IOM will provide basic humanitarian assistance to vulnerable migrants, including stranded migrants, unaccompanied minor children (UAMCs), and victims of human trafficking. This support will be administered within the IOM Transit Centres. Specifically, IOM will:

• Provide and distribute food for vulnerable migrants;
• Provide services such as non-food item (NFI) kits, food, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), temporary shelter and counselling;
• Provide life-saving transportation and rescue assistance to migrants in a safe, humane and dignified manner;
• Provide cash-based interventions (CBI) to complement in-kind assistance prioritizing newly displaced and vulnerable households and focusing on people with special needs to address their basic emergency necessities and reduce the use of negative coping mechanisms such as selling assets to buy food and medicines.

An estimated 15,000 individuals will be targeted.

IOM aims to provide curative, preventive, and promotive services, to improve access to primary and secondary health care for crisis-affected individuals, migrants and host communities. This support will be administered within the IOM Transit Centres, throughout targeted areas of intervention and in partnership with established health structures. IOM will: 

• Support the implementation of preventative and curative health activities;
• Implement health promotion activities and establish referral systems for individuals requiring specialized care, including victims and/or potential victims of trafficking, persons with disabilities, and persons with other protection needs;
• Strengthen health structures and provide capacity-building support, equipment, refurbishments, and improvement to health facilities for both national and international health partners.

An estimated 20,000 individuals will be targeted. 

IOM will provide community-based and individual mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) services to migrants and crisis-affected populations in Niger, to enhance their psychosocial well-being and strengthen their resilience. IOM will:

• Facilitate affected populations’ access to MHPSS through service provision and capacity strengthening of local actors to provide services;
• Strengthen access to MHPSS services at the community level through capacity strengthening of health professionals and protection actors, as well as community members, in the field and the deployment of  psychosocial mobile teams (PMTs);
• Organize community and family support MHPSS activities to promote social cohesion and recovery, including socio-relational and cultural; sport and play, rituals and celebrations, and art-based and creative activities;  
• Provide psychological counselling and therapeutic activities, and support the creation or rehabilitation of safe spaces (children-friendly spaces, mother-infant spaces, etc.);
• Strengthen the capacities of state health workers and care structures to provide specialized psychiatric care to people with mental disorders and promote the psychosocial well-being of health workers; and
• Reinforce the MHPSS working group to continue mapping the presence of organizations with the operational capacity and technical expertise to provide MHPSS services as well as facilitate the development of relevant operating standards and procedures, thus contributing to strengthening collective advocacy efforts for the benefit of affected populations.

All activities will be in line with IOM’s Manual on Community-based Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergencies and Displacement and the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Guidelines on MHPSS in Emergency Settings.

An estimated 4,000 individuals will be targeted.

Voluntary humanitarian return (VHR) assistance will be provided to stranded third country nationals following expulsion from North African countries and stranded in Niger. IOM will: 

• Provide pre departure services inclusive of movement assistance to transit site, transit accommodation, consular services and provision of most feasible movement modalities for a safe, voluntary, and dignified return (at current stage exclusively through air movements in view of deteriorating security situation within the subregion and neighbouring countries and of which, mostly through charter movements due to sporadic availability of commercial flights for certain countries of return; 
• Conduct pre departure activities inclusive of pre-departure health assessments for migrants and ensuring that they are fit-to-travel (FTT) considering key health measures, and following-up on individuals with health (physical and mental) conditions/persons in need of any form of health support and protection screening to support identification of vulnerable caseloads  
• Provision of operational and/or medical escorts (as required); and additional protection specialized assistance/designated case worker if protection cases. 
• Provision of airport assistance, transit assistance for non-direct return movement  and basic arrival assistance (onward transportation assistance (OTA)/accommodation). 

An estimated 15,000 individuals will be targeted.  

