Cox’s Bazar – Over the past few weeks, International Humanitarian Partnerships (IHP), with support from IOM, the UN Migration Agency, has been building a coordination hub for the Rohingya refugee crisis response in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.

The hub will provide workspace for approximately 50 aid workers, meeting rooms and internet connectivity close to the refugee settlements. This will enhance the humanitarian community’s ability to coordinate effectively in the field.

“We were asked by IOM, on behalf of the humanitarian community, to create an inter-agency coordination hub to improve efficiency,” said Morten Helge Hansen, the IHP Team Leader from the Danish Emergency Management Agency (DEMA). “With most humanitarian offices over an hour away from the settlements and barely any network signal or internet access in the area, we know that this facility will help overcome some of the challenges that we are currently facing.”

The hub, which was started in late October, is expected to be finished in early 2018. But the first meeting was held in it last week and field sectors leading the response already began to move into their new office spaces yesterday (22/10). “We are taking a step by step approach, while we are constructing,” said Hansen.

IHP provides multi-national collaborative support to UN humanitarian operations in both conflict and natural disaster settings. The partnership has eight members: Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Luxembourg, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

“Our crew consists of eight people from four different governmental agencies with a variety of skills. We have a doctor, some firemen, an environmental consultant, an IT specialist and an electrician. This is the beauty of IHP,” Hansen said.

This project is supported by the Governments of Estonia, Luxembourg, Sweden, Denmark and the UK, as well as, the European Union.

A second hub is planned further south in Cox’s Bazar district, where there are smaller refugee settlements and many Rohingya live among Bangladeshi communities.

For more information, please contact Olivia Headon at IOM Cox’s Bazar, Tel: +8801733335221, Email: oheadon@iom.int