Building upon existing initiatives, Johns Hopkins Center for Humanitarian Health aims to contribute to the ongoing efforts to improve public health information in emergencies by addressing two major challenges in measuring the effectiveness of humanitarian assistance: the lack of standardized indicators and methods; and the prominence given to output indicators instead of outcome and impact indicators. This work aims to define core public health indicators and to monitor the effectiveness of humanitarian action in out-of-camp humanitarian settings according to different contexts. The core indicators are intended to: • Measure outcomes in terms of population health status and health services provision. • Be operational in purpose. • Inform decision makers at district/national levels to guide response. • Define proxy indicators according to measurement challenges in different contexts. Project outputs will be a field-piloted set of core indicators according to different contexts, and an operational guide on measurement methods and performance analysis. They will be widely disseminated among humanitarian actors.