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Humanitarian Profile Support Guidance: Humanitarian Population Figures

Countries
World
Sources
IASC
Publication date
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The objective of this guidance is to provide an overview of definitions, methods and good practice on how to derive overall, inter-sectoral humanitarian population figures. These include estimates of the number of people affected by a given emergency as well as in need of, targeted by and reached with humanitarian assistance. Currently there is no collectively agreed method to establish such figures.

The guidance is intended for colleagues who are tasked with estimating humanitarian population figures and are facilitating, or participating, in joint analysis, planning and response monitoring.

This first version of the guidance focuses on estimating total populations, affected populations and populations in need of humanitarian assistance (PiN). Guidance on determining figures for planning and response monitoring (populations targeted, reached and covered) is planned for inclusion in the next version (a brief overview of current practice is featured in Annex 3).

The guidance consists of two main chapters and four annexes. The first chapter illustrates the current challenges with determining population figures and depicts the evolution of the notions and definitions of humanitarian population figures since the 2011 IASC Humanitarian Profile Guidance . It includes key working definitions, examples, and a section on roles and responsibilities, laying out the basic requirements for estimating humanitarian aggregate population figures. The second chapter is dedicated to concrete examples from the field and practical recommendations reflecting current best practice, approaches and methodologies