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Public Health
The health of refugees and other forcibly displaced people is a key component of protection and a priority for UNHCR. The 1951 Refugee Convention states that refugees should enjoy access to health services equivalent to that of the host population, while everyone has the right under international law to the highest standards of physical and mental health.
UNHCR works closely with partner organizations who implement health programmes in a range of challenging settings. We play a planning, coordination, monitoring and evaluation role. Health and nutrition programmes are delivered within a public health and community development framework, with an emphasis on primary health care and support for secondary hospital care. The objective of these programmes is to minimize mortality and morbidity rates.
The refugee agency plans its health care interventions based on needs, risks and vulnerabilities, which are determined as part of an inter-agency assessment by a competent health and nutrition partner and/or UNHCR staff.
Among forcibly displaced populations in developing countries, the top five killers of children under the age of five are malaria, malnutrition, measles, diarrhoea and respiratory tract infections. The priorities for UNHCR and its partners at the start of an emergency are measles immunization, nutritional support, control of communicable diseases and epidemics, implementation of the reproduction health measures and public health surveillance. As the situation stabilizes these services are enlarged. In more developed and urban settings, public health priorities among adults shift toward cardiovascular and chronic diseases and cancers.
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Health Information System
Health Information Systems (HIS) lay the foundation for public health decision-making.
Malaria Prevention and Control
Malaria remains an important cause of illness and death among displaced populations.
Avian and Human Influenza
The threat posed by an avian and human influenza pandemic to people of concern.
Reproductive Health
The provision of reproductive health services to refugee populations.
Public Health Strategies and Policies
- UNHCR's Essential Medicines and Medical Supplies: Policy and Guidelines 2011
- Ensuring Access to Health Care: Operational Guidance on Refugee Protection and Solutions in Urban Areas [French Spanish]
- Public Health and HIV Section's Guiding Principles and Strategic Plans for HIV and AIDS, Malaria Control, Nutrition and Food Security, Reproductive Health, Water and Sanitation, 2008-2012
- Guiding Principles and Strategic Plans 2008-2012
- UNHCR Drug Management Manual 2006: Policies, Guidelines, UNHCR List of Essential Drugs
Public Health Guidelines
A collection of manuals and guidelines relating to the health of refugees and other persons of concern to UNHCR.
Public Health Lessons Learned and Field Experiences
A series of publications that document public health best practices in refugee situations.
- Joint Statement: Scaling up the community-based health workforce for emergencies, October 2011
- High Commissioner's Special Projects Annual Report 2008
- Programme Overview Fact Sheets: Refugee Public Health 2007
- Programme Overview Fact Sheets: Refugee Public Health 2006
- Water , health and education facilities in Zaire province
Public Health Assessment, Monitoring, Evaluation
- Public health equity in refugee and other displaced persons settings, April 2010
- UNHCR Public Health Facility Toolkit
- Guidelines for Implementing Interagency Health and Nutrition Evaluations in Humanitarian Crises
- Chad - A Country in Crisis. A follow-up report of the Interagency Health and Nutrition Evaluation (IHE)
- Inter-agency health evaluation: Humanitarian oasis in a parched health sector: Refugees and host populations in Eastern and Southern Chad, conducted February 2006 (Final draft)
