Before the emergence of COVID-19, UNHCR had been working for several years in the southern Mexican city of Tapachula on ways to engage with local health authorities to improve access to health services for asylum seekers and refugees. The onset…
Uganda hosts an estimated 1.4 million refugees mainly from South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. To improve long-term sustainability, Uganda’s Ministry of Water and Environment (MWE) and UNHCR have begun transferring management of water supply schemes to the…
According to one of the foundation stories of public health, in 1854 John Snow removed the handle from a pump in London – the water source used by local residents who were dying of a mysterious disease. At the time,…
The outbreak of COVID-19 has derailed employment and trade, and has jeopardised life in general. The adverse effects of the pandemic are innumerable but have been felt most by the most vulnerable members of the globe – refugees. In the…
Colombia’s Afro-descendant population represents approximately 12% of all internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the country. Thousands of Afro-descendant communities and families have been forced to leave their lands, moving to peripheral urban areas in cities such as Bogotá, Medellín and…
Providing basic health services in complex humanitarian situations during a pandemic presents significant challenges. Our experience working with internally displaced people (IDPs) in the Cabo Delgado province of Mozambique has taught us that a health intervention can only be successful…
In June 2020, Oxfam launched a project led by local partners to engage communities in preventing the spread of COVID-19. In a context where there was limited availability of official data, a Community Perception Tracker (CPT) was used to record…
During the Ebola outbreaks in West Africa in 2014–15 and in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2019, poor Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) infrastructure and practices led to high numbers of health-care worker infections, and reduced people’s use of…
The humanitarian community has had to learn about COVID-19 while responding to this new disease. From the start it was known that basic hygiene practices, such as proper handwashing, could help prevent its transmission. However, many displacement settings do not…
In many ways, the COVID-19 pandemic had created solidarity across countries and within communities in efforts to address public health risks and minimise the socio-economic impacts of the virus. After significant advocacy and engagement with governments undertaken by a range…