With regard to the protection of the most vulnerable migrants, displaced and other crisis-affected people, IOM will:

• Provide general protection case management through direct assistance and internal and external referrals to relevant services for the most vulnerable stranded migrants in Niger, including unaccompanied migrant children, victims of trafficking (VoT);
• Reinforce its collaboration with the GBV and Child Protection Areas of Responsibility and local organizations of people with disabilities (OPDs) to contribute to responding to the needs of migrants in vulnerable situations, survivors and people with disabilities in line with IOM’s Institutional Framework for Addressing Gender-Based Violence in Crises (GBViC) and the mission’s National Action Plan on GBV, Disability Inclusion Strategy and associated Action Plan (in the process of being finalized), and AAP Strategy and associated Action Plan (being developed);
• In line with the AAP Strategy and associated Action Plan (being developed) for the Emergency and Migrant Resource and Response Mechanism (MRRM) programme, establish relevant AAP systems, including feedback and complaint mechanisms, to ensure equitable and safe access to information, services and assistance;
• As appropriate in line with political developments in the country, continue to reinforce frontline actors and partners in responding to the needs and protection issues of crisis-affected populations to better prevent and respond to protection issues through trainings, elaboration of tools and equipment donations, including on counter-trafficking (CT) in emergencies, GBV, child protection, and disability inclusion;
• Mitigate risks of GBV in all sectors, notably through the implementation of the GBV action plan and with the support of the Regional Office in Dakar;
• Mitigate the exploitation of children, trafficking in persons and other human rights violations, through capacity strengthening of peer educators, engaging populations and men and boys as actors of change;
• Reinforce the protection angle in all sensibilization and community cohesion activities in crisis-affected areas, including the risks linked to irregular migration such as trafficking in persons and smuggling of migrants;
• Support community committees in executing their role of protection for displaced populations and host communities by organizing awareness-raising and community-based activities;
• Rehabilitate structures to ensure the integration of safe spaces for women and child-friendly spaces while enhancing accessibility for persons with disabilities;
• Ensure that responses are inclusive and tailored to specific needs, e.g.; through the distribution of specific NFI kits, including dignity kits / menstrual hygiene management (MHM) items for women and girls, promoting the dignity of displaced and host populations; and through inclusive and accessible activities and assistance minimizing barriers for persons with disabilities and older persons. Cash-based interventions may be provided based on needs;
• Integrate GBV and disability inclusion indicators in needs assessment tools;
• Continue to enhance the capacity of IOM Niger and its partners to prevent and respond to sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) through mainstreaming PSEA across operations, reinforcing/building capacities of staff and implementing partners (IPs) through training, and disseminating information across assisted communities on PSEA, reporting channels and services available;
• Augmenting IOM’s broader, inclusive protection interventions, through its seven transit centres (located in Assamaka, Arlit, Agadez, Dirkou and Niamey), IOM Niger’s MRRM promotes migrants' access to basic rights by providing comprehensive needs-based protection and direct assistance services to migrants transiting through, returning to, or travelling to/from Niger, ensuring that the specific needs of migrants are comprehensively addressed by IOM or through referrals to partners.

Protection principles are mainstreamed across interventions to ensure safety and dignity, avoid causing harm and guarantee meaningful access to assistance for all persons in need, without discrimination. This includes GBV risk mitigation as well as inclusion of persons with disabilities throughout the programme cycle. Particular attention will be given to effective community participation and empowerment. Activities will be conducted and evaluated in consultation and collaboration with communities and will ensure meaningful participation of vulnerable groups, especially women and girls, children, persons with disabilities, and older persons. Furthermore, IOM will ensure that complaint and feedback mechanisms (CFM) and other reporting mechanisms related to PSEA and the Child Safeguarding Policy are in place to prevent misconduct and guarantee accountability to the affected population, in line with IOM's AAP Framework.

An estimated 13,000 individuals will be targeted, including at least 230 UAMCS and 75 VoTs.

