Definition

The MISP for SRH is a set of priority interventions that are implemented during the early phase of a natural disaster or conflict. It has become an internationally accepted standard and is included in the Sphere Project guidelines[1]. The MISP focuses on displaced populations in acute situations, but can also be used as a minimum standard for post-crisis and protracted situations to ensure that SRH services are established.

The goal of the MISP is to ‘reduce mortality, morbidity and disability among populations affected by crises, particularly women and girls. These populations may be refugees, IDPs or populations hosting refugees or IDPs[2]’. Its objectives are to:

• Identify an organization(s) and individual(s) to facilitate the coordination and implementation of the MISP;
  
• Prevent sexual violence and provide assistance to survivors by i) ensuring systems are in place to protect displaced populations, particularly women and girls and ii) ensuring medical services and psychological support;
  
• Reduce HIV and STI transmission by i) enforcing universal precautions and ii) ensuring the availability of free condoms;
  
• Prevent excess maternal and neonatal mortality and morbidity by i) providing clean birth kits to ensure clean home births, ii) providing midwifery birth kits to facilitate clean and safe deliveries at the health facilities, and iii) establishing a 24/7 referral system to manage obstetric emergencies;
  
• Plan for the provision of comprehensive SRH services, integrated into primary health care

Despite its importance, the MISP has not been widely or comprehensively used in crisis and post-crisis situations; in some settings, health coordinators were not aware of the MISP. Even though there is a recent shift towards using the MISP in crises during the last couple of years, there are still certain challenges that prevent its full implementation. These challenges include the scarcity of trainers and fieldworkers expert in the MISP, difficulty to keep track of former MISP trainees, absence of a trained regional network that could be deployed during emergencies, lack of financial resources to fund short trainings on the MISP and lack of updated training materials.

The SPRINT Initiative aims to address these challenges in the region. An important component of the SPRINT Initiative is to increase regional capacity to implement the MISP for SRH in crises through a series of three regional training of trainers, provision of technical and financial support for echo-trainings, as well as coordination of emergency funds (see Latest Events).

Read Summarized MISP Cheat Sheet

The online distance learning module can be accessed at www.rhrc.org/MISP

[1] Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response, The Sphere Project, 2004 Edition

[2] MISP for Reproductive Health in Crisis Situations: A Distance Learning Module, New York: Women’s Commission; 2006