Global Humanitarian Assistance (GHA) [to 24 October 2015]
http://www.globalhumanitarianassistance.org/

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Humanitarian Assistance to East and Central Africa
Report Synopsis
Crises in the Middle East (Syria and Iraq), disasters caused by natural hazards in Asia, and Ebola in West Africa have recently dominated the international headlines. This paper looks at the numbers behind what has happened with often less reported humanitarian needs and funding in East and Central Africa.
This paper is a supplement to the Global Humanitarian Assistance (GHA) Report 2015 and was produced as background for a presentation at the Humanitarian Partnership Conference in Nairobi on 15–17 September 2015. It draws on the key questions in the GHA report, providing key facts and figures with a focus on East and Central Africa to inform discussions at the Conference and in other forums.

ODI [to 24 October 2015]
http://www.odi.org/media

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Leaving no one behind: the impact of pro-poor growth
Research reports and studies | October 2015 | Chris Hoy
To address the Sustainable Development Goals’ intention to leave no one behind, countries must move away from a focus on relative inequality to absolute inequality.

A migration crisis? Facts, challenges and possible solutions
Briefing papers | October 2015 | Victoria Metcalfe-Hough
A policy brief examining the current surge in irregular migration to Europe, which outlines concrete actions governments can take to more effectively respond to the crisis.

Financing Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs): enabling implementation
Working and discussion papers | October 2015 | Merylyn Hedger and Smita Nakhooda
This paper reflects on the role for finance in INDCs and how it can shape success or failure in meeting national commitments.

Clinton Foundation [to 24 October 2015]
https://www.clintonfoundation.org/press-releases-and-statements

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Press Release
Too Small to Fail, Coin Laundry Association & Partners Launch First National Effort to Provide Early Learning Resources in Laundromats for Low Income Families
October 22, 2015
“Wash Time is Talk Time” will deploy resources to 5,000 laundromats in underserved communities to help families use laundry time as meaningful opportunities to talk, read, and sing with their young children.

Conrad N. Hilton Foundation [to 24 October2015]
http://www.hiltonfoundation.org/news

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Press Release
Our New Approach to Funding Hospitality Workforce Development
Hospitality October 19, 2015 By Elizabeth Cheung, Justin McAuliffe
The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation has a long history of grantmaking in support of education for the hospitality industry. Acknowledging that the hospitality industry has changed, we recently revised our funding guidelines for our Hospitality Program. Learn how our new guidelines align with our overarching mission of improving the lives of vulnerable and disadvantaged people around the world.

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Chronicle of Philanthropy
October 19, 2015
Opinion
Hilton Prize Offers Important Lessons for Foundations
By Tom Watson
Like past Hilton prizewinners, Landesa — which fights for land-ownership rights — has a very specific mission to fix an often overlooked problem, a track record of accomplishment, committed leaders, and a need for unrestricted money.

IKEA Foundation [to 24 October2015]
http://www.ikeafoundation.org/news/

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IKEA Foundation commits EUR 16 million for programme to improve the lives of one million underprivileged women and girls in India
October 12, 2015
To celebrate the Day of the Girl Child, IKEA Foundation announced a new partnership that aims to provide employment and entrepreneurship opportunities to one million underprivileged women across India. The unique three-year programme will be implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Xyntéo and the India Development Foundation (IDF). The programme is approved by India’s Ministry of Finance.

Even as India has witnessed a decline in women’s participation in the workforce by 10 percentage points between 2005 and 2010, recent estimates from the International Monetary Fund suggest that India’s GDP could expand by 27 percent if the number of female workers increases to the same level as that of men.

Recognizing the importance of improving women’s workforce participation, this programme has three objectives:
:: create a positive impact on the lives and livelihoods of women through training, employment and entrepreneurial skills development,
:: test and establish an innovative model of a public-private partnership that responds to the aspirations and needs of women, and identified needs of the private sector,
:: establish a continuum that connects education, to skills, jobs and growth…

MacArthur Foundation [to 24 October2015]
http://www.macfound.org/

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Publication
New Nations Participating in Cyberespionage
Published October 21, 2015
Smaller, poorer nations are now using spy software, suggesting that recent data leaks and lawsuits have not deterred governments from investing in cyberespionage products, according to a report from Citizen Lab, a recipient of the MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions. The report found a record high 32 “likely government users” of FinFisher, one of the world’s best-known sources of spyware sold exclusively to governments. FinFisher’s products work by infecting target computers and phones, copying messages, recording conversations, and activating webcams.

