Are we reaching refugees and internally displaced persons?

Public health communication is the production and exchange of information to inform, influence or motivate the target audience to enable desirable, sustainable health practices at individual, community and institutional levels. This paper explores key issues relating to health communication in refugees and other displaced populations, i.e. the “hardly reached”.1 Though there are several challenges there are also many opportunities and lessons learned that can be applied to existing programmes. In 2007, the number of “people of concern” to the Office of the United Nation’s High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) included 9.9 million refugees and 12.8 million internally displaced persons. A refugee is a person who is outside his/her country of origin owing to a well-founded fear of persecution and is unable to avail himself/herself of the protection of that country. Internally displaced persons often leave their homes for the same reasons as refugees, including avoiding armed conflict or generalized violence but also natural or human-made disasters; unlike refugees, internally displaced persons have not crossed an internationally recognized national border. Displacement is often assumed to be short-term but refugees can remain within host countries for many years, during which there is a need for effective health communication. In any well-planned communication intervention the approach must be appropriate to the target audience. While this applies to all populations, challenges and opportunities in health communication targeting displaced populations vary depending on, but not limited to, the stage of displacement, physical environment and location (urban, rural and campbased settings), the sociocultural context and the degree of diversity within the displaced population. Phases of displacement