The Role of First-Line Managers in a Pandemic in Reducing the Spread of Infections and Promoting the Health and Well-Being of Rohingya Refugees

ABSTRACT

Humanitarian organizations in Bangladesh introduced emergency services to protect Rohingya refugees from COVID-19. This article aims to explore the roles front-line leaders from those organizations played in reducing the spread of the infection and protecting the refugees. By using in-depth interviews with 42 first-line managers (FLMs), it explores the innovative actions and strategies adopted by these managers to implement COVID-19-related programs and services. Initiatives such as training and engaging Rohingya volunteers and developing services promptly in order to raise awareness and manage testing, treatment, and psychosocial interventions contributed significantly to pandemic management in Rohingya refugee camps.

PRACTICE POINTS

• Humanitarian groups must realize the crucial role first-line managers (FLMs) play in managing their staff while providing high-quality services in times of crisis.

• FLMs must be both leaders and managers in order to deal with a pandemic, in which uncertainty and a lack of knowledge create a complicated and demanding environment. Both functions are critical to providing quality services when resources are limited and only a few workers are available.

• The FLMs focused on mass-level awareness programs with active community engagement and participation, counseling for behavioral change, the provision of information in order to address socio-cultural barriers to community engagement, better utilization of agency services and resources, and pandemic management so as to reduce the spread and the rate of infection of COVID-19 among Rohingya refugees.

• Senior and middle management commitment was required to help FLMs manage a pandemic, even in the face of uncertainty, unpredictability, ambiguity, and a lack of information about the virus and its cure. They must serve as role models.

• FLMs should be empowered to fulfill their leadership roles through the better use of community strengths and resources during pandemics or other crises by strengthening local leadership skills, community capabilities, and an overall sense of communal responsibility.

KEYWORDS:

• Rohingya refugees
• COVID-19
• first-line managers (FLMs)
• leadership
• challenges
• community engagement

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the SUST Research Center, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology [Project ID SS/2020/1/34].