Research Project - UNHCR

UNHCR: United Nations High Commission for Refugees

The Health System Resilience, Enhancement and Refugee Response Project (HSRERRP) is a three-year research project, funded by UNHCR Geneva, which aims to document and learn from different approaches to meeting the health needs of refugees. The research is being led by Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh with the support and partnership of some in-country partners.

As the number of refugees and forcibly displaced populations increases, and displacement becomes increasingly protracted over time, humanitarian actors, governments and communities face important challenges in the provision of equitable, accessible and quality healthcare in ways that are sustainable in the longer term. While traditional approaches to delivering services in parallel to the national health system are relevant in some situations, they are acknowledged to lead to fragmentation and high costs, especially in the case of prolonged displacement. As such, there have been calls, including in the Global Compact for Refugees, for greater inclusion of refugees into national health policies, strategies and plans, as well as integration of refugees in national health systems. However, the evidence base is still relatively thin regarding the most suitable approaches to achieve better integration, strengthen the resilience of health systems and ultimately improve health outcomes for refugee and host populations.

The project will conduct 6 country case studies using a shared methodology to facilitate comparative analysis and for lesson learning on cross-cutting themes. The case studies will generate learning around the following areas:

How have different country programmes met refugee health needs, and what have been the implications for equity and inclusion, as well as sharing of the funding responsibility?
How can we better understand and support the capacity of national health systems to meet the needs of refugees, and how can we mitigate adverse impact on these systems?
How can we best support responses that encourage and foster social cohesion?
What are the most efficient and effective ways of delivering health services to refugee and surrounding populations, what are the costs of different models, and how can responsibility be shared?
How can refugee responses be sustainable and foster resilience?

Case studies are chosen to represent a range of countries and regions which are using different approaches to increase inclusion of the refugee population into national health systems. Pakistan, Zambia and Mauritania are the first three case studies (due to report by mid-2024), with subsequent cases under discussion.

Research is being conducted in collaboration with research institutes or individual researchers in each country.

The project’s outputs will include academic publications, policy briefs, a webinar/ dissemination event at mid-point and at end of project and wider dissemination of findings via conferences and other forms of media.

Staff involved in project: Sophie Witter (PI); Natasha Palmer, Maria Bertone, Karin Diaconu, Ibrahim Bou-Orm, Lucas Sempe, Marcia Vera-Espinoza, Alastair Ager, Arek Dakessian, Amina Olabi, Paul Kadetz.

For more information, please contact Natasha Palmer: npalmer@qmu.ac.uk