Health Information System (HIS) Reference Manual
Health, January 2010
© UNHCR
Health Information System Reference Manual
The manual forms the core reference document for a five-day "Training of Trainers" workshop. This is the prelude to country-level training for implementing partner staff, followed by camp-based deployment of the HIS. The modules are designed to be reproduced and used independently of the manual, in field trainings and exercise work for frontline health staff.
Part One: Introduction
Part One presents an overview of the HIS. It describes the purpose of data collection, the process of selecting standards and indicators, and the importance of standardised health information. It also introduces the concept of the data cycle, the key partners involved, and explains the frequency of reporting at each level of health management.
Part Two: Technical Sections
Part Two introduces the technical sections in the HIS. The HIS contains 10 technical modules, which correspond to the primary healthcare model upon which services are planned, organised and delivered (see List).
The modules identify the sources required for data collection; define who is responsible for the data; and provide guidance on the "what, how and when" of collecting and reporting health information. Each has been designed as a reproducible, field-based guide that can be used independently of the manual to train staff at the camp level.
Part Three: Data Management and Support
Part Three contains core topics related to data management and data validation; internal auditing and quality control; and database management. It also describes how new toolkits will be updated and replaced in the field.
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The health of refugees and other displaced people is a priority for UNHCR.
Health crisis in South Sudan
There are roughly 105,000 refugees in South Sudan's Maban County. Many are at serious health risk. UNHCR and its partners are working vigorously to prevent and contain the outbreak of malaria and several water-borne diseases.
Most of the refugees, especially children and the elderly, arrived at the camps in a weakened condition. The on-going rains tend to make things worse, as puddles become incubation areas for malaria-bearing mosquitoes. Moderately malnourished children and elderly can easily become severely malnourished if they catch so much as a cold.
The problems are hardest felt in Maban County's Yusuf Batil camp, where as many as 15 per cent of the children under 5 are severely malnourished.
UNHCR and its partners are doing everything possible to prevent and combat illness. In Yusuf Batil camp, 200 community health workers go from home to home looking educating refugees about basic hygene such as hand washing and identifying ill people as they go. Such nutritional foods as Plumpy'nut are being supplied to children who need them. A hospital dedicated to the treatment of cholera has been established. Mosquito nets have been distributed throughout the camps in order to prevent malaria.
Health crisis in South Sudan
Nansen Refugee Award Presentation Ceremony
More than 400 people attended the annual presentation in Geneva in October 1, 2012 of UNHCR's Nansen Refugee Award. This year's inspirational winner from Somalia, Hawa Aden Mohamed, was unable to attend for health reasons, but she sent a video message. In the former refugee's absence, UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres presented the award and Nansen medal to her sister, Shukri Aden Mohamed.
The 63-year-old humanitarian, educator and women's rights advocate, widely known as "Mama" Hawa, was honoured for her extraordinary service - under extremely difficult conditions - on behalf of refugees and the internally displaced, mainly women and girls but also including boys.
Above all she has been recognized for her work - as founder and director of the Galkayo Education Centre for Peace and Development in Somalia's Puntland region - in helping to empower thousands of displaced Somali women and girls, many of whom are victims of rape. The centre provides secondary education as well as life skills training.
The packed event also included an address by Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee, co-winner of last year's Nobel Peace Prize, and a video tribute to Mama Hawa as well as performances from UNHCR Honorary Lifetime Goodwill Ambassador and classical singer, Barbara Hendricks, and up and coming Swiss musician Bastian Baker.
Nansen Refugee Award Presentation Ceremony
Afghan Street Children Turn from Beggars to Beauticians
A UNHCR-funded project in Kabul, Afghanistan, is helping to keep returnee children off the streets by teaching them to read and write, give them room to play and offer vocational training in useful skills such as tailoring, flower making, and hairstyling.
Every day, Afghan children ply the streets of Kabul selling anything from newspapers to chewing gum, phone cards and plastic bags. Some station themselves at busy junctions and weave through traffic waving a can of smoking coal to ward off the evil eye. Others simply beg from passing strangers.
There are an estimated 50,000 to 60,000 street children in the Afghan capital alone. Among them are those who could not afford an education as refugees in Iran or Pakistan, and are unable to go to school as returnees in Afghanistan because they have to work from dawn to dusk to support their families. For the past seven years, a UNHCR-funded project has been working to bring change.
Posted on 12 November 2008
Afghan Street Children Turn from Beggars to Beauticians
Chad: Health for all
Refugees in southern Chad receive health care under a European Union-funded programme. A new clinic tackles malaria, malnutrition, respiratory infections and more.
Jordan: Getting Health Care
In Jordan's Za'atri Refugee Camp, dust and heat are taking their toll, especially on young children.
South Sudan: Providing Health Care
Mobile clinics and hundred of community workers are mobilized to bring health care to the refugees in Yusuf Batil Refugee Camp.
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