Emergency Response (MISP)

This toolkit was developed as a companion to the Inter-Agency Field Manual on Reproductive Health in Refugee Settings to help humanitarian program managers and healthcare providers meet the sexual and reproductive health needs of adolescents when an emergency strikes, and to ensure that service providers and program managers have the right resources to make programs acceptable, accessible and appropriate for adolescents in emergency situations. It includes user-friendly tools for assessing adolescent needs, fostering participation with communities and parents, and identifying reproductive health entry points in existing adolescent programs.

This document is a standard form to assess the implementation of the MISP in reproductive healthcare service delivery points.

An assessment of the Minimum Initial Service Package (MISP) of reproductive health in February 2005 in Aceh province. Over all, despite some gaps, findings demonstrate that attention to and funding for reproductive health during the earliest days of an emergency can ensure that displaced populations have access to life-saving reproductive health services.

The Caring for Survivors of Sexual Violence in Emergencies Training Pack provides information and skill development in various aspects related to communication and engagement with sexual violence survivors in conflict-affected countries or complex emergencies. It also focuses on medical treatment. This training resource is recommended by and agreed upon by global colleagues to be used as the primary gender-based violence (GBV) training resource. This collaborative tool has helped to bring together lessons learned and best practices in GBV training. This training manual is designed for professional health care providers such as physicians, health workers as well as for members of the legal profession, police, women's groups and other concerned community members, such as community workers, teachers and religious workers. Some of the participants in this training will directly serve adults and children who have been raped. They will offer medical or psychosocial support, help survivors to seek justice or ensure their protection. Other participants will help bring together support groups or receive disclosures of sexual violence in their communities. For more information about the training pack, download the outline document here.

Training Guide

General and Psychosocial Modules: Facilitator Manual - Participant Manual

Medical Modules: Facilitator Manual - Participant Manual

Powerpoints for Medical Modules

Participant Pack Handouts

An assessment of the Minimum Initial Service Package (MISP) of reproductive health services among Sudanese refugees in eastern Chad from April 5-14, 2004. Also available in French here.

Provides guidance to health care providers for medical management after rape of women, men, and children. This guide is designed to assist qualified health care providers (medical co-ordinators, medical doctors, clinical officers, midwives, and nurses) to develop protocols for the management of rape survivors, based on available resources, materials, drugs, and national policies and procedures. Managers and trainers of health care services can also benefit, as they may use the guide to plan for survivor care and train health care providers accordingly. (The link is to a revised and updated edition of the original 2002 guide)

Also available in French and Arabic

This document presents a guidance for action on cooking fuel and the humanitarian response in Haiti.

The RHRC Consortium is working to mainstream EC by increasing awareness and knowledge of EC and improving access to and demand for EC in appropriate program locations.

The brochure version of the module can be downloaded in English (updated in October 2008; optional cover here), French (updated in October 2008; optional cover here), Spanish, Portuguese, Pashto, and Burmese.

An overview of key facts, messages and case studies pertaining to the Minimum Initial Service Package (MISP).

This fact sheet summarises the risks addressed the implementing the MISP, its objectives, and some recommendations and key facts for implementing agencies.

At the time of the assessment, four months after the January 12 earthquake, an estimated 2 million individuals remained displaced in settlement sites in earthquake-affected areas, including Port-au-Prince, Jacmel, Leogane, Petit Goave and Grand Goave. The Government of Haiti and humanitarian organizations have scaled up their response and contingency planning, particularly for food, water, health and emergency shelter with the advent of the rainy and hurricane season.The summary report is available in English, French and Creole, and the report for community participants, in English and Creole.

HeRAMS is a software-based information system developed by the global health cluster to support the collection, collation and analysis of information on the availability of health resources in different areas and locations and by type of point of delivery and level of care. Health resources include health facilities (infrastructure), personnel, and also the services provided. The matrix and checklist are accessible in the attachment.

The suggested health indicators and benchmarks are grouped into availability, coverage, risk factors and outcomes.

A consultation on sexual and reproductive health in protracted crisis and recovery was convened in Granada, Spain the 28 to 30th September of 2009, bringing together practitioners directly involved in the provision of services in affected countries, representatives from UN organizations and other humanitarian partners from the Health Cluster, academic experts and donors.

This training manual, developed by Family Health International (FHI), the RHRC Consortium, and the International Rescue Committee (IRC) for service providers attending to gender-based-violence (GBV) survivors. The manual includes a detailed 5-day communication skills training of trainers curriculum, with materials, agendas and handouts that may be used by participants to conduct future training. The manual covers the basics of GBV, engagement strategies for working with GBV survivors, service provider responsibilities, community referrals, methods to support service providers, and the evaluation process.

The 2010 Inter-agency Field Manual on Reproductive Health in Humanitarian Settings is an update of the 1999 Reproductive Health in Refugee Situations: An Inter-agency Field Manual, the authoritative guidance on reproductive health interventions in humanitarian settings.

