Since 25 August 2017, human rights violations and targeted violence against the Rohingya community in Rakhine State, Myanmar, have forced over 728,0002 of them to seek sanctuary in Bangladesh. Half of the refugees (55%) are children. Within two months of the first arrivals, the number of refugee population in Cox’s Bazar district quadrupled, which made it the fastest growing refugee crisis in the world. The refugees continued to arrive by foot and boat in subsequent months. Most of them came with few belongings or cash. UNHCR was among the first humanitarian organisations to respond to the refugee influx with life-saving assistance. Packages of blankets, plastic sheets, sleeping mats, family tents, plastic rolls, kitchen sets, jerry cans and buckets were distributed initially to 250,000 refugees within weeks after their arrival. By end of August 2018, UNHCR distributed 93,803 Core Relief Item (CRI) packages to newly arrived refugee families, each containing tarpaulins, kitchen set, blanket, jerry can, bucket, sleeping mat and solar lamp. At the same time, 90,524 families received Upgrade Shelter Kit (USK) consisting of mulli and borak bamboos, rope, plastic tarpaulins, sandbags and toolkits, to reinforce their shelters for the monsoon season. UNHCR, in close collaboration with partner agencies and other humanitarian actors, continues to support the Government of Bangladesh in responding to the refugee crisis by ensuring relief items are prepositioned and delivered to the most vulnerable refugees and host communities in a timely manner.
UNHCR uses Post Distribution Monitoring (PDM) as a mechanism to collect refugee’s feedback on the quality, sufficiency, utilisation and effectiveness of assistance received. It is conducted after the distribution of relief items is completed. A total of 2,298 households were interviewed in this PDM. The PDM survey confirmed that non-food packages distributed by UNHCR and partners met the household needs and minimum quality standard as agreed by the Shelter/NFI Sector in Cox’s Bazar. The overall satisfaction score has improved from the previous survey in March. The refugees reported high satisfaction for the items received, and rated above 4.1 on a 5-point Likert scale for the items quality and usefulness. They also reported general satisfaction with the organisation of NFI distribution, with an average score of 4.0 on the Likert scale. The finding shows that UNHCR and partners are fulfilling their commitment to provide relief items that meet the specific needs of refugees, and that they were distributed in a timely and efficient manner.
