© UNHCR/Iryna Tymchyshyn  

A new dataset from a baseline survey conducted between June and August 2024 captures the state of financial inclusion and financial health among refugees in Jordan, prior to the fall of the Assad government in Syria. Commissioned to support UNHCR and key partners, the data will guide future assessments and inform strategies to improve refugees' access to financial services. This effort aligns with initiatives for enhancing monitoring frameworks and promoting inclusive financial development. 

© UNHCR/Hameed Maarouf 

The Protection Monitoring in the Central Sahel – P21 datasets consolidate household-level data collected between December 2022 and March 2024 across Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, and Chad. Led jointly by UNHCR and the Danish Refugee Council (DRC), and implemented with partners including INTERSOS, NRC, MBDHP, BFPM, and CIAUD, this initiative provides a standardized evidence base to better understand the evolving protection risks faced by forcibly displaced populations and their host communities in the Central Sahel.
Through more than 10,000 household interviews, the datasets offer granular insights into displacement dynamics, protection risks, coping strategies, and access to basic services such as education, health care, food assistance, and livelihoods. They capture how armed conflict and insecurity have driven mass displacement, exacerbated food insecurity, and disrupted access to essential services.
These datasets serve as a key resource for humanitarian actors and decision-makers seeking to design targeted responses—whether in the form of cash-based assistance, food distributions, or resilience programming.

In April 2025, UNHCR and OECD launched the first OECD-UNHCR Datathon, inviting participants to use datasets from the UNHCR Microdata Library to generate insights on the needs of forcibly displaced and stateless children. 

Two winning teams were selected for their innovative, data-driven approaches.  

Team Craic developed a machine learning model to predict school enrollment in areas with limited data, using the Iraq Multi-Cluster Needs Assessment 2021 and the Uganda Joint Multi-Sector Needs Assessment 2018. Their model combined household-level data with geospatial indicators—such as distance to schools, healthcare, and conflict zones—and used SHAP values for interpretability. 

Team Data for Hope focused on child health in Uganda, building a composite health index using data from the Uganda Joint Multi-Sector Needs Assessment 2018. They analyzed how overlapping factors—like poor shelter, food insecurity, and lack of legal documentation—interact to affect child health outcomes, calling for integrated, multisectoral interventions. 

Both teams presented their findings at the 4th International Forum on Migration Statistics (IFMS) in Malmö, underscoring the potential for using open microdata to inform more inclusive and targeted responses for children affected by displacement. 

Interested in learning more about data and forced displacement? UNHCR is setting up a quarterly data newsletter to inform the general public about the latest developments in data on the forcibly displaced. Join our UNHCR data mailing list →

The Microdata Library is part of UNHCR's Global Data Service. The purpose of the quarterly updates is to share the latest developments of UNHCR's Microdata Library and its impact on research and knowledge.