As the co-lead agency of the CCCM cluster and one of the very few operational actors in the country managing IDP sites, IOM will continue its interventions in CCCM to provide a principled and protection-based site response, ensuring the mainstreaming of actions to address protection risks, including GBV. CCCM interventions will include:

• Deploying camp management services in collective settlements to facilitate the establishment of site governance structures, strengthening capacities of IDP committees, and ensuring meaningful participation and representation of groups, including women and girls and other groups, exposed to higher risks of exclusion, violence, abuse and exploitation.
• Ensuring the close coordination of actors delivering assistance and conducting protection activities in sites, monitoring the delivery of services and advocating for the gaps to be filled in line with local minimum standards. 
• Establishing and handling complaints and feedback mechanisms (CFMs) in sites, and supporting referrals to relevant actors for response and advocacy, guaranteeing that protection needs and incidents are referred directly to specialized actors.
• In coordination with the Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) Unit and relevant partners and in line with IOM’s Data Protection Principles, managing information about the displacement situation in collective settlements including the mapping and profiling of sites, registration exercises, the monitoring of new arrivals and departures from sites as well as return trends, and conducting thematic assessments and surveys such as safety audits, vulnerability assessments or intention surveys.
• Supporting respective governmental partners to strengthen their role as camp administrators.
• Implementing site planning, improvement or restructuring works to ensure safer and more dignified living conditions for displaced populations and supporting the establishment of new sites including to decongest collective centres such as schools, as a last resort solution. 
• Advocating for land allocation and supporting the joint identification and assessment of suitable land to develop these new sites, while ensuring the newly established sites have exit strategies in place.
• Providing transportation assistance to displaced populations currently hosted in collective centres (schools, churches) or dangerous areas to ensure their safe transfer to existing or new displacement sites, as necessary.
• Advocating for and coordinating efforts for informed and voluntary return, relocation and/or local integration for displaced populations (durable solutions) and accompanying IDPs towards achieving them through the provision of orientation and transportation support to the return/relocation areas.
• Strengthening capacities of community leaders, humanitarian partners, and governmental entities in CCCM, and raising the awareness of the government and humanitarian partners on international protection and assistance principles, including on site closures and achieving durable solutions.
• Co-leading the Cluster with UNHCR at the national and provincial levels, providing strategic guidance, technical and capacity-building support, and conducting advocacy on behalf of all actors involved in CCCM activities.

IOM DRC will continue to implement context-specific shelter interventions in displacement sites, host communities and areas of return/resettlement to ensure populations have dignified and safe living conditions and minimize health- and protection-related risks, including GBV. Following community-based needs assessments, IOM will continue targeting the most vulnerable IDPs residing in sites and in host communities and returnees, in eastern DRC and other provinces affected by crises to provide them with emergency, transitional and durable shelter solutions based on their needs, and non-food items (NFI) kits through various modalities, including in-kind and/or cash-based assistance. IOM activities will include:

• Distributing shelter construction materials or cash assistance for emergency, transitional and durable shelters, while ensuring that materials used are adapted to the local context and quality standards and aligned with the Shelter Cluster guidelines. 
• Supporting construction by providing technical training on safe construction to community members and ensuring that housing, land, and property issues are duly addressed. 
• Providing tailored assistance to vulnerable households (including persons with specific needs, persons with disabilities, women heads of households, pregnant and breastfeeding women, and people at risk), including support for labour to ensure that their shelter needs are met.
• Continuing to engage beneficiaries in the design, implementation and evaluation of interventions to ensure context-specific shelter solutions (e.g. emergency shelter, transitional shelter, cash-based modalities) are provided, using an inclusive approach.
• Constructing communal hangars as a last resort to host displaced populations who must vacate collective centres (schools, churches) or while household shelters are under construction, as applicable.  
• Distributing standard NFI kits (in-kind or in cash) to the displaced households most in need, as per NFI Sub-Cluster kit composition and guidelines.
• Ensuring protection mainstreaming including mitigation of GBV risks and supporting accessibility, notably for persons with disabilities, throughout all shelter and NFI interventions.
• In support of durable solutions, accompanying voluntary return, relocation and local integration of the displaced population through the provision of transitional and durable shelters.

