Humanitarian vs Pandemic Responses: Vulnerable Groups among Rohingyas in Bangladesh

Abstract

The Rohingya diaspora is a politically sensitive humanitarian crisis for Bangladesh. The current Covid-19 pandemic poses a range of governance, demographic, and environmental policy challenges in an already fragile context. The ongoing situation combined with the pandemic requires a rethinking of humanitarian strategies to tackle the double burden of crises – humanitarian and pandemic. Drawing together evidence and experience from a mixed method participatory action research conducted among Rohingya refugees and the host community in Bangladesh, this article highlights the importance of the institutional readiness of research organisations to produce contextual interventions and targeted approaches in pandemic and humanitarian response for diverse communities. The article also reflects on the strategies researchers applied to create a knowledge network between researchers and implementers, which not only informed the study design and its selection of most vulnerable groups but also worked towards producing knowledge fit for purpose, where critical evidence was shared with key decision makers and policymakers.