Humanitarian Lives Saved Tool (LiST) Approach Guidance Document

Background

Effectiveness of interventions and their cost-effectiveness in humanitarian settings are important given the increasing number, magnitude and complexity of emergencies combined with scarce and precious funding. Until recently, guidance on which humanitarian interventions can save the largest number of persons’ lives at the most effective cost by level of resources available did not exist.

What is the H-LiST approach?

The Humanitarian Lives Saved Tool (H-LiST) approach is an evidence-based, step-by- step process developed for use in humanitarian settings to provide recommendations on which maternal and child health, nutrition and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) interventions, at specified coverage levels, can save the most maternal and child lives. Powered by the Lives Saved Tool (LiST)1, with some adjustments to contextualize results to humanitarian settings, the approach also includes guidance on costing activities to achieve the specified intervention coverage levels.

Scope

H-LiST is an approach to prioritizing MNCH, nutrition and WASH interventions
based on which save the most maternal and child lives (compared to other included interventions). It is a methodology for identifying which activities can help you achieve increases in coverage in your LMIC setting in order to save the most maternal and child lives as well as a process to identify which additional resources you need in order to implement the activities you have identified. It can be used in any type of acute or protracted low- and middle-income humanitarian setting (camp/settlement, urban areas, etc.) as well as with any population affected by an emergency, whether it be refugees, IDPs or others. For an overview of purposes for which the H-LiST approach is not suitable, see Panel 1.

1 LiST is a multi-cause model of mortality that estimates the impact of scaling key maternal, newborn, child health (MNCH), nutrition and WASH interventions in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). LiST was developed by the Institute for International Programs at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health (JHSPH) and is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

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