The Big Questions in Forced Displacement and Health

The influx of large numbers of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) can pose a signficant challenge to health systems, even in the most developed settings. In contexts which are fragile or conflict-affected, the strain placed on health systems can be acute. In the emergency phase of a humanitarian response, global implementing partners often overcome this challenge by establishing parallel systems to deliver healthcare to displaced populations. However, in protracted crises, and where displaced persons settle within established host communities, the transition from an acute-phase humanitarian response to development support requires careful coordination with the national health system to avoid creating inefficiencies and service gaps or exacerbating inequity.

The Big Questions in Forced Displacement and Health is a multi-country project that aims to provide evidence and guidance to strengthen health systems to address the needs of displaced and host populations in the context of protracted displacement. Developed as part of the “Building the Evidence on Protracted Forced Displacement: A Multi-Stakeholder Partnership" program funded by UK Aid and managed by the World Bank Group in partnership with UNHCR, this project - led by Columbia University -  represents an innovative partnership between the Program on Forced Migration and Health at Columbia University; the Schneider Institutes for Health Policy at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University; Georgetown University; the Global Health Institute at the American University of Beirut (AUB); and the School of Government at the Universidad de Los Andes.

Read The Big Questions in Forced Displacement and Health Reports here: