Setting evidence-informed norms and standards on refugee and migrant health

Data on the health of refugees and migrants around the world are scarce, often limited to migration flows and demographic characteristics and focused mainly on the sub-national levels, seldom to national or regional level. Such scarcity provides enormous challenges to understand the heterogeneity present in these population groups and their health needs, and governments often grapple with developing and implementing frameworks and policies to ensure equitable access to quality essential health services for all within their national health care systems.

Recognizing the need for systematic, comparable and representative qualitative and quantitative data on the health of refugees and migrants to inform health policies globally, the WHO Health and Migration Programme (PHM) provides support to WHO Member States through setting norms and standards on health and migration, co-developing guidance, and tools, and promoting a research agenda for evidence-informed decision making and targeted interventions, thereby facilitating and strengthening national health policy development and implementation.

The Global Evidence Review on Health and Migration (GEHM) series is one of the normative products PHM is producing to support evidence-informed policy making and targeted interventions. The reports of the series aim to summarize the best available evidence worldwide and propose policy considerations.

The first report of the series: “Refugees and migrants in times of COVID-19: mapping trends of public health and migration policies and practices”, provides an overview of public health and migration policies amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and presents policy considerations for an integrated approach to migration and public health.

To support the development and dissemination of knowledge and information concerning health and migration issues, PHM also organizes yearly a Global Summer School on Refugee and Migrant Health. The Global School promotes evidence-informed and best practice interventions important to adapting health-care systems to the health needs and rights of refugees and migrants worldwide.

Furthermore, PHM developed a Global Competency Standards for health workers designed to help these provide culturally sensitive care to refugees and migrants. The publication, the first of its kind, outlines a range of specific competencies and behaviours expected of health workers in delivering culturally sensitive care to refugees and migrants and can be used to inform the outcomes of educational programmes.