ReliefWeb

Executive summary

Since November 2017, WFP and the Food Security Sector have been conducting the Refugee influx Emergency Vulnerability Assessment (REVA) annually. The REVA aims to monitor food security situation and vulnerability levels of the Rohingya population living in the camps in Ukhiya and Teknaf subdistricts of Cox’s Bazar district and the adjacent host community potentially affected. Three years after the influx, the COVID-19 pandemic struck resulting in a doublelayered crisis on top of the refugee crisis. The pandemic hit hard the local economy and forced significant adjustments in the humanitarian response. REVA-4 captures the cumulative effects of these two crises.

The 4th round of REVA was conducted in November - December 2020 and, constitutes a panel survey of 2019 REVA sample, with a total of 2415 household face to face interviews. The ample is representative for three population strata:
Registered Rohingya, unregistered Rohingya and host community residing adjacent to the camps in Ukhiya and Teknaf subdistricts.

Levels of vulnerability: Overall vulnerability has increased compared to 2019 and, practically, all Rohingya population (841,841)1 and half of the host community is considered moderate to highly vulnerable. Among Rohingya, 86 percent of households are highly vulnerable (749,297)2 ,16 percent more than in 2019. In the host community, households that are moderate to highly vulnerable increased from 41 percent in 2019 to 51 percent in 2020.
Food consumption has also deteriorated in both communities and almost half of Rohingya and one third of host community households had inadequate food consumption, compared to 42 and 21 percent in 2019, respectively.

Despite assistance, 49 percent of Rohingya and 27 percent of host community households are not able to afford their basic needs (consuming below the minimum expenditure basket-MEB). If assistance were removed, 96 percent of Rohingya and one third of host community households would not be able to cover the MEB. Economic vulnerability has also worsened compared to 2019, especially in host community that shows a 9 percent increase.

One third of host community and 62 percent of Rohingya households engage in crisis or emergency livelihood coping strategies to cover food and non-food needs, compromising their future productivity and coping capacity. Households incurring debts have increased in the host community from 41 percent in 2019 to 53 percent.

Characteristics of the most vulnerable: Non-registered refugees depict high vulnerability relative to registered refugees and host community, with the latter showing comparatively lower levels of overall vulnerability.

Among Rohingya, vulnerability is significantly higher in households with any of the following characteristics: high dependency ratio, with children under five years old, having members with disabilities or chronically ill, in households where the head has not completed primary education, households with no active working member, with no male of working age in family, as well as in households with more than 5 members. No differences were found by gender of household head.

In the host community, higher levels of vulnerability were found in household headed by females, in household heads with no primary education completed, in households with high dependency ratio, with more than 5 children, with high crowding index, without any active working member and in those with female breadwinners.