The promotion of health and migration policies and interventions guided by scientific evidence and best practices implies strengthening core competencies for policymakers and health and social service workforce.

A Summer School on “The Health of refugees and migrants: ensuring accessibility, promoting health, and saving lives” will be held online from 19 to 23 October 2020.

The School is conducted in close collaboration with WHO Regions. It is designed for policy-makers, officers from the Ministries of Health and other Ministries as well as experts from academic and research institutions and NGOs with experience in health and migration. The course is limited to 100 attendees.

WHO has promoted refugee and migrant health capacity building in several countries and regions of the world including three previous editions of this summer school on migration and health.

The e-learning Summer School comprises an offline introductory module and five online modules which cover the core topics of refugee and migrant health, the context of universal health coverage and the health security and healthier refugee and migrant populations in alignment with the WHO triple billion goals and the Global Action Plan ‘Promoting the Health of Refugees and Migrants’. Participants will have the opportunity to be connected live to health and migration projects implemented on the ground and receive direct feedback by actors dealing with field operations.

The deadline of the application is 15 September 2020

Course Format

The School is designed to be an online learning event consisting of 5 modules delivered daily. Synchronous learning requires that participants be present at the same time online since modules are delivered in real-time. Each module has a duration of 90 minutes including presentations, panel discussions, interviews from the field and, Q&A sessions.

Scope of the modules:

Module 1. Understanding universal health coverage (UHC) for refugees and migrants

• Introduce the 13^th  WHO Global Programme of Work and its implications on refugee and migrant health; its global challenges and opportunities in moving towards achieving  UHC for refugees and migrants . It will include a panel discussion on access to health services for refugees and migrants in different WHO Regions.

Module 2. Promoting healthier refugee and migrant populations

• Focus on available refugee and migrant health epidemiological patterns and the existing challenges and achievements for collecting comparable health and epidemiological data in refugee and migrant populations.

Module 3. Addressing health needs and rights of refugees and migrants during emergencies

• Inform participants of challenges, achievements and best practices  in addressing refugee and migrant health rights and needs during massive influxes and complex emergencies.

Module 4. Connecting to field operations

• Provide participants an opportunity to connect to live to health and migration  projects on the ground and receive a direct feedback by actors dealing with field operations. The module includes a panel discussion on intercountry and interregional coordination

Module 5. COVID-19 and the health of refugees and migrants

• Inform participants of COVID-19 health risks and its impacts on the health status of refugees and migrants and recommended actions