IOM will provide WASH assistance at scale, based on assessed needs and gaps in humanitarian programming. IOM WASH interventions include the provision of safe water and sanitation and hygiene promotion. WASH activities and services aim to ensure access to safe water facilities and services through the drilling, installation, maintenance and rehabilitation of boreholes. IOM also works towards the improvement of hygiene and sanitation outcomes through the construction, operation and maintenance of hygiene and sanitation facilities (latrines, showers, handwashing stations, etc.). Activities will include:

• Supply of safe water for drinking, cooking, personal hygiene and household cleaning;
• Hygiene promotion and community mobilization to promote safe hygiene and health-seeking behaviours;
• Solid waste management and site drainage activities.

An estimated 160,000 individuals will be targeted. 

IOM will continue to provide need-based assistance to affected populations, migrants and host communities affected by conflict and natural hazards in accordance with Sphere Standards. IOM will:

• Design, set up/construction, and upgrade of emergency shelters;
• Design, set up/construction, and upgrade of transitional/core shelters and housing for displaced populations who have been in the same location for at least 12 months and show acute needs;
• Distribute NFI kits including both basic items and items for groups with specific needs (such as dignity kits, kits for pregnant women, baby kits, and material for persons with disabilities), in coordination with the WASH and Protection Working Group (WG)
• Market-based interventions, including cash to access NFI/shelter/housing (may include cash or voucher assistance for rental, repairs, reconstruction, shelter NFI and household Items) to households who had their houses destroyed or damaged by natural hazards and/or are affected by displacement in areas least affected by insecurity;
• Repair and retrofitting of damaged homes;
• Facilitation of participatory planning processes at community level and associated community infrastructure;
• Protection concerns are integrated across these activities, including measures to mitigate risks of gender-based violence (GBV) in line with the IOM’s Institutional Framework for Addressing GBViC, such as (but not limited to) ensuring the safety and privacy of shelter solutions for single females and female-headed households, establishing community spaces for women and girls, ensuring safe access to water points to women and girls, and conducting safety assessments with women and girls. IOM’s programming will ensure that the security of tenure is considered and strengthened for all those affected;
• Coordination of cluster and cluster-like mechanisms and technical working groups.

An estimated 184,800 individuals will be targeted. 
 

IOM aims to build both resilience and response capacity of communities, partner organizations, and authorities by putting resources and plans in place to better address future emergencies, increase the value for money of relief action and ensure that scarce resources are directed to where they will have the greatest impact. IOM works with the authorities and communities to enhance the speed, volume, and quality of the emergency response in coordination with relevant partners, which will contribute to their improved capacity in anticipating, responding to, and recovering from an emergency. IOM’s initiatives in emergency preparedness and responses under objective 1 (Saving lives) will: 

• Set up capacity-building activities for the State's technical services to anticipate natural hazards and put in place a coordinated response;
• Support evacuation planning, such as transporting evacuees and providing assistance at the evacuation point, providing NFI and emergency shelter at the assessment site while waiting for sustainable care, supporting the authorities in communicating alerts and sharing information;
• Work with partners in multiple sectors to enhance the coordination mechanism for emergency response and to support the reviewing, drafting, upgrading and implementation of their local contingency plans;
• Conduct social activities that are aimed at preparing communities for potential emergencies including through the mapping of available local markets and service providers, and orientations on access to and proper usage of available assistance, services and resources during emergencies;
• Support the assessment and mapping of local hazard risks and the conduct of contextualized community-based emergency preparedness management simulation exercises;
• Contribute to improving understanding and awareness of local communities and authorities on climate risks, including their interrelations with conflict and other causes that influence their vulnerabilities;
• Preposition lifesaving and humanitarian relief goods in strategic, disaster-prone areas, which are ready for deployment at the time of disasters, including key shelter and NFI materials.

An estimated 200,000 individuals will be targeted.

