Author Profile

Dr. Jeffrey Freeman

https://www.hopkinshumanitarianhealth.org/people/jeffrey-d-freeman

Institution: Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory

Affiliation: National Health Mission Area

Department: Health Surveillance Program

City: Laurel

State: MD

Country: United States

Dr. Jeffrey Freeman has more than 10 years of experience in humanitarian assistance and disaster response (HA/DR). He recently joined the National Health Mission Area of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) as a Senior Scientist and Assistant Program Manager for Health Surveillance. Among other duties, Dr. Freeman has been tasked with building a disaster response focus for the lab. In addition to APL, Dr. Freeman is an instructor in the Public Health Studies Program at Johns Hopkins University where he teaches courses focused on disaster and humanitarian response. Dr. Freeman is also a member of the Johns Hopkins Go Team, which provides rapid response capacity for regional and national disasters. Dr. Freeman holds a PhD in Environmental Health and Engineering from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and an MPH in Global Health from Emory University Rollins School of Public Health. Dr. Freeman has advanced training in Public Health Informatics, Risk Sciences and Public Policy, and Global Complex Humanitarian Emergencies. Prior to Johns Hopkins, Dr. Freeman served as a research fellow in the Emergency Response and Recovery Branch of the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) where he was assigned to the Health Systems Recovery Team working on maternal and child health in Haiti. Dr. Freeman was recently selected as a Fellow by the Emergency Leaders in Biosecurity Initiative.

Recent Posts

Effectiveness of Interventions, Programs and Strategies for Gender-based Violence Prevention in Refugee Populations: An Integrative Review

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Background: Gender based violence (GBV) remains one of the most serious threats to the health and safety of women and girls worldwide. The problem is even more pronounced in refugee populations where women and girls are at increased risk of violence. In 2015, UNHCR reported the highest number of forcibly displaced people in recorded history. Despite growing need, there have been few rigorous evaluations of interventions aimed at primary GBV prevention and no systematic reviews of GBV prevention efforts specifically focused on refugee populations; reviews to date have primarily examined prevention of conflict related sexual violence, with very limited focus on other forms of GBV such as intimate partner violence

Methods: This study reviewed the scientific literature addressing strategies for primary prevention of GBV and their effectiveness among refugee populations over the past ten years (2006 to 2015). Narrative content analysis methods were used to extract findings related to prevention activities/programs recommended by the global humanitarian community, such as sociocultural norms change, rebuilding family and community support structures, improving accountability systems, designing effective services and facilities, working with formal and traditional legal systems, monitoring and documenting GBV, and/or engaging men and boys in GBV prevention and response.

Results: Study findings indicate that a range of GBV prevention activities recommended by the global humanitarian community are currently being applied in a variety of settings. However, there remains a limited body of evidence on the effectiveness of GBV prevention programs, interventions, and strategies, especially among refugee populations.

Conclusion: Commonly agreed upon standards or guidelines for evaluation of GBV prevention programming, and publication of evaluations conducted using these guidelines, could assist humanitarian stakeholders to build and disseminate an evidence base of effective GBV prevention interventions, programs and strategies. Evaluation of GBV prevention efforts, especially among refugee populations, must be given higher priority to justify continuation or revision of recommended GBV activities/programs being implemented in diverse humanitarian settings.