The Operational Data Portal (ODP) was created in 2011 to enable UNHCR’s institutional responsibility to provide an information and data sharing platform to facilitate coordination of refugee emergencies. This was achieved using independent ‘situation views’ covering major emergencies such as the Syria situation or the Central African Republic emergency, among others.

The ODP’s initial scope of coordination of refugee emergencies has evolved since its inception. Other types of situation views are now available, such as those on refugee returnees (e.g., in Ivory Coast), on mixed movements (e.g., asylum and migration in West and Central Africa), on statelessness (e.g., in the Great Lakes region), or on Camp Coordination and Camp Management (e.g., CCM Somalia Overview).

Country views were introduced in 2017 as a complement to situation views. In recognition that refugee emergencies cannot be considered in isolation from the wider situation, the ODP now provides data and information on all persons of concern to UNHCR (refugees and asylum seekers, IDPs, stateless persons, etc.)