BMC Medical Ethics
http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmcmedethics/content
(Accessed 24 October2015)

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Research article
Key factors in children’s competence to consent to clinical research
Irma Hein, Pieter Troost, Robert Lindeboom, Marc Benninga, C. Zwaan, Johannes van Goudoever, Ramón Lindauer
BMC Medical Ethics 2015, 16:74 (24 October 2015)
Abstract
Background
Although law is established on a strong presumption that persons younger than a certain age are not competent to consent, statutory age limits for asking children’s consent to clinical research differ widely internationally. From a clinical perspective, competence is assumed to involve many factors including the developmental stage, the influence of parents and peers, and life experience. We examined potential determining factors for children’s competence to consent to clinical research and to what extent they explain the variation in competence judgments.
Methods
From January 1, 2012 through January 1, 2014, pediatric patients aged 6 to 18 years, eligible for clinical research studies were enrolled prospectively at various in- and outpatient pediatric departments. Children’s competence to consent was assessed by MacArthur Competence Assessment Tool for Clinical Research. Potential determining child variables included age, gender, intelligence, disease experience, ethnicity and socio-economic status (SES). We used logistic regression analysis and change in explained variance in competence judgments to quantify the contribution of a child variable to the total explained variance. Contextual factors included risk and complexity of the decision to participate, parental competence judgment and the child’s or parents decision to participate.
Results
Out of 209 eligible patients, 161 were included (mean age, 10.6 years, 47.2 % male). Age, SES, intelligence, ethnicity, complexity, parental competence judgment and trial participation were univariately associated with competence (P < 0.05). Total explained variance in competence judgments was 71.5 %. Only age and intelligence significantly and independently explained the variance in competence judgments, explaining 56.6 % and 12.7 % of the total variance respectively. SES, male gender, disease experience and ethnicity each explained less than 1 % of the variance in competence judgments. Contextual factors together explained an extra 2.8 % (P > 0.05).
Conclusions
Age is the factor that explaines most of to the variance in children’s competence to consent, followed by intelligence. Experience with disease did not affect competence in this study, nor did other variables.

BMC Medicine
http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmcmed/content
(Accessed 24 October2015)

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Correspondence
Role of healthcare workers in early epidemic spread of Ebola: policy implications of prophylactic compared to reactive vaccination policy in outbreak prevention and control
Cordelia Coltart, Anne Johnson, Christopher Whitty BMC Medicine 2015, 13:271 (19 October 2015)
Abstract
Ebola causes severe illness in humans and has epidemic potential. How to deploy vaccines most effectively is a central policy question since different strategies have implications for ideal vaccine profile. More than one vaccine may be needed. A vaccine optimised for prophylactic vaccination in high-risk areas but when the virus is not actively circulating should be safe, well tolerated, and provide long-lasting protection; a two- or three-dose strategy would be realistic. Conversely, a reactive vaccine deployed in an outbreak context for ring-vaccination strategies should have rapid onset of protection with one dose, but longevity of protection is less important.

In initial cases, before an outbreak is recognised, healthcare workers (HCWs) are at particular risk of acquiring and transmitting infection, thus potentially augmenting early epidemics. We hypothesise that many early outbreak cases could be averted, or epidemics aborted, by prophylactic vaccination of HCWs. This paper explores the potential impact of prophylactic versus reactive vaccination strategies of HCWs in preventing early epidemic transmissions. To do this, we use the limited data available from Ebola epidemics (current and historic) to reconstruct transmission trees and illustrate the theoretical impact of these vaccination strategies. Our data suggest a substantial potential benefit of prophylactic versus reactive vaccination of HCWs in preventing early transmissions. We estimate that prophylactic vaccination with a coverage >99 % and theoretical 100 % efficacy could avert nearly two-thirds of cases studied; 75 % coverage would still confer clear benefit (40 % cases averted), but reactive vaccination would be of less value in the early epidemic.

A prophylactic vaccination campaign for front-line HCWs is not a trivial undertaking; whether to prioritise long-lasting vaccines and provide prophylaxis to HCWs is a live policy question. Prophylactic vaccination is likely to have a greater impact on the mitigation of future epidemics than reactive strategies and, in some cases, might prevent them. However, in a confirmed outbreak, reactive vaccination would be an essential humanitarian priority.

