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Handbooks and toolkits

This page gathers all recent handbooks and toolkits issued by UNHCR. They provide guidance, practical tools and resources on key topics related to UNHCR’s work worldwide. 

If you are looking for data on global displacement and UNHCR operations, please see our Data page, which lists all UNHCR's main data publications and statistical databases, such as Global TrendsGlobal Report and Global Focus

If you are looking for older documents, please visit Refworld, UNHCR's leading source of information with a larger collection of reports, handbooks and toolkits. 

Handbooks

Democratic Republic of the Congo. Burundians seek refuge in neighbouring country

This Handbook is a guide to agile, effective and community based humanitarian emergency responses. It is primarily a tool for UNHCR emergency operations and its workforce.

This Handbook is a comprehensive guide for the integration of resettled refugees, with checklists, practical advice, and good practices.

Pakistan. Trailblazing refugee doctor serves her community

This Handbook defines needs assessments and outlines the roles of different actors in refugee situations. It provides detailed practical guidance on how to conduct needs assessments in the field, which can be applied to all sectors, situations, methods, and populations of concern.

Pakistan. Biometric smartcards issued to registered Afghan refugees

This Handbook is intended to guide government officials, judges, practitioners, as well as UNHCR colleagues in applying the refugee definition under the 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol relating to the status of refugees.

Burkina Faso. Village chief wins joint UNHCR Nansen Refugee Award regional prize for Africa

This Handbook analyses the role and activities of National Human Rights Institutions in addressing the human rights dimensions of internal displacement. It provides an overview of good practices and serves as a practical tool for NHRIs and other stakeholders around the world.

Romania. Refugees evacuated from Libya to Emergency Transit Centre

This Handbook offers resettlement management and policy guidance to UNHCR staff. It is a key reference tool for resettlement states and NGOs on global resettlement policy and practice.

Two children sit in a hammock giving a thumbs up, with a mother and baby in the hammock behind them

This pocket guide is a simple reference tool that provides key recommendations for spatial planning and design of temporary collective accommodations in the Americas, adapted to the emergency context throughout the Americas region, responding to the need for harmonization of standards in the various countries.

TCA handbook in Spanish | TCA handbook in Portuguese

Toolkits

DO NOT USE

This Toolkit provides staff and managers with practical methods for the operationalisation of UNHCR's accountability commitments, achieved through mainstreaming into performance management and protection and assistance delivery.

Uganda. Refugee suicides highlight need for better mental health resources

This Toolkit is designed for humanitarian settings and public health actors. It offers an overall approach to practical assessment tools to be used to improve people's mental health and well-being, depending on your capacity and the phase of the humanitarian crisis.

Young children from the Sahrawi community play on the sand dunes at Dakhla camp in Tindouf, western Algeria, close to the border with Morocco and Western Sahara.

This Toolkit describes UNHCR's case management framework for asylum-seeking and refugee children. It provides access to the range of tools and guidance necessary for implementing the Best Interests Procedure (BIP) for individual children. 

Young children from the Sahrawi community play on the sand dunes at Dakhla camp in Tindouf, western Algeria, close to the border with Morocco and Western Sahara.

This Toolkit describes the best practices in sheltering asylum-seeking families at the U.S. southern border.

Greece. For Syrian refugees cash cards are an invaluable lifeline

This Toolkit aims to assist operations in determining the feasibility of cash-based interventions (CBIs) in UNHCR country programmes. It is to be used after a needs assessment has taken place, and serves CBI practitioners in the field.

This Toolkit offers practical experiences of municipal authorities and local actors in translating national policies into solutions for the effective inclusion of refugees, with refugees being fully included in their design and development. 

Democratic Republic of Congo. Vocational training for GBV survivors

This Toolkit offers essential guidance and resources to Gender-Based Violence specialists and non-specialists working with or for UNHCR.

Jordan. Syrian refugees flee to Jordan

This Toolkit is designed to provide UNHCR personnel with practical guidance and user-friendly tools, tips, information and resources to support the achievement of gender equality.

 

Job Aid for Child Protection

This Toolkit presents learning resources on child protection for all UNHCR child protection workforce, protection staff and other staff as relevant. Please note that registration is required for non-UNHCR staff to access the materials, which are regularly updated.

Nigeria. Cameroonian refugees receive cash to purchase the food of their choice

UNHCR and WFP have jointly developed this toolkit to help humanitarian actors and cash recipients identify and mitigate risks of abuse of power in cash-based assistance.

Jordan. Syrian home based business in Karak

This Toolkit provides step-by-step guidance and tools to enable staff with limited skills in market data collection and analysis to successfully carry out a Multi-sector Market Assessment and market monitoring - to be applied in all operational contexts.

Lebanon. ATM cards during cash distribution

This Toolkit brings together worldwide expertise on cash-based interventions. It provides comprehensive and practical guidance for humanitarian actors to assess the feasibility, conceptualize the design and structure the implementation of MPGs.

Sport for protection toolkit

This Toolkit aims to harness the power of sport to strengthen the protection, development and empowerment environments for refugee and internally displaced young people. It guides the work of the Olympic Refugee Foundation and is intended for organisations and stakeholders.

Electra and LGBT refugee from Honduras hanging up the rainbow flag at the LGBT module at La 72 migrant shelter in Tenosique, Tabasco, Mexico.

UNHCR and IOM have jointly developed this comprehensive training package on the protection of people with diverse SOGIESC for personnel as well as the broader humanitarian community.

Sport for protection toolkit

This Toolkit includes guidance, templates, a workshop guide and examples from the field to develop and implement Standard Operating Procedures for BIP (Best Interest Procedures for refugee and asylum-seeking children). 

An illustration of a young girl in a classroom sitting at a desk and writing.

This toolkit contains a collection of UNHCR teaching materials on refugees, asylum and migration for primary and secondary education, as well as some guidance for teachers working with refugee children in the classroom.