IOM aims to systematically collect, process, and analyze data for action and insight on population movements, specifically in cases of displacement or migration due to crises, conflicts, or natural hazards to better inform humanitarian responses, policy decisions, and programme development for effective assistance to displaced populations. IOM will:

• Conduct data collection at nine Flow Monitoring Points (FMPs) and 11 Information Points (IPs) to monitor migration patterns to, through, and from Niger;
• Conduct DTM Village Assessment Surveys (VAS) at regular intervals to track the mobility of IDPs, including their numbers, locations, places of origin, reasons for displacement, vulnerabilities, and basic humanitarian needs. This assessment will inform planning and response efforts to integrate humanitarian, peace, and development initiatives, aligning it with the recommendations of the Data for Solutions to Internal Displacement (DSID) Taskforce;
• Conduct intention surveys (IS) in communities hosting IDPs to gather information on their intentions, factors influencing them, and the opportunities these displaced communities have towards pursuing sustainable solutions through local integration, relocation, or return to places of origin. This data will guide the development of durable solutions for displaced persons;
• Utilize the Emergency Tracking Tool (ETT) for data collection to monitor displaced persons and assess conditions in communities affected by urgent events, such as floods and conflicts;
• Implement the Solutions and Mobility Index (SMI) data collection to identify stable areas and assess conditions in locations hosting displaced populations, facilitating the development of durable solutions in high-return areas. The SMI tracks context-specific data across four key areas: demographic & and mobility trends, safety & and security, access to services and infrastructure, social cohesion and resilience to climate change and catastrophes. It further helps identify the root causes of fragility and protracted displacement by addressing protracted displacement. This tool aids partners in creating strategies and allocating resources effectively in vulnerable areas, aligning humanitarian, recovery, and stabilization efforts;
• Conduct data collection on transhumance flows and cattle movements using IOM’s Transhumance Tracking Tool (TTT) to inform social cohesion programmes and mitigate tensions related to resource management and conflicts linked to transhumance campaigns in the Tillabéri region, bordering Burkina Faso and Mali. This activity complements TTT efforts in Benin, Burkina Faso, and Nigeria;
• Strengthen the capacity of specific local administrative entities across various regions in data collection and analysis.

In line with the Secretary General's Action Agenda on Internal Displacement, a series of structural reforms are required in the 15 pilot countries. As the mandate enters its final year in 2024, IOM will work closely with partners to:

• Support the production of a country solutions strategy for the UNCT, along with an accompanying action roadmap that is equipped with a coordination structure on durable solutions. This will allow the pilot of new approaches to Niger's longstanding issue of protracted displacement in an organized, coordinated manner. Funds will be used to help finalize the solutions strategy, establish and maintain coordination arrangements, and support the establishment of an action roadmap and financing framework for solutions in Niger.

IOM aims to support stabilization of conflict-affected communities in insecure regions of Niger by creating more trust in local government authorities and state structures and improving resilience and cohesion to resist and address conflict and insecurity, including violent extremist threats in target regions. IOM will:

• Improve inter- and intra-community social dialogues and foster collaboration between communities, internally displaced persons and local authorities through activities aimed at strengthening/restoring trust between the actors concerned;
• Strengthen the role and impact of basic social structures to promote local governance through community exchanges and consultations on key community issues;
• Strengthen the capacities of local and traditional authorities to enable them to fulfil their role as mediators in prevention and conflict resolution, and social and community mediation;
• Support sporting, cultural and social activities, and establish exchange platforms to encourage dialogue and social cohesion;
• Support community dialogues between communities and local authorities to enhance decentralized services of the State to improve access to and provision of basic social services identified by communities. The most common interventions are in the health, sanitation, water and education sectors. Communities after a participatory decision-making process can participate in the construction and/or rehabilitation of essential services such as the supply/distribution of drinking water, in particular through the construction of “small water supply mechanisms”. Community members are also identified to be part of the management committees of the infrastructures and are trained in financial management and conflict management linked to access to natural resources;
• Implement tailored economic recovery initiatives to address the needs of the most vulnerable groups, particularly women and young people through income-generating activities (including cash-for-work schemes, provision of grants to local cooperatives, and setting up of small businesses). Furthermore, the technical skills of young entrepreneurs will be strengthened, supporting local businesses and raising awareness among young Nigerians (including women) of self-employment and the creation of entrepreneurial activities;
• Put in place and strengthen conflict prevention and management structures (network of peace committees and local land commissions) through trainings;
• Equip local authorities to ensure peace and security, and to respond to threats in targeted communities with greater confidence placed in these authorities by the population, through capacity reinforcement, community dialogues, concertation frameworks, awareness raising caravans, providing equipment and supplies to local authorities, etc.

