Giving Compass' Take:

• The World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) collaborated to improve health services for refugees.

• How can donors encourage and contribute to these types of strategic partnerships during COVID-19? 

• Read more about preparing for COVID-19 in a refugee camp. 

The World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) signed a new agreement on Thursday to strengthen and improve health care services for the millions of people who have been forcibly displaced around the world.

The agreement is an updated version of a 1997 contract between the two UN agencies. It aims to help protect nearly 70 million forcibly displaced people — refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced people, and stateless people — from the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.

Since the 1997 pact, the WHO and UNHCR have worked in unison to aid and protect the world’s most vulnerable populations by ensuring access to health care for refugees across the globe.

“UNHCR’s long-term partnership with WHO is critical to curb the coronavirus pandemic and other emergencies — day in, day out, it is improving and saving lives of millions of people forced to flee their homes,”  Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said in a press release.

“Our strengthened partnership will directly benefit refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced people, and those who are stateless,” he said. "It leads to better emergency response and will make the best use of the resources of both our two organizations for public health solutions across all our operations globally."

Read the full article about supporting refugees during COVID-19 by Catherine Caruso at Global Citizen.