WHO Cox’s Bazar: Rohingya emergency crisis - Situation Report: March 2024

Overview

Coordination and Leadership

The Joint Response Plan (JRP) for the Rohingya Humanitarian Crisis 2024 was unveiled on March 13, 2024, in Geneva, Switzerland. Seeking $852.4 million, the plan aims to assist 1.35 million individuals through 195 projects by 117 partners. Within this framework, the WHO-led health sector has outlined 17 projects by 16 partners, requesting $86.8 million—marking a 10.79% decrease from the JRP 2023. The health sector’s goals include ensuring equal access to vital healthcare, bolstering disease outbreak preparedness and response, and fostering health and wellness among Rohingya refugees and local communities.

In March 2023, WHO released the High Priority Health Services for Humanitarian Setting (H3 Package), a set of guidelines for essential health services in humanitarian settings. This ‘redline’ guidance aims to elevate the standard of care provided by humanitarian partners. To customize this for Cox’s Bazar, a diverse group of experts, healthcare professionals, and policymakers convened for a two-day workshop. They crafted a draft Cox’s Bazar-specific Essential Health Services Package, considering local standards, resources, and needs. This draft underwent scrutiny by the Strategic Advisory Group and technical staff, who also addressed staffing norms absent in the original H3 Package. Following their review and government endorsement, the Health Sector team collaborated with the Global Health Cluster and H3 team to integrate feedback and develop a distributable booklet of the updated Essential Health Service Packages.

The Health Sector in Cox’s Bazar, in partnership with the Global Health Cluster (GHC), initiated the 2023

Cluster Coordination Performance Monitoring (CCPM) survey in January 2024. The survey aimed to evaluate cluster performance and identify areas for improvement. The GHC team analyzed 25 active partners responses, produced a draft report, and after review by the Health Sector in Cox’s Bazar, the final report will be presented to the SAG and then shared with partners. A meeting will be scheduled to discuss the results and enhance sector performance.

From March 23 to 29, Ms. Saima Wazed, WHO’s Regional Director for South-East Asia, visited Bangladesh for the first time officially. The Head of the WHO Cox’s Bazar Sub-Office (HoSO) played a pivotal role during this visit. On March 24, HoSO participated in the inauguration of the new WHO office in Dhaka and later briefed the Regional Director on the Rohingya humanitarian initiatives in a town hall meeting. The next day, March 25, HoSO and the Regional Director had an overview discussion about HoSO’s responsibilities, the Rohingya crisis, and the possibility of additional support from SEARO.