ABSTRACT
Introduction There is an increasing interest in complex humanitarian emergencies (CHEs) acknowledging that they now represent a major global health challenge (Brennan and Nandy, 2001). Research during such emergencies is important to document the impact of war, give voice to those affected, assess needs for relief and assistance, inform policy, guide interventions, provide evaluation of the effectiveness of interventions and draw lessons for future crises, if unavoidable. There is a large body of literature on CHE devoted mainly to assessment of health consequences and needs (Connolly et a/., 2004; Mollica et at, 2004; Young et a/., 2004; Moss et a/., 2006), and implementation and evaluation of humanitarian aid (Burkle et a/., 1995). There is also increasing interest in assessment of peoples' positions (Bakewell, 2000), state (Cliffe and Luckham, 2000) and public health response (Waldman and Martone, 1999; Spiegel et al.y 2001), matching aid responses to context (White and Cliffe, 2000; Gilgan, 2001) and experiences of relief workers (VanRooyen et a/., 2001; Hearns and Deeny, 2007). Less attention has been devoted to describing the lessons learned from research conducted during CHE. Several authors (Barakat and Ellis, 1992;
Silkin and Hendrie, 1997; Hansen and Minear, 1999; Black, 2003) have provided pioneering valuable insights into such lessons from diverse settings in former Yugoslavia, Eritrea/Ethiopea, the Caucaus and Libera.