IOM in DRC will expand its WASH interventions to continue reinforcing access to quality and safe WASH services for conflict- and disaster-affected populations, as well as tackling the risk of outbreaks and water-borne diseases and improving hygiene practices in sites, host communities, areas of relocation/return and communities facing epidemics, in eastern DRC and other affected provinces. WASH interventions, which will integrate protection and GBV mitigation measures and promote accessibility, will include:

• Ensuring the construction and/or rehabilitation of handwashing stations, showers, and latrines separated by gender, and equipped with locks and lights to reduce risks of GBV; as well as the maintenance and decommissioning of emergency sanitation facilities.
• Building and/or rehabilitating water systems or networks, notably with solar energy, for water distribution including boreholes, the construction/rehabilitation of water networks from water sources, and mobilizing water trucking, as necessary.
• Ensuring the engagement and participation of the affected populations throughout the planning, construction, and maintenance of infrastructures, especially through community-based WASH committees in displacement sites.
• Carrying out hygiene promotion activities in sites and host communities based on a thorough understanding of local hygiene knowledge, attitudes, and practices to minimize risks of waterborne diseases.
• Providing WASH support in schools, in health facilities and at health screening points (points of entry and points of control).
• Distributing hygiene kits to displaced populations as well as menstrual hygiene management (MHM) kits to displaced women and girls of menstruating age (between the ages of 12 and 49).
• Strengthening the capacity of IOM personnel, partners, and WASH committees to ensure effective operation and quality of WASH infrastructures.
• In support of durable solutions, providing assistance for voluntary return, relocation and local integration to the displaced populations through the provision of WASH services.

IOM will provide community-based mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) services to conflict-affected communities with a focus on services that will contribute to reducing suffering, improving psychosocial well-being and strengthening resilient capabilities among IDPs. All activities will be in line with the IASC MHPSS Guidelines in Emergency Settings (2007) and the IOM Manual on Community-Based MHPSS in Emergencies and Displacement (2021). Interventions will include:

• Deploying interdisciplinary psychosocial mobile teams (PMTs) to deliver psychosocial services (counselling, mediation, psychoeducation, creative and art-based activities, sports and cultural activities, sensitization, and informational activities) and to support dialogue, mutual support, agency, and trust in divided and violence-torn communities, targetting both IDPs and host community members.
• Establishing MHPSS hubs (temporary centres) in IDP camps and host communities, engaging local resources and existing groups such as community focal points, volunteers, social and cultural activists, sports clubs and theatre ensembles, religious congregations, and media networks (including community radios and social media) to provide psychosocial services that are culturally and socially aligned with local values, social dynamics, and effective communication.
• Providing focused psychosocial services (such as individual and group counselling) to people in need. Special attention will be provided to survivors of GBV and their families to address stigma and promote inclusion.
• Ensuring referrals to specialized services and follow-up (case management) to individuals who might require psychiatric or clinical care, always in the frame of a community-based MHPSS approach and a multi-layered system of psychosocial services (in line with the IASC Pyramid).
• Strengthening the capacity of IOM personnel, civil society, and government partners in the field of community-based MHPSS, including the promotion of a survivor-centred approach in the case of GBV in strict cooperation with the National Programme of Mental Health (PNSM).
• Strengthening the coordination capacities of MHPSS Technical Working Groups at the national and provincial levels, providing technical assistance to institutional partners (Provincial Heath Divisions, PNSM) and engaging UN agencies and international NGOs in joint initiatives, particularly as far as capacity-building, referral systems and advocacy initiatives are concerned.