The value of HCW Ebola vaccination is often only seen in terms of personal protection of the HCW workforce. A prophylactic vaccination strategy is likely to bring substantial additional benefit by preventing early transmission and might abort some epidemics. This has implications both for policy and for the optimum product profile for vaccines currently in development.

BMC Public Health
http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmcpublichealth/content
(Accessed 24 October2015)

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Research article
Development and promotion of a national website to improve dissemination of information related to the prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission (PMTCT) in Tanzania
Gudila Stephan, Mary Hoyt, Deborah Storm, Sylvia Shirima, Charles Matiko, Emmanuel Matechi BMC Public Health 2015, 15:1077 (22 October 2015)

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Research article
A gloomy picture: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials reveals disappointing effectiveness of programs aiming at preventing child maltreatment
Saskia Euser, Lenneke Alink, Marije Stoltenborgh, Marian Bakermans-Kranenburg, Marinus van IJzendoorn
BMC Public Health 2015, 15:1068 (18 October 2015)
Abstract
Background
Consistent findings about the effectiveness of parent programs to prevent or reduce child maltreatment are lacking.
Methods
In the present meta-analysis we synthesized findings from 27 independent samples from randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on the effectiveness of 20 different intervention programs aimed at (i) preventing the occurrence of child maltreatment in the general population or with at-risk but non-maltreating families, or (ii) reducing the incidence of child maltreatment in maltreating families.
Results
A significant combined effect on maltreatment (d = 0.13; N = 4883) disappeared after the trim-and-fill approach that takes into account publication bias against smaller studies without significant outcomes. However, moderator analyses showed that larger effect sizes were found for more recent studies, studies with smaller samples, programs that provide parent training instead of only support, programs that target maltreating instead of at-risk families, and programs with a moderate length (6–12 months) or a moderate number of sessions (16–30).
Conclusions
More RCTs are needed to further unravel which factors are associated with program effectiveness. Because currently existing programs appeared to only reduce and not prevent child maltreatment, efforts in the field of preventive intervention should also focus on the development and testing of preventive programs for families at risk for child maltreatment.

Health Research Policy and Systems
http://www.health-policy-systems.com/content
[Accessed 24 October2015]

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Research
SDH-NET: a South–North-South collaboration to build sustainable research capacities on social determinants of health in low- and middle-income countries
Lucinda Cash-Gibson, German Guerra, V Salgado-de-Snyder Health Research Policy and Systems 2015, 13:45 (22 October 2015)
Abstract
Background
It is desirable that health researchers have the ability to conduct research on health equity and contribute to the development of their national health system and policymaking processes. However, in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), there is a limited capacity to conduct this type of research due to reasons mostly associated with the status of national (health) research systems. Building sustainable research capacity in LMICs through the triangulation of South–North-South (S-N-S) collaborative networks seems to be an effective way to maximize limited national resources to strengthen these capacities. This article describes how a collaborative project (SDH-Net), funded by the European Commission, has successfully designed a study protocol and a S-N-S collaborative network to effectively support research capacity building in LMICs, specifically in the area of social determinants of health (SDH); this project seeks to elaborate on the vital role of global collaborative networks in strengthening this practice.
Methods
The implementation of SDH-Net comprised diverse activities developed in three phases. Phase 1: national level mapping exercises were conducted to assess the needs for SDH capacity building or strengthening in local research systems. Four strategic areas were defined, namely research implementation and system performance, social appropriation of knowledge, institutional and national research infrastructure, and research skills and training/networks. Phase 2: development of tools to address the identified capacity building needs, as well as knowledge management and network strengthening activities. Phase 3: identifying lessons learned in terms of research ethics, and how policies can support the capacity building process in SDH research.
Results
The implementation of the protocol has led the network to design innovative tools for strengthening SDH research capacities, under a successful S-N-S collaboration that included national mapping reports, a global open-access learning platform with tools and resources, ethical guidelines for research, policy recommendations, and academic contributions to the global SDH discourse.
Conclusions
The effective triangulation of S-N-S partnerships can be of high value in building sustainable research capacity in LMICs. If designed appropriately, these multicultural, multi-institutional, and multidisciplinary collaborations can enable southern and northern academics to contextualize global research according to their national realities.

