Managing impact of COVID-19 in Rohingya refugee camps with culturally appropriate technological solutions

This project is part of an initiative that will provide evidence and strengthen capacity for bridging the knowledge gap in responding to the growing COVID-19 health crisis in the short-term and longer term. The initiative will support research on resilience building and preparedness to serve the needs of refugees and other populations on the move by promoting inter-sectoral approaches, including building bridges between humanitarian and development responses to reduce and control health risks for displaced populations, and leveraging existing local opportunities to strengthen the overall initiative.

This project will identify gaps in COVID-19 responses in addressing sexual and reproductive health and maternal and neonatal child health issues among Rohingya refugees and host population women and adolescent girls in Bangladesh. Bangladesh hosts the largest refugee camps in the world, with close to 860,000 stateless Rohingya refugees. The project will use qualitative and quantitative approaches to examine potential health impacts of COVID-19. It will also assess whether deployment of digital interventions (a contact tracing application and a maternal and neonatal child health application) can reduce transmission of COVID-19 and improve sexual and reproductive health and maternal and neonatal child health outcomes respectively.

The project will engage government and other key stakeholders to develop and build evidence on the use of these tools. The evidence will inform local policies and the health systems set up in the refugee camps and host communities to combat COVID-19. It will also inform any future health emergencies, enhancing the preparedness and early response aspects of the health system.