In a context marked by extreme violence and frequent human rights violations, IOM will contribute to the overall protection response through various activities, including:

• Promoting protection and improving the well-being of vulnerable crisis-affected communities in sites by ensuring that people in need have access to quality protection services in a dignified manner, supporting the establishment or strengthening of protection committees in coordination with the Protection Cluster and supporting the protection committees with appropriate tools and capacity-building initiatives to enhance community-based protection structures.
• Provide support to groups with specific needs, notably through disability inclusion actions and promoting accessibility for persons living with disabilities. 
• Ensuring the mitigation of protection/GBV risks through the provision of trainings/capacity-building on protection and GBV, safety audits, and assessments, consultations with groups with specific needs, and ensuring referral pathways are in place and populations know them, in line with IOM’s Institutional Framework for Addressing GBV in Crisis.  
• Providing support to women and girls, including by distributing flashlights and dignity kits to the most vulnerable, which has been identified as a priority need. As part of the GBV response, supporting local NGOs who provide services to survivors.
• Mainstreaming protection against sexual exploitation and abuse (PSEA) throughout IOM’s response and ensuring that reporting mechanisms are in place to facilitate referrals of persons in need of support and addressing situations of misconduct, as well as guaranteeing accountability to the affected population, in line with the IOM's AAP Framework. PSEA is a key priority for the Mission with a dedicated staff who coordinates the implementation of the PSEA action plan including the training of all IOM staff and partners, sensitization campaigns among communities and contributions to inter-agency efforts.
• Providing technical support to the National Coordination for Youth, and the Fight Against Sexual Violence and Trafficking in Persons for the development of a national strategy to address trafficking in persons issues among conflict-affected communities.
• Combating trafficking in persons (TiP) in crisis settings, through the mapping of available services, awareness-raising among at-risk communities and capacity-building of key government and non-government partners.

IOM will reinforce its border management programming by assessing capacity and supporting measures for border officials on humanitarian border management. Activities will include:

• Strengthening capacities of border officials on humanitarian border management including protecting the rights and dignity of migrants at borders, identification and referral of possible human trafficking cases, counter smuggling of migrants in crisis scenarios, upholding standards of international protection, child protection, and raising awareness on GBV.
• Reinforcing awareness and adherence to refugee law including the 1969 Organization of African Unity (OAU) Refugee Convention by ensuring appropriate application in contexts of complex and mixed movements and backed by technical guidance on inspection, screening, and referrals.
• Supporting the establishment of communication channels and entry points for cooperative agreements between States, ie. Angola, Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda to maintain open borders and facilitate the movement of humanitarian goods and personnel.
• Operationalizing the curriculum on gender, human rights and border management already developed by IOM (through capacity-building of law enforcement, and migration officials).

The overall risk of disease outbreaks in conflict-affected areas is very high due to persistent aggravating factors that have historically led to such outbreaks, worsened by increased displacement. Mobile populations are experiencing a lack of safe water, malnutrition, crowded and unsanitary living conditions in temporary shelters, and interruptions in essential health services, including sexual and reproductive health. Routine and supplementary immunization efforts have been affected, heightening the risk of vaccine-preventable diseases.

This plan is strategically aligned with IOM's Health Border and Mobility Management (HBMM) framework, aiming to enhance health surveillance and response in crisis situations, particularly among mobile populations, including border communities and nomadic groups.

IOM efforts will include:

• Supporting disease outbreak preparedness and response through mass and routine vaccination, community-based surveillance, and enhanced risk communication and community engagement, including managing rumors and misinformation (e.g., related to COVID-19), while promoting vaccine acceptability among IDPs and migrants.
• Mainstreaming sexual and reproductive health (SRH) in IOM’s emergency response through a multisectoral approach to address the needs of girls, pregnant women, and GBV survivors.

To support the Mpox national preparedness and response plan, IOM proposes actions to limit transmission and cross-border spread of the Mpox epidemic by:

• Enhancing the evidence base on the human mobility dimensions of communicable disease for effective prevention, detection, and response.
• Building health system capacity at points of entry (PoEs) and along mobility corridors for communicable disease prevention, detection, and response.
• Empowering migrants, mobile populations, and host communities in communicable disease prevention and response.
• Promoting mobility-sensitive and inclusive policy, legal, and strategic frameworks.
• Strengthening multisectoral partnerships and coordination, including cross-border collaboration.
• Providing technical support to the national IHR focal point and Border Health Agency (PNHF), health zones, national health authorities, IDP camps, and mobility corridors. This support will include field supervision, coordination strengthening, policy reviews, and overall health system enhancement to manage alerts generated at PoEs, IDP camps, and mobility corridors. Activities at PoEs and Control Points (POC) will facilitate population movement filtering by identifying suspicious cases, raising alerts, disseminating prevention messages, and promoting hand hygiene.
• In support of the Mpox vaccination strategic plan and in partnership with EPI and PNHF, enhancing adherence to new Mpox vaccines among mobile populations through a multisectoral strategy, leveraging experience from COVID-19 and EVD vaccine deployment. This approach includes providing migrants and mobile communities with clear, accurate vaccine information, ensuring easy access, and addressing systemic barriers. Building trust within migrant communities is essential, achieved by involving local leaders and healthcare providers to tackle misinformation.
• Providing mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) to mobile populations, including IDPs, migrants, returnees, cross-border traders, and travelers affected by Mpox. Strategies will focus on reducing fear and stigma through accurate information dissemination, promoting mental health and psychosocial well-being, and fostering dialogue and mutual trust. MHPSS activities will aim to strengthen inclusion and social cohesion by engaging community leaders and stakeholders for participation, two-way communication, and culturally sensitive support.

IOM will provide support in the development of the preparedness capacity of government and non-government partners in humanitarian response and assisting vulnerable populations who are likely to be severely affected by the impact of disasters and crises. IOM’s initiatives will include:

• Providing training on emergency preparedness and disaster risk reduction (DRR) to crisis-affected communities in line with CCCM and evacuation, shelter response and recovery programmes including the Mass Evacuation in Natural Disasters (MEND) training.
• Strengthening the capacity of government officials at the national and sub-national levels on disaster preparedness and climate change adaptation, including the development of Contingency Plans for hazards identified at the sub-national level.
• In collaboration with local authorities, UN partners and NGOs, supporting opportunities for pre-positioning of NFIs at the sub-national level to deliver faster emergency response in case of sudden crises or disasters
• Conducting Population Mobility Mapping (PMM) to inform preparedness for outbreaks and other public health events.

IOM’s Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) will continue to track and monitor populations’ movements across DRC to provide data for action and insight. The DTM response will focus on conducting mobility tracking, event tracking, site assessment, flow monitoring and registration activities to support IOM’s internal emergency interventions as well as in response to partner requests for data, especially for humanitarian, recovery, durable solutions and peacebuilding programming, in support of the HDPN approach. Information products, including maps, population data and information on needs and gaps in service provision in sites, will be shared in a timely manner with humanitarian and development actors via the DTM mailing list and the Information Management Working Group, as well as uploaded on the DTM webpage, in accordance with IOM’s Data Protection Principles. Interventions will include:

• Regularly monitoring populations’ movements and providing the humanitarian and development community with a comprehensive picture of the figures, profiles and needs of displaced populations and returnees including information regarding areas hosting displaced populations.
• Following alerts on new populations’ movements, carrying out emergency tracking assessments to rapidly collect information on the numbers of newly displaced persons, areas of origin, locations of displacement and humanitarian assistance required and triangulating information from assessments conducted by other partners to update the overall IDPs’ database and regularly provide accurate information on overall displacements including on climate change- and disaster-related displacement. IOM will also develop crisis analyses in contexts that require them.
• Producing and updating maps of IDP sites and return/relocation villages and sharing them with the humanitarian community. 
• Conducting registration exercises in sites and collective centres (possibly biometrically if required) as well as intention surveys on durable solutions and ad hoc thematic assessments, when required, such as on AAP.
• Using a data-driven approach, mapping out HDPN needs in communities of return to inform a holistic and sustainable (re)integration approach through appropriate coordination frameworks and partnerships.
• Conducting village assessment surveys (VAS) to collect data on returning IDPs, returned migrants and host community members as part of the durable solutions strategy to improve access to services and livelihoods and facilitate reintegration.
• Preparing information products based on the Transhumance Tracking Tool to address transhumance-related issues to foster related policies and strategies.
• Continuing to support preparedness and response to health emergencies including Ebola virus disease (EVD), cholera and other emerging epidemics. This includes the village-level assessment of the availability of health facilities among the surveyed communities.
• Establishing a climate vulnerability tracking tool to assess climate vulnerabilities and environmental hazards.