The document is available chapter-by-chapter and as a single zip file by following the link above, as well as Arabic, Bahasa, Dari, French and Spanish translations, corrections, details of regional launches and hard copy ordering.

The essential drugs, equipment and supplies to implement the MISP have been assembled into a set of specially designed prepackaged kits. The Inter-Agency Reproductive Health Kits. The kits complement the objectives laid out in Reproductive Health in Humanitarian Settings: An Inter-agency Field Manual. The resource is also available in French and Spanish.

The Womens Commission for Refugee Women and Children conducted a two-week field mission to Amman, Jordan in June 2007 to gather information from Iraqi refugee women, men and youth about their reproductive health and other needs.

This document summarizes the importance of implementing the MISP at the onset of every emergency, as advocacy messages for policy makers.

A self-instructional learning module that helps to increase knowledge of priority reproductive health services to initiate at the onset of a crisis. Module includes chapter quizzes and post-test. A passing score on the post-test will result in certification.

The previous version of the module dates back to 2006 and is also available in French, and available here for download in English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Bahasa, and Russian.

A Burmese version is available here.

Also available are fact sheets and inserts (English, French, Spanish and Arabic).

A "cheat sheet" is also available in English ((IPPF/Women's Refugee Commission, December 2009)), Arabic (WRC, March 2012),French (UNFPA, March 2010), Spanish, and Bahasa.

The Minimum Initial Service Package (MISP) Advocacy Sheet translated into Thai.

The revised cheat sheet summarizes the objectives and activities of the Minimum Initial Service Package (MISP) for RH in crises as outlined in Reproductive Health in Humanitarian Settings: An Inter-agency Field Manual. The front page notes the objectives and the back page contains a matrix that maps minimum versus comprehensive RH services, and an outline of the content of the IAWG RH Kits.

The revised cheat sheet, translated into Bahasa Indonesian, summarizes the objectives and activities of the Minimum Initial Service Package (MISP) for RH in crises as outlined in Reproductive Health in Humanitarian Settings: An Inter-agency Field Manual. The front page notes the objectives and the back page contains a matrix that maps minimum versus comprehensive RH services, and an outline of the content of the IAWG RH Kits.

The revised French cheat sheet summarizes the objectives and activities of the Minimum Initial Service Package (MISP) for RH in crises as outlined in Reproductive Health in Humanitarian Settings: An Inter-agency Field Manual. The front page notes the objectives and the back page contains a matrix that maps minimum versus comprehensive RH services, and an outline of the content of the IAWG RH Kits.

This document summarizes key facts and messages, including case study snapshots, on reproductive health in emergencies.

An inter-agency assessment of the progress the humanitarian community has made in the implementation of the MISP in emergency response operations. The assessment took place four months after the earthquake and included visits to displacement settings in Port-au-Prince, Leogane and Jacmel.

The post-election violence in Kenya in the early months of 2008 displaced more than 500,000 people. The Womens Refugee Commission went to Kenya in April 2008 to assess the implementation of the MISP. Also available: Report for Contributors (,a href="http://www.womensrefugeecommission.org/docs/ken_misp_contributors_eng.pdf">English) and Report for Contributors (Kiswahili).

Assessment of MISP of reproductive health in February 2005 in Aceh province of Indonesia. (Summary in Indonesian available here).

Report of an Inter-agency Global Evaluation 2004, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, November 2004. This report highlights the status of reproductive health services for refugees and internally displaced persons, identifies gaps in these services, and outlines the way forward with respect to strengthening and/or expanding services. In addition to the report and its appendices, there is a brief synopsis, web film, and PowerPoint presentations.

This page features a summary of the proceedings, a book of abstracts, and select presentations from the RHRC Consortium Conference held in Brussels, Belgium, October 7-8, 2003.

The Sexual and Reproductive Health Programme in Crisis and Post-Crisis Situations in East, Southeast Asia and the Pacific (SPRINT) Initiative has developed a facilitator's manual on priority sexual and reproductive health (SHR) services in humanitarian emergencies, including prevention and response to sexual violence. It can be used by persons from agencies, organizations or governments who provide training on SRH in crises and emergencies and who are familiar with the concepts. The manual provides step-by-step direction through each day of the training, including materials required.

Also available in Bahasa (download as zip files in two parts, I and II).

SPRINT convened its first annual SPRINT Review Meeting in Beijing, China from 21 to 22 October, 2009. The objectives of the meeting were to: 1. Review the rollout of the SPRINT in-country echo trainings; 2. Identify good practices and cross-cutting challenges in implementation of the MISP; 3. Share experiences and lessons learned in advocating to integrate the MISP into national emergency response plans; and 4. Brainstorm next steps to scale up awareness and implementation of the MISP where needed in the region.

The Womens Refugee Commission conducted a reproductive health (RH) assessment focused on the implementation of priority RH activities among Afghan refugees in the Northwest Frontier (NWF), Baluchistan and Punjab provinces of Pakistan from August 2002 through June 2003.