An estimated 400,000 individuals will be targeted.

IOM aims to enhance resilience at both the individual and community levels in areas impacted by insecurity, climate change, and unsafe migration. This will enable these areas to better withstand future shocks and foster stability in at-risk communities. IOM will contribute to reducing women and youth economic marginalization by implementing livelihood activities (cash-for-work in land rehabilitation and city sanitation; and longer-term income-generating activities). These activities will engage both displaced and host community members to promote peaceful coexistence. 

An estimated 32,000 individuals will be targeted.

Niger and specifically, the Liptako-Gourma region (Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger) faces specific vulnerabilities and risks resulting from weak access to basic social services, repeated climatic shocks, and general insecurity due to the increased presence of violent extremist groups. IOM seeks to prevent, manage and resolve conflict as a driver of displacement and support sustainable peace and reintegration. IOM works at the individual, community and institutional levels to address the root causes, drivers and triggers of conflict, and manage conflict dynamics, by supporting violence prevention and resolution, community stabilization and social cohesion, creating conditions for sustainable peace. To do so, IOM will:  

• Reinforce local authorities’ capacities to prevent conflict by rehabilitating/building public infrastructures such as schools, boreholes, integrated health centres, and community infrastructures (such as community radios and youth and culture houses). These activities will be instrumental in enhancing local communities’ trust in local authorities;
• Engage in environmental peacebuilding activities by addressing conflict drivers that arise from the competition over increasingly scarce natural resources;
• Mitigate the marginalization of women and youth by providing  a platform in forums gathering key stakeholders including local administrative and customary authorities;
• Promote inclusive solutions to prevent inter-ethnic tensions, and the spread of violent extremism in targeted communes;
• Establish and strengthen the Peace Committee network in communes (composed of traditional, religious, youth and women leaders) to improve local exchange frameworks promoting peace and social cohesion.

An estimated 500,000 individuals will be targeted. 

Niger is already witnessing migration linked to climate change, with household members undertaking circular migration as means to supplement household income and consumption, through new employment and economic opportunities. Internal displacement is also being recorded in Niger, with communities being forced to move in search of protection due to floods, extended periods of drought and climate-linked conflicts. 
In addressing these challenges, IOM is committed to building on the Government of Niger’s established achievements on migration and is dedicated to providing holistic support in adapting and responding to the realities of climate change. IOM will double its efforts to: 

• Strengthen Niger’s capacity to collect timely and comparable data at the community level on migration, environmental and climate change and its impacts on communities’ social, political, economic, environmental, and demographic capitals;
• Collect evidence, share analysis, and promote good practices addressing migration, displacement and cross-border movements due to environmental hazards; 
• Support the Government of Niger to develop sound policy frameworks as well as enhance national capacities on migration, environment and climate change by improving global-level access to quality research on the cross-cutting nature of climate migration in Niger;
• Develop and establish wide-ranging disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation activities by mainstreaming migration, environment and climate change across the Organization’s portfolio of programmes and partnerships;
• Support clean energy programmes, green labour migration initiatives, livelihood practices diversification and migrant protection services;
• Promote and deliver gender-inclusive and migrant-centred solutions that prioritize human security and human rights while responding to the challenges of climate change;
• Implement activities to prevent climate-related health hazards, such as communicable disease outbreaks, barriers to healthcare access, premature deaths caused by malnutrition and heat stress, increased spread of water-borne diseases (e.g., cholera), vector-borne
• Address disruptions to food and water systems, and mitigate the impacts of extreme events such as floods and storms.

An estimated 35 000 individuals will be targeted.