JAMA
October 20, 2015, Vol 314, No. 15
http://jama.jamanetwork.com/issue.aspx

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The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement and Implications for Access to Essential Medicines
Jing Luo, MD; Aaron S. Kesselheim, MD, JD, MPH
[Initial text]
This Viewpoint discusses the importance of patent protection and its role in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement.

After a difficult legislative battle, President Obama signed into law Trade Promotion Authority on June 29, 2015. The legislation allows for an up-or-down vote with no amendments in Congress for international trade agreements such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement. The TPP Agreement includes 12 Asia-Pacific countries (United States, Canada, Mexico, Peru, Chile, Japan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Australia, and New Zealand) with a collective trading power amounting to 40% of the global gross domestic product. The TPP Agreement is still being negotiated; recently, in a meeting of trade ministers in Maui, Hawaii, negotiators failed to finalize the text of the Agreement due in large part to disagreement regarding intellectual property protections for pharmaceutical products.1

Journal of Public Health Policy
Volume 36, Issue 4 (November 2015)
http://www.palgrave-journals.com/jphp/journal/v36/n4/index.html

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Climate change: Assessing effects on health and wealth of populations
Anthony Robbins
Excerpt
Can the health consequences of climate change be at the center of discussions at this year’s climate summit in Paris? Very possibly. Pope Francis’ encyclical letter and The Lancet’s excellent report on the topic give us hope.1, 2 Now the World Federation of Public Health Associations (whose Federation’s Pages we publish in JPHP) is preparing to participate in the twenty-first Conference of the Parties, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The Federation and its Environmental Health Working Group have developed a strategy to put population health front and center in the Paris discussions. We commend them…

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Viewpoint: Counterfeit medicines and substandard medicines: Different problems requiring different solutions
Ellen ‘t Hoen and Fernando Pascual
J Public Health Pol 36: 384-389; advance online publication, July 16, 2015; doi:10.1057/jphp.2015.22
Ensuring that all effective and necessary medicines are affordable, available, and of assured quality will combat falsified and substandard medicines. The authors explain how and why this will protect consumers.

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Global prevention and control of NCDs: Limitations of the standard approach
Neil Pearce, Shah Ebrahim, Martin McKee, Peter Lamptey, Mauricio L Barreto, Don Matheson, Helen Walls, Sunia Foliaki, J Jaime Miranda, Oyun Chimeddamba, Luis Garcia-Marcos, Andy Haines, and Paolo Vineis
J Public Health Pol 36: 408-425; advance online publication, September 17, 2015; doi:10.1057/jphp.2015.29
The standard approach to prevention and control of non-communicable disease, called ‘25×25’ has the benefit of simplicity, but also has major weaknesses described herein.

The Lancet
Oct 24, 2015 Volume 386 Number 10004 p1599-1706
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/issue/current

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Editorial
Ebola: forgotten but not gone?
The Lancet
On Oct 16, two new Ebola cases were reported in Guinea, indicating the continuing danger of Ebola virus even after progress in bringing the west African Ebola outbreak under control. The outbreak in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone caught the world badly unprepared during 2013–14, resulting in more than 11 000 deaths. WHO responded slowly to this major challenge in countries with sparse health provision, and disease control measures worked imperfectly. During 2015, lost ground has been made up by provision of care for those infected and at risk of infection, yet recent developments illustrate the continuing health risks for those who have been infected.
Despite previous outbreaks in sub-Saharan Africa, limited understanding of the physiological effects of Ebola virus has compromised preventive and therapeutic efforts. However, a recent study on 100 Ebola survivors in Sierra Leone has shown the importance of continuing research by indicating that viral RNA can be detected in semen up to 9 months after overt recovery from infection. A study in The Lancet Infectious Diseases on 49 survivors of a 2007 Ebola outbreak in Uganda reported ocular deficits and hearing loss, among other health problems, which persisted for 2 years. On Oct 6, Pauline Cafferkey, a Scottish nurse who contracted Ebola early in 2015 and was thought to have made a full recovery after treatment, was rehospitalised with severe health problems. At the time of writing, Ms Cafferkey’s condition was reported to be serious but stable, with disease transmission unlikely. Post-Ebola discharge criteria are discussed by Nazaria Bevilacqua and colleagues in The Lancet Global Health.
Salutary lessons are still being learned from the west African Ebola outbreak—opportunities for and benefits of research will be greatest in the communities most affected. WHO’s Director-General Margaret Chan believes the world is “dangerously ill-prepared” for further infectious disease outbreaks spread through the air or contagious during an incubation period. Strengthening of and investment in health systems in countries most at risk of infectious disease outbreaks are key to prevention, and in the worst case scenarios control, of health emergencies.

