Humanitarian Archive Emergency

The Humanitarian Archive Emergency (HAE) project responds to the growing risk of loss affecting digital archives, records, and datasets related to humanitarian response and global health. Funding cuts, organisational instability, and fragile digital infrastructures mean that essential knowledge produced across these sectors is increasingly vulnerable to disappearance, corruption, or technological obsolescence.

Digital materials require stable systems and expert stewardship to remain accessible over time. When institutions close, shift priorities, or lose key staff, these records become particularly at risk, and only a small number of organisations currently have the capacity to preserve them effectively.

This programme aims to strategically respond to this crisis by convening and consolidating global efforts focused on archives and essential records (AER). It seeks to establish a census of AER at risk, develop mechanisms for their reporting and sustainable rescue, create an ethical approach to triage, and shape a medium‑term strategy to address the issue.

The University of Manchester (UoM) team consists of the Principal Investigator, Bertrand Taithe; the Project Manager, Stephanie Rinaldi; Archivists Flora Chatt and Courtney Stickland; and the Curatorial Assistant, Titilayo Adeosun. The Elrha point of contact for the project is Ian Brightwell, Innovation Manager, Humanitarian Innovation Fund (HIF), Elrha.

The project benefits from the generous support of our diverse and engaged Steering Committee (SC). Details on SC members and their organisations can be found in the Skills Map document (link on the right).

Project contact: [email protected]