Paper short abstract:

In this paper we argue that a key avenue for an effective integration of anthropological insights into existing epidemic response structures is to create interdisciplinary communities of practice that link anthropologists and other social scientists and epidemic responders.

Paper long abstract:

In this paper we argue that a key avenue for an effective integration of anthropological insights into existing epidemic response structures is to create interdisciplinary communities of practice that link anthropologists and other social scientists and epidemic responders. Using the Social Science in Humanitarian Action Platform (SSHAP) fellowship programme as a case study, we explore the potential impacts of supporting academics, humanitarian practitioners and policymakers to increase competencies and gain additional experience in sourcing, generating and applying social science research in real-time during crises. The fellowship programme has run twice in 2021, hosting a total of 20 fellows (half of them social scientists, half of them practitioners) from West Africa, East and Southern Africa, South Asia, Latin America and Caribbean and Pacific. The main tenets of the fellowship are (i) building capacity in operationalising anthropological and social science evidence- both from the side of anthropologist to generate operationally relevant intelligence and from the side of practitioners be able to incorporate more holistic interventions (ii) expanding dialogues between anthropologists and practitioners and developing networks, (iii) building epidemic preparedness.

The question we aim to answer in this paper is whether the creation of these interdisciplinary communities of practice can led to increased uptake of anthropological intelligence, a greater use of anthropological approaches in epidemic response, and a greater capacity of social scientists to produce operationally relevant data. In turn these networks of social scientists and epidemic response practitioners would be able to be with the ‘finger on the pulse’ at a local level, highlighting emerging diseases and problems related to context-blind interventions. Thus, these communities of practice fostered by these fellowships would contribute to achieving effective context- adapted epidemic responses.