IOM's community stabilization programme will continue to employ a coordinated and holistic approach including democratic dialogue, strengthening state authority, return, reintegration, and economic recovery, as well as responsible minerals trade. Complementing ongoing peacebuilding and peace preservation initiatives, IOM activities will be implemented in line with the strategy of the Disarmament, Demobilization, and Recovery, Community and Stabilization Programme (P-DDRCS) of the Congolese government. Strategic components of IOM programming include: 

• Promoting social cohesion through intra- and inter-community events and activities, working towards common goals benefitting the whole of the community, such as community infrastructure rehabilitation or socioeconomic cooperatives, in coordination with livelihood and peacebuilding initiatives.
• Provide social (re)integration support activities such as public information campaigns and activities, strengthening community social cohesion (in coordination with a peacebuilding component). 
• Strengthening government capacities to establish the rule of law by enabling the Congolese National Police to perform core functions and deliver basic services through long-term police professionalization training and coaching, as well as the provision of infrastructure and equipment.
• Increasing confidence and mutual trust between the government authorities and the Congolese population through the promotion of inclusive and participatory local security governance mechanisms. 
• Enabling communities to manage local conflicts by building their capacities on democratic dialogue and mediation, as well as establishing conflict early warning, prevention, and resolution mechanisms.
• Strengthening government capacities to ensure responsible minerals trade and promoting mutual sharing and protection of natural resources.

IOM will continue to support the generation of sustainable livelihoods and economic recovery in sites and areas of return and reintegration of vulnerable populations. Programming in return areas will be aligned with the durable solutions approach for IDPs, and conflict-affected communities through the provision of immediate and longer-term support, in line with IOM's Progressive Resolution of Displacement Situations (PRDS) framework for a broader and more inclusive approach's pillar (3) access to sustainable livelihoods. These initiatives will include:

• Increasing access to livelihoods and promoting economic resilience and recovery through various interventions including cash-for-work schemes, vocational training, reinforcing of local markets and value chains, creating village loans and savings organizations and improving access to micro-credit.
• Strengthening economic recovery and value chains through the creation of economic cooperatives, rehabilitation of agricultural feeder roads and markets, and support to agricultural processing initiatives and other collective and individual income-generating activities in order to reinforce livelihood opportunities by selecting adequate modalities such as in-kind or cash and vouchers (in coordination with the community stabilization component).

IOM will develop an MHPSS strategy to complement the IOM transition and recovery programme in post-crisis communities. Initiatives will include:

• Strengthening and implementing community-based psychosocial support aiming at mending the social fabric and promoting social cohesion, including socio-relational and cultural activities built on existing practices in the targeted communities. 
• Supporting capacity-building of health professionals, local police, and security actors on mental health issues and skills such as psychological first aid (PFA), community-based psychosocial approaches, basic MHPSS concepts, stress management, communication skills, and others to be identified through a capacity needs assessment. 
• Providing MHPSS for former combatants, including supporting facility-based and community-based approaches that aim at addressing mental health disorders as well as accompanying the reintegration of combatants within the family and wider community circles, to protect and promote the well-being of both the individual and the community, and address stigma and isolation.

In complement to its community stabilization programming and based on the lessons learned from IOM’s durable solutions approach, IOM will strengthen and expand its disarmament, demobilization, reintegration, reconciliation and resettlement (DD/RRR) programming. The programming will use a community-based approach in line with the national and provincial operational strategies of the DRC Government’s P-DDRCS. This will include the following programmatic elements as part of the peacebuilding and peace preservation programme:

• Supporting community-based planning to ensure locally driven, and owned (re)integration of former combatants and vulnerable populations based on the local governance processes under the community stabilization programming. 
• Implementing rehabilitation/construction of priority community infrastructures through a cash-for-work approach for early economic recovery and as symbolic reparations for conflict-affected communities; 
• Providing community-based and community-centred socio-economic (re)integration support to ex-combatants, their dependents and communities of return.
• Supporting voluntary repatriation and resettlement of foreign ex-combatants and their dependents. 
• Advocating at various fora (e.g. UNCT, clusters, etc.), to donors, and local authorities for coordinated efforts and programming across the humanitarian, development and peace nexus.
• Supporting provincial, national and regional coordination mechanisms to facilitate effective planning, implementation and monitoring of community-based reintegration of ex-combatants and their dependents. 
• Deploying and regularly updating the DTM Stability Index for data-driven programming and effective HDPN coordination according to local needs and priorities.

