Global responses to the COVID-19 pandemic have collided with long-standing sexual and reproductive health inequities. While COVID-19 has had a significant, and in some cases devastating, impact on health systems around the world, studies show that people whose human rights are least protected—such as refugees, displaced peoples, and conflict-affected populations—are the ones who suffer the most. The IRC’s work in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh—home to the world’s largest refugee settlement—inevitably became more challenging during COVID-19. This assessment explores the intersecting impacts of the pandemic on the demand, access, and delivery of SRH services and protective measures. It incorporates the perspectives of women, girls, and boys from Rohingya and host communities, as well as service providers (e.g., frontline health workers, doctors, midwives, etc.) and other key informants (e.g., local officials, NGO staff, etc.). It was also intended as a learning exercise, so that SRH services can be more accessible and prioritized during future public health emergencies.

This brief summarizes actions that program planners and implementers should take to minimize the impact that emergencies have on the lives of young children and their families.

Following the release of the IRC’s Emergency Watchlist 2024 in December last year, a list of 20 countries most at risk of humanitarian deterioration where Sudan was ranked number 1, the IRC has produced a mid-year Sudan Crisis Alert Report to show the trajectory of the world’s worst displacement crisis, as an update to the Watchlist report. Read our report here.

The MHM in emergencies mini-toolkit in Arabic.

The ongoing conflict has devastated the civilian population of Gaza.

The IRC’s 2022 Watchlist of countries at risk of deepening humanitarian crisis reveals a world in which the systems set up to prevent human suffering are broken.

Each year, the IRC lists the countries at greatest risk of worsening humanitarian crisis over the coming year.