The Multi-Cluster/Sector Initial Rapid Assessment - MIRA (Report and Executive Summary)

Between March and April 2018, the United Nations Country Team (UNCT) in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) in cooperation with various international and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), conducted a Multi-cluster/sector Initial Rapid Assessment (MIRA) to gather information on the current migrant and refugee situation, identify needs and gaps and inform the planning and coordination of the immediate UN response.

The MIRA is a rapid inter-agency process that enables actors to reach - early on in an emergency or potential emergency - a common understanding of the situation at hand and its likely evolution. The findings of a MIRA provide evidence allowing humanitarian actors to identify strategic humanitarian priorities, develop a joint response, mobilize additional funding if needed, and to monitor the situation as it progresses. A MIRA is often a first step which informs possible subsequent more detailed needs assessment and analysis. Importantly, a MIRA provides an important channel for the affected population to voice their various perspectives, concerns, and needs.

The purpose of the MIRA exercise and this derivative report is to support humanitarian actors and decision-makers - including the UNCT, the government, and donors - to communicate on the nature and dynamics of refugees and migrants in BiH in a needs-informed and harmonized manner as well as to further define strategic humanitarian response priorities.

Initiated by the UN Resident Coordinator in BiH, the Multi-cluster/sector Initial Rapid Assessment involved UNHCR, IOM, UNICEF, UNDSS, UNFPA, OSCE, the Office of the UN Resident Coordinator, the Ministry for Human Rights and Refugees of Bosnia and Herzegovina (as observers), Refugee Aid Serbia, Save the Children, Médecins Sans Frontières, Hilfswerk Austria International, Catholic Relief Services, Vaša Prava BiH, Caritas, and the Bosnia and Herzegovina Women’s Initiative.