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Comment
Essential medicines are still essential
Andy L Gray, Veronika J Wirtz, Ellen F M ‘t Hoen, Michael R Reich, Hans V Hogerzeil
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(15)00514-0
On Oct 21, WHO published the full report of the 20th Expert Committee on the Selection and Use of Essential Medicines,1 with its new WHO Model List of Essential Medicines (EML).2 The new list includes recently developed medicines for drug-resistant tuberculosis (bedaquiline and delamanid), a number of new cancer treatments (such as imatinib, rituximab, and trastuzumab), and, perhaps most controversially, new direct-acting antiviral drugs (DAA) for the treatment of hepatitis C (sofosbuvir, simeprevir, daclatasvir, ledipasvir, and ombitasvir).

New England Journal of Medicine
October 22, 2015 Vol. 373 No. 17
http://www.nejm.org/toc/nejm/medical-journal

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Perspective
Caring for the Wave of Refugees in Munich
Thomas Nicolai, M.D., Oliver Fuchs, M.D., and Erika von Mutius, M.D.
N Engl J Med 2015; 373:1593-1595 October 22, 2015 DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp1512139
[No abstract]

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Editorial
Declining Malaria Transmission and Pregnancy Outcomes in Southern Mozambique
Nicholas J. White, F.R.S.
N Engl J Med 2015; 373:1670-1671 October 22, 2015 DOI: 10.1056/NEJMe1511278
Free Full Text

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Changing Trends in P. falciparum Burden, Immunity, and Disease in Pregnancy
Mayor and Others
N Engl J Med 2015; 373:1607-1617 October 22, 2015 DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1406459
Free Full Text

PLoS Medicine
http://www.plosmedicine.org/
(Accessed 24 October2015)

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Monitoring Mortality in Forced Migrants—Can Bayesian Methods Help Us to Do Better with the (Little) Data We Have?
Peter Heudtlass, Niko Speybroeck, Debarati Guha-Sapir
Essay | published 20 Oct 2015 | PLOS Medicine
10.1371/journal.pmed.1001887

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Effect of Health Risk Assessment and Counselling on Health Behaviour and Survival in Older People: A Pragmatic Randomised Trial
Andreas E. Stuck, André Moser, Ueli Morf, Urban Wirz, Joseph Wyser, Gerhard Gillmann, Stephan Born, Marcel Zwahlen, Steve Iliffe, Danielle Harari, Cameron Swift, John C. Beck, Matthias Egger
Research Article | published 19 Oct 2015 | PLOS Medicine
10.1371/journal.pmed.1001889

PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases
http://www.plosntds.org/
(Accessed 24 October2015)

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Cholera Transmission in Ouest Department of Haiti: Dynamic Modeling and the Future of the Epidemic
Alexander Kirpich, Thomas A. Weppelmann, Yang Yang, Afsar Ali, J. Glenn Morris, Ira M. Longini
Research Article | published 21 Oct 2015 | PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases
10.1371/journal.pntd.0004153

PLoS One
http://www.plosone.org/
[Accessed 24 October2015]