IOM will support the strengthening of a migration-sensitive health system as well as the Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA) to be prepared and respond to public health hazards with a focus on Mpox, rapidly detect and report outbreaks when they occur and employ an interconnected global network that can respond effectively to limit the spread of infectious disease outbreaks in humans and animals, mitigate human suffering and the loss of human life, and reduce economic impact. This will include efforts on:

• Strengthening capacities of points of entry (PoE) frontline workers on integrated disease surveillance and response along mobility corridors and IDP host communities through training to build International Health Regulations (IHR) capacities at designated PoEs.
• Providing technical support to facilitate coordination and information-sharing of data between DRC and neighbouring countries.
• Strengthening partnerships between PoE and health structures through the establishment of standard operating procedures (SOPs) and partnership agreements.
• Supporting a well-functioning health information system that ensures the production, analysis, and dissemination of information for PoEs and health facilities, including integration data into the District Health Information Software (DHIS) platform along the mobility corridors and IDPs' host communities.
• Improving access to public health services for migrants and mobile populations through technical support (development of strategies and standard operating procedures), strengthening the capacity of health services in migrant-dense areas/IDP host communities via training health personnel, rehabilitating health facilities and providing necessary supplies and equipment.
• Reinforcing the capacity of the border health national agency (PNHF) at all levels to improve the minimum core IHR capacities at the PoEs at any time (routine) and in the event of a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC).
• Reinforcing the capacity of the Ministry through the creation of a migration health desk that enhances the technical capacity within the Ministry of Public Health, Hygiene and Prevention, to address the integration of the health needs of the mobile population into the national health system (including migrants, IDPs, refugees, and returnees).

IOM will also support the health authorities in developing emergency preparedness plans, including identifying emergency public health risk reduction and prevention measures, and foster a migration-sensitive approach to preparedness and risk reduction in line with and based on the IOM Health Border and Mobility Management (HBMM) Framework. The intervention will include:

• Improving data collection and evidence on the links between mobility and public health emergencies through population mobility mapping exercises, studies, and flow monitoring.
• Strengthening epidemiological surveillance at points of entry and along mobility corridors to prevent, detect and respond to disease outbreaks.
• Supporting COVID-19, Ebola virus disease, cholera, mpox, and other communicable disease preparedness and response with a focus on preventing and monitoring risks of epidemic spread across borders and along major mobility routes in the country.
• Supporting the development of strategies and mechanisms to improve community event-based surveillance (CEBS) in mobility corridors, border and cross-border communities, and host, and migrant-dense communities.
• Supporting the implementation of public health measures such as vaccines preventable diseases vaccination at points of entry, in IDP sites and mobility corridors.

IOM will support the strengthening of adaptative evidence-based policy while reducing migration risk issues in the context of climate change, environmental degradation, and natural disasters. Key interventions will include: 

• Reducing knowledge gaps by conducting deep-dive studies on migration, environment and climate change, as well as mapping disaster risk reduction (DRR) risks and comprehensive hazard/vulnerability assessment.
• Supporting the drafting, reviewing, and updating of local policies on disaster risk reduction and management and climate change adaptation plans considering mobility dimensions through the provision of training, equipment and tools. 
• Supporting Government entities in realizing key commitments in the Kampala Ministerial Declaration on Migration, Environment, and Climate Change (KDMECC).  
• Embedding climate migration in provincial development plans and in the country's climate adaptation strategy. 
• Building climate resilience and adaptation for vulnerable communities.
• Supporting the establishment of a strategy or roadmap to mitigate conflicts related to transhumance movements and their impact on the climate and the environment.