GCRF_NF100 PPE & Refugees: dealing with a crisis by building livelihoods

2020年3月，联合国难民署联系我们，要求我们在扎塔里难民营提供个人防护设备，在我们的英国大学和难民营使用数字印刷和缝纫功能。我们的迅速反应意味着这项工作已经开始。在英国和约旦，我们制作了面具、盾牌和长袍的原型，并在设计和连接技术方面共同创造了创新。利用敏捷响应基金，我们将开展一个跨学科的联合生产项目，包括社会技术部分，重点是为难民营和收容社区的生产设计PPE，以及社会行为部分，了解PPE的可用性如何影响人们对风险的态度和行为，从而使他们能够应对健康威胁。数字制造和数字数据收集将成为核心，即使没有面对面的接触也能实现实时协作。在约旦-以及其他中低收入国家-难民营中流行病开始时个人防护设备的供应非常有限，难民署只能为临床需要采购材料。虽然约旦在抑制病毒传播方面做得非常好，记录了1100例病例中的11例死亡，但这只是通过非常严格的经济和社会封锁以及严格的国防法律来实现的。联合国难民署正在为Covid 19做准备，当它进入人口密集的营地时，会产生巨大的影响，导致社区传播，因为封锁被放松。迫切需要符合约旦（和其他国家）标准的个人防护设备供应，但由于购买力有限，联合国机构和政府都没有能力在全球范围内竞争供应。因此，发展需要的是可持续的当地制造，利用可靠的当地供应的低成本材料，生产适合难民需要的个人防护设备。与此同时，该项目将解决塑料废物（包括废弃的个人防护设备）问题，在小规模制造业中创造就业机会，并通过加强集体机构和能力的意识来建立营地社区的复原力。这项研究的直接利益将增加到约旦的大量难民人口，其结果也适用于其他低资源经济体收容流离失所者。在现有的技术原型活动的基础上，该项目将增加在难民背景下成功生产个人防护设备的知识。核心创新是：（a）与作为伙伴的难民共同创建设计、制造和分配流程，从而赋予代理人权力;（B）根据难民营的具体条件调整流程和产出。这项由难民领导的社会研究将解决目前文献中没有充分解决的更广泛的问题，即个人防护设备的使用对难民在预防和治疗COVID-19中发挥作用的能力和意愿的影响。我们可以迅速采取行动，因为我们已经准备好了来自UKRI #redefiningsingleuse grant的工程和社会科学PDRA。在约旦，难民署和Al-Albayt大学将培训参与性行动研究人员，使他们参与设计、制造和实施全面的可重复使用个人防护设备（最初是面具、盾牌和长袍，然后是手套和洗手液的创新）。佩特拉大学将使用半结构化访谈和PAR来了解营地封闭环境中PPE相关行为的社会/空间方面。

In March 2020 we were contacted by UNHCR for help with PPE in the Zaatari refugee camp, using digital printing and sewing capabilities here at our UK Universities and in the camp. Our immediate response means that this work has already started. In both the UK and Jordan we have made prototypes of masks, shields and gowns and there have been co-created innovations in both design and joining technologies. With Agile Response funds we will run an interdisciplinary co-production project, comprising a socio-technical part focused on designing PPE for production in refugee camps and the host community, and socio-behavioural part, understanding how the availability of PPE affects people's attitudes and behaviours around risk, and so enables them to address health threats. Digital manufacturing and digital data gathering will be central, enabling real-time collaboration even without face-to-face contact. In Jordan - and other lower/middle income countries - there was very limited availability of PPE at the beginning of the pandemic in refugee camps, and UNHCR was only able to source materials for clinical needs. Whilst Jordan has done extraordinarily well in suppressing transmission of the virus, recording 11 deaths from 1100 cases, it has been at only been achieved through the result of a very severe economic and social lockdown and stringent defense laws being invoked. The UNHCR is preparing for Covid19 to a dramatic impact when it comes into densely populated camps, causing community transmission, as lock down is eased. There is a pressing need for supplies of PPE compliant with Jordanian (and other country) standards, yet with limited buying power neither the UN agency nor the government is well-placed to compete globally for supplies. The development need is thus for sustainable local manufacture, using a reliable supply of locally available, low-cost materials to produce PPE appropriate to refugees' needs. Simultaneously, the project will tackle the problem of plastic waste, (including discarded PPE), open employment opportunities in small-scale manufacturing, and build resilience within the camp community by reinforcing a sense of collective agency and capacity. The direct benefits of this research will accrue to the substantial refugee populations in Jordan, with outcomes also applicable to other low resource economies hosting displaced people.Building on existing technical prototyping activities, the project will increase knowledge on successfully producing PPE in the refugee context. The central innovation is to a) co-create the design, manufacture and distribution process with the refugees as partners and thus empowered agents, and b) to thus calibrate the process and outputs to the specific conditions in the camp. The refugee-led social research will address broader questions, currently insufficiently addressed in the literature, of the effects of PPE uptake on refugees' sense of agency, ability and willingness to play a role in preventing and treating COVID-19.We can move swiftly, as we have engineering and social science PDRAs from the UKRI #redefiningsingleuse grant ready and keen to go. In Jordan, UNHCR and Al Albayt University will train participatory action researchers (PARs) to engage in the design, manufacturing, and implementation of comprehensive reusable PPE (initially masks, shields and gowns, moving on to innovations in gloves and hand sanitiser). The University of Petra will use semi-structured interviews and PARs to understand the social/spatial aspect of PPE-associated behaviour in the confined environment of the camp.