Bosnia and Herzegovina: assessing health systems capacity to manage large influx of refugees and migrants. Joint report on a mission of the Health Authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the WHO Regional Office for Europe.

Abstract

The large numbers of refugees and migrants arriving in and transiting through Bosnia and Herzegovina pose new challenges to the health system, which must adapt and respond to the needs of both migrants and residents. This requires an efficient policy dialogue between the main stakeholders to share experiences and identify best practices. The WHO Regional Office for Europe, through the Migration and Health programme, supports Member States for strengthening the health sector's capacity to provide evidence-informed responses to the public health challenges for refugee and migrant health. In this regard, a joint assessment mission was carried out in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2019, using the WHO Toolkit to structure the assessment, interviews and site visits. This report summarizes the findings under the six functions of the WHO health system framework for strengthening a country's capacity to address public health implications of large migration flows.