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Community Participation in Health Systems Research: A Systematic Review Assessing the State of Research, the Nature of Interventions Involved and the Features of Engagement with Communities
Asha S. George, Vrinda Mehra, Kerry Scott, Veena Sriram
Research Article | published 23 Oct 2015 | PLOS ONE
10.1371/journal.pone.0141091
Abstract
Background
Community participation is a major principle of people centered health systems, with considerable research highlighting its intrinsic value and strategic importance. Existing reviews largely focus on the effectiveness of community participation with less attention to how community participation is supported in health systems intervention research.
Objective
To explore the extent, nature and quality of community participation in health systems intervention research in low- and middle-income countries.
Methodology
We searched for peer-reviewed, English language literature published between January 2000 and May 2012 through four electronic databases. Search terms combined the concepts of community, capability/participation, health systems research and low- and middle-income countries. The initial search yielded 3,092 articles, of which 260 articles with more than nominal community participation were identified and included. We further excluded 104 articles due to lower levels of community participation across the research cycle and poor description of the process of community participation. Out of the remaining 160 articles with rich community participation, we further examined 64 articles focused on service delivery and governance within health systems research.
Results
Most articles were led by authors in high income countries and many did not consistently list critical aspects of study quality. Articles were most likely to describe community participation in health promotion interventions (78%, 202/260), even though they were less participatory than other health systems areas. Community involvement in governance and supply chain management was less common (12%, 30/260 and 9%, 24/260 respectively), but more participatory. Articles cut across all health conditions and varied by scale and duration, with those that were implemented at national scale or over more than five years being mainstreamed by government. Most articles detailed improvements in service availability, accessibility and acceptability, with fewer efforts focused on quality, and few designs able to measure impact on health outcomes. With regards to participation, most articles supported community’s in implementing interventions (95%, n = 247/260), in contrast to involving communities in identifying and defining problems (18%, n = 46/260). Many articles did not discuss who in communities participated, with just over a half of the articles disaggregating any information by sex. Articles were largely under theorized, and only five mentioned power or control. Majority of the articles (57/64) described community participation processes as being collaborative with fewer describing either community mobilization or community empowerment. Intrinsic individual motivations, community-level trust, strong external linkages, and supportive institutional processes facilitated community participation, while lack of training, interest and information, along with weak financial sustainability were challenges. Supportive contextual factors included decentralization reforms and engagement with social movements.
Conclusion
Despite positive examples, community participation in health systems interventions was variable, with few being truly community directed. Future research should more thoroughly engage with community participation theory, recognize the power relations inherent in community participation, and be more realistic as to how much communities can participate and cognizant of who decides that.

A Mumps Outbreak in Vojvodina, Serbia, in 2012 Underlines the Need for Additional Vaccination Opportunities for Young Adults
Jasminka Nedeljković, Vesna Kovačević-Jovanović, Vesna Milošević, Zorica Šeguljev, Vladimir Petrovic, Claude P. Muller, Judith M. Hübschen
Research Article | published 23 Oct 2015 | PLOS ONE
10.1371/journal.pone.0139815

Science
16 October 2015 vol 350, issue 6258, pages 249-352
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/current

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Policy Forum
Ocean
Making waves: The science and politics of ocean protection
Jane Lubchenco and Kirsten Grorud-Colvert
Science 23 October 2015: 382-383.
Published online 15 October 2015 [DOI:10.1126/science.aad5443]
Mature science reveals opportunities for policy progress
Summary
The ocean has recently taken a more prominent role on the international policy stage. In June, the United Nations (UN) initiated development of a treaty for conservation of biodiversity on the High Seas. One of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the UN in September focuses on the ocean. In early October, the second Our Ocean Conference (OO-2015) provided a high-profile platform for nations to tout progress or make promises to protect and restore the ocean. We discuss recent progress in creating and enforcing strongly protected areas, and we emphasize the need to accelerate the pace and draw on scientific knowledge

Journal of ERW and Mine Action
Vol. 14: Iss. 3, Article 21.
The Growing Threat to Humanitarian Operations
Adrian King, Allen-Vanguard
Abstract
Deminers and other humanitarian-aid workers around the world, though previously viewed as off-limits, have become targets of distrust and even violence by certain groups. This article explores the reasons for this shift in ideology, and what action humanitarian organizations must take in order to protect their personnel.

Tradable Refugee-Admission Quotas (TRAQs), the Syrian Crisis and the New European Agenda on Migration
IZA Discussion Paper No. 9418
October 2015
Jesús Fernández-Huertas Moraga Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and IZA
Hillel Rapoport, PSE, University Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne, MPC, European University Institute and IZA
Abstract
The Syrian Civil War gave rise to the largest refugee flight reaching Europe since the Yugoslavian wars in the 1990s. The crisis evidenced the deficiencies of the European Union
Asylum Policy, which struggled both to offer solutions to Syrian refugees and to efficiently allocate costs across Member States. We draw on previous theoretical work to simulate how a system of tradable refugee-admission quotas coupled with a matching mechanism assigning refugees to their preferred destinations and destinations to their preferred types of
refugees would give more flexibility to Member States while respecting refugee rights and preferences.