2009 6PM
Tthe Harvard University community honored the life of human rights advocate Alison Des Forges.
More Events