CORE Group is excited to relaunch the Humanitarian Health Working Group, a collaborative platform for members engaged in humanitarian response and emergency health across natural and man-made disasters, conflict, displacement, and other crisis-affected settings.

As humanitarian needs continue to grow and funding landscapes evolve, coordinated and community-centered responses are more critical than ever. To guide its work, the Working Group will focus on four priority areas:

• Community-Based Emergency Health Systems
• Protection and Support of Frontline Community Workers
• Governance and Financing of Emergency Health Systems
• Responsible Innovation in Humanitarian Health

Through this Working Group, members will:

• Exchange practical tools, guidance, and field-based experiences
• Discuss evolving humanitarian health priorities and funding dynamics
• Identify opportunities for collaboration and joint learning
• Elevate community-driven approaches in complex and fragile settings
• Contribute to forward-looking dialogue that shapes CORE Group’s broader strategic direction

What’s Next

CORE Group will host a hybrid event on April 30, 2026, from 10:30 AM to 1:00 PM EST at the CORE Group Office (1828 L St. NW, Washington, DC 20036, (Grand Canyon Conference Room), with a virtual participation option available, bringing together experts and partners to explore key priorities in community-centered emergency health. The event will also serve as a platform to engage with the Humanitarian Health Working Group as it begins to define its priorities and direction. In-person participants will also have the opportunity to connect and network over lunch, which will be provided.

More details, including speakers and registration information, will be shared soon. Stay tuned for updates on the Working Group’s first official meeting.

Welcoming Our New Co-Chairs

We are pleased to announce the newly appointed Co-Chairs of the Humanitarian & Emergency Health Working Group:

Dr. Cecilliah Mbaka

Dr. Cecilliah Mbaka is a Medical Doctor and humanitarian health leader with experience across emergency response, public health emergencies, and health systems strengthening in fragile and crisis-affected settings. She has worked at the intersection of maternal, newborn, and adolescent health, community-based care, surveillance systems, and quality of care, supporting programs that translate evidence into operational impact. Her work emphasises community-anchored approaches that bridge preparedness, response, and recovery in complex emergencies.

As Co-Chair of the Humanitarian & Emergency Health Working Group, she brings a systems lens and a strong commitment to collaboration, practical knowledge exchange, and advancing evidence-informed, community-driven solutions in humanitarian contexts.

Ricardo Echalar

Ricardo Echalar is an infectious disease epidemiologist with over 20 years of experience designing and overseeing international programs focused on infectious diseases, humanitarian and emergency health preparedness and response, national security, and foreign affairs. Most recently, he spearheaded regional global health security and health emergencies engagement for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) while based in Nairobi, Kenya.



He actively collaborated with partner governments, regional bodies, multilateral agencies, and the private sector across the Africa region to implement and strengthen technical programming for strengthened health security capacities and to safeguard regional and U.S. health security. He provided critical technical leadership during multiple response efforts, including the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic, Ebola, Marburg, mpox, pneumonic plague, and the COVID-19 pandemic. He has leveraged this deep technical experience across roles with USAID, NGOs, and the World Health Organization, managing programs in Latin America and the Caribbean, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Southeast Asia. He previously worked closely with the CORE Group as a member of the Humanitarian-Development Nexus Working Group and with the Humanitarian Pandemic Preparedness (H2P) Initiative.

Join the Humanitarian Health Working Group

To subscribe and receive updates, please email:

humanitarian@lists.coregroup.org

To learn more about the working groups, visit: https://coregroup.org/our-work/working-groups/

We look forward to strengthening collaboration and advancing impactful humanitarian health programming across the CORE Group community.