Around 30,000 refugees have been relocated by the Bangladesh government to Bhasan Char, and further plans exist to relocate an additional 100,000 refugees. The Bhasan Char Panel Survey was undertaken to understand the conditions faced by the relocated refugees, and the first round of data collection was completed in December 2022. The survey is a collaboration between the Yale Macmillan Center Program on Refugees, Forced Displacement, and Humanitarian Responses, the Gender & Adolescence: Global Evidence (GAGE) program, the Poverty and Equity Global Practice of the World Bank and UNHCR, and follows the approach of the panel survey conducted in Cox’s Bazar between 2019 and 2021. The survey covers 962 households comprising 4484 individuals and includes a separate module for single female caregivers. This survey covers income, health and mental health, migration histories, education and social attitudes.

 

The international armed conflict in Ukraine has displaced around one-fourth of Ukrainians from their homes, with 5.7 million people displaced within Ukraine and across 34 countries in Europe. To inform the Country Refugee Response Plan, which outlines UNHCR and partners' response, country-wide Multi-Sector Needs Assessments were conducted. These assessments gather information on location, documentation status, livelihoods, displacement status, nutrition and food security, access to WASH facilities, shelter, and other information. This quarter, 10 datasets surveying Ukrainian refugees in Europe are now available.

 

© UNHCR/ Artur Ulianytskyi

As part of its 2020-2025 Data Transformation Strategy and in an effort to improve the quality and availability of data on forcibly displaced people, UNHCR launched the Forced Displacement Survey programme (FDS) in 2022. 

Refugees and asylum-seekers, and particularly those in protracted situation, have been increasing year on year. Addressing their self-reliance and the ambition to finding durable solutions requires a shift from a humanitarian to a development approach, supported by the collection of high-quality data for solution programming and advocacy. More specifically, socio-economic data is required to inform policies, to contribute to national development plans and to report on international commitments, like the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs), the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR), the Common Country Analysis (CCA) and the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF). 

The FDS is a global standardized multi-topic nationally representative household survey capturing living conditions and suited to low- and lower-middle-income refugee hosting countries. As a means of comparison, the survey aims to include interviews from a sample of resident population living in proximity to the refugee population, whether in camps or in communities. According to country priority interest and needs, other population groups can be added (i.e. returning refugees, internally displaced persons, former refugees). The current FDS pilot phase includes surveys conducted in South Sudan, Cameroon and Pakistan in 2023-2024. 

Data collection in the first country, South Sudan, is now completed and the underlying anonymized microdata will be released on the UNHCR Microdata Library in the coming months. 

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