The Humanitarian Emergency Settings Perceived Needs Scale (HESPER) is now published
The World Health Organisation and the King’s College in London have just released a publication about assessing the perceived needs of people affected by humanitarian emergencies. The report, titled "The Humanitarian Emergency Settings Perceived Needs Scale (HESPER)", aims to provide a quick, scientifically robust way of assessing the perceived serious needs of people affected by large-scale humanitarian emergencies, such as war, conflict or major natural disaster.
The HESPER Scale was developed in order to fill several gaps in the humanitarian field. HAP International contributed to the report, in particular with data collection in Sudan. The report enables needs assessments to be based directly on the views of people affected by humanitarian emergencies, and provides a more accurate picture of the serious problems with which the overall emergency-affected population wants help.
The HESPER Scale is applicable to a wide range of humanitarian settings, including those caused by natural events (such as earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, volcanoes, hurricanes, droughts or epidemics), as well as during war or other large-scale conflict. The scale can be used in acute or chronic humanitarian situations, urban or rural settings, and camp or community contexts. Whilst the scale is designed to be used in low- and middle-income countries as this is where most largescale disasters occur, it may potentially also have value in large disasters in high-income countries (e.g. involving population displacements such as after Hurricane Katrina).
For more information, download The Humanitarian Emergency Settings Perceived Needs Scale (pdf, 1.8 Mb)
