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Joint Multi-Sector Needs Assessment (J-MSNA): Rohingya Refugees - September 2019

Countries
Bangladesh
+ 1 more
Sources
ISCG
Publication date

SUMMARY

In successive waves over four decades, Rohingya refugees have been fleeing to Bangladesh from Rakhine State, Myanmar. Since August 2017, an estimated 745,000 Rohingya refugees have arrived in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, increasing the total number of Rohingya refugees to roughly 855,000. 1 Most of the newly-arrived refugees have settled in hilly, formerly-forested areas that are vulnerable to landslides and flash-flooding in monsoon season, and rely heavily on humanitarian assistance to cover their basic needs. As the crisis moves beyond the initial emergency phase, comprehensive information on the needs and vulnerabilities of affected populations is needed in order to inform the design and implementation of effective inter-sectoral programming.

To this aim, a Joint Multi-Sector Needs Assessment (J-MSNA) was conducted across Rohingya refugee populations to support humanitarian planning and enhance the ability of operational partners, donors and coordinating bodies to meet the needs of affected populations. This in-depth assessment is a follow-on to the June 2019 “Light” MSNA2 , which was used to inform the mid-term review of the humanitarian 2019 Joint Response Plan (JRP)3 . The current “in-depth” J-MSNA was conducted to inform the Inter Sector Coordination Group (ISCG)’s 2020 JRP, with the objectives of: (1) providing a comprehensive evidence base of household-level multi-sectoral needs for the humanitarian 2020 JRP; and (2) providing the basis for joint-multi-stakeholder analysis. The J-MSNA operates upon an analytical framework for multi-sector analysis based on the work undertaken by the Joint Inter-sector Analysis Group (JIAG)4 , tailored by ACAPS and other participants of ISCG’s MSNA Technical Working Group (TWG) of the Information Management and Assessment Working Group (IMAWG) in order to meet the specific needs of the Rohingya Humanitarian Crisis. The J-MSNA serves to measure current humanitarian conditions, perceptions and preferences, and safety and security in affected communities.5

A total of 3,418 households were surveyed across 34 refugee sites, employing a simple random sampling methodology of shelter footprints within official site boundaries. Data collection occurred from 5 August through 15 September 2019. Each interview was conducted with an adult household representative responding on behalf of the household and its members. The assessment provides findings that are statistically representative at the camp level (with a 95% confidence level and 10% margin of error) and aggregated to the overall response level for all Rohingya refugee households living in camps (with a 95% confidence level and 3% margin of error).

This J-MSNA was funded by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Directorate General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO). The assessment was coordinated through ISCG’s MSNA TWG, led by ISCG and comprised of: UNHCR, ACAPS, International Organization for Migration Needs and Population Monitoring (IOM NPM), Translators without Borders (TWB), World Food Programme Vulnerability Analysis and Mapping Unit (WFP VAM), and REACH.

The findings from this report complement other information products from the 2019 J-MSNA to provide a variety of analysis. In addition to the clean household-level dataset and data analysis tables for the Refugee J-MSNA, readers may access summaries of key messages derived from indicator-level findings for both Rohingya refugees and affected host communities living in Teknaf and Ukhiya Upazilas in the 2019 J-MSNA Preliminary Findings Presentation. Camp-level findings for indicators where notable geographic variation was observed are available at the 2019 J-MSNA Dashboard. Finally, the 2019 Refugee J-MSNA Factsheets present and visualize key indicators applicable to refugee communities as a whole, by sector.6

This report builds off of these aforementioned publications by exploring how variation in household social and demographic characteristics may lead to significantly different outcomes on a number of sectoral and cross- sectoral key indicators related to household wellbeing, including: access to food, income generation, education, market access, health care and general safety and security. In conducting this analysis of indicator-level findings through statistical relationship testing, this report seeks to contribute to the growing body of research aimed toward understanding the diversity of needs between different households, as well as the household profiles which may be more vulnerable to facing deprivations in key indicators.