In 2021, IOM will continue to assist conflict-affected populations in the regions of Diffa, Tahoua, Tillabery and Maradi. Assistance will be in-kind and will be provided to 8,000 households and will include the following:

• 5,000 emergency shelters for those who have been recently displaced;
• 4,500 transitional shelters for the displaced population that have been in the same location for at least 12 months;
• 3,000 income-generating activities;
• 13,000 NFI kits, which will include both basic items (e.g. kitchen utensils, mattress, mosquito net, etc.) and specific items for certain profiles (e.g. dignity kits, specific kits for pregnant women, etc.);
• Health and protection concerns are integrated within these activities and will be taken into account at all phases. This includes a specific component on gender and protection needs in the baseline assessment, which will form the basis of the distribution of assistance.

To enable vulnerable affected households to procure necessary material to repair their houses, IOM Niger will provide in-cash assistance to:

• 8,000 households damaged or destroyed by flooding in Niger;
• 4,000 households affected by forced displacement in areas least affected by insecurity.

IOM will provide mental health and psychosocial support services for migrants in distress stranded in Niger, as well as for crisis-affected populations, to enhance their well-being and strengthen their resilience before their return to their country of origin. It will do so through the following:

• Individual and group counselling and other MHPSS activities (such as sports and art-based activities);
• Extending its MHPSS activities to IDPs and populations affected by ongoing crises through individual and group activities, done by IOM or through local partners. These activities will include awareness-raising and capacity building notably on psychological first aid, counselling sessions, social, cultural and recreational activities and conflict mitigation and mediation activities;
• All MHPSS activities will be in line with the IOM's Manual on Community-Based Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergencies and Displacement.

After being expelled from Algeria or being stranded in Niger, international migrants have the possibility to avail of IOM’s humanitarian movement assistance to voluntarily return to their countries of origin. For 2021, IOM plans to facilitate the following:

• Evaluate the most feasible transportation modalities for a safe, voluntary and dignified return, taking into account the COVID-19 measures in place in Niger and the countries of origin. If the land borders remain closed and migrants must return by airplane, the price of movement per migrant will be five times the price of movement by land;
• Depending on the COVID-19 measures in place at the time of implementation, IOM will evaluate the costs based on the necessary pre-departure COVID-19 test as required by the Government of Niger. Migrants will be medically screened and ensured that they are fit-to-travel in case they had medical problems during their time in the transit centres.

70% of the migrants who are returning to their country of origin do not have valid travel documents, a number that has been increasing as migrants returning from Algeria often do not have travel documents. For those cases, IOM Niger:

• Liaises with the diplomatic representations of their country of origin and with the DST in Niger to ensure the safe return;
• Provides support to diplomatic representations in Niamey, including to conduct consular missions to Agadez.

With regards to the protection of the most vulnerable migrants, IOM Niger plans to provide the following assistance that will focus on:

• Facilitating the identification of protection risks and vulnerabilities experienced by migrants and provide protection assistance and individualized case management for the most vulnerable stranded migrants in Niger;
• When needed, IOM will refer migrants to specialised partner organizations or institutions with which it has established a strong partnership over the past years;
• Protection assistance will continue to be provided to address the specific needs for vulnerable migrants in Niger (e.g. unaccompanied migrant children, victims of trafficking);
• Reinforcing the capacity of government, local authorities and security forces in favour of crisis-affected populations on protection topics including but not limited to child protection, gender-based violence, protection mainstreaming, and human trafficking, among others;
• Supporting vulnerable women and girls, including to those in crisis-affected populations, with gender-specific NFI kits, including menstrual hygiene management items, school-aged children with education and in-kind contributions through non-food items;
• Supporting protection committees, with the representation of women and youth, with the appropriate tools to enhance community-based protection structures.

IOM supports communities’ (host communities and migrants) resilience with a far-reaching “people-driven” infrastructural programme in the Agadez region through the following activities:

• Community ownership and involvement intervention prioritisation and implementation reduces social cleavages with local authorities thereby contributing to a restoration of local governance and of social cohesion, and reducing the roots causes of conflict and instability in crisis-affected areas;
• The active joint participation and responsibility for prioritized interventions also ensure the sustainability of rehabilitated or new infrastructures further enhancing localized access to critical services, including primary health, water supply, sanitation, education and other social services, reducing access gaps, which particularly significant for migrants and vulnerable groups. IOM will propose social cohesion activities in at-risk zones, as defined by the Transhumance Tracking Tool, to work with local governance structures in communities where transhumant movements may trigger tensions between herders and farmers to define conflict mitigation and resolutions methods to ensure peaceful transhumant campaigns. Where additional community infrastructure may be needed in order to cater for the passage of transhumant movements, IOM will similarly support the participatory local decision-making processes to define priority infrastructure that would contribute to conflict mitigation or resolution, and support relevant line ministries to respond to this collective prioritisation in direct response to communities who may otherwise be aggrieved;
• IOM will also organize income-generating activities at a community level and projects aimed at increasing social cohesion between the displaced population and the host community.

IOM’s “Niger Community Cohesion Initiative (NCCI)” Programme implements activities in the Diffa, Tahoua and Tillabery regions that contribute to community stabilization, through enhancement of social cohesion and local governance, in conflict-affected localities. In 2021, these activities will contribute to the following outcomes:

1. Local communities will have the resilience and capacity to address conflict and insecurity, including violent extremist threats;
2. Youth will be resistant to violent extremist exploitation, youth gangs and banditry;
3.  Local leadership will be able to address conflict, including threats to stability.

Building on its ongoing efforts in the Agadez region, IOM will:

• Craft targeted interventions in the communes where migrants and host communities have previously fallen into conflict over access to the already scarce resources;
• Continue its support to the Government of Niger to collaborate with national and local partners to support the peacebuilding and social cohesion efforts in conflict-affected communities, including those in the Diffa and Tillabery regions where displacement and returns may impact the fragile social fabric and increase the risk of inter-communal conflict.

Building on the achievements attained during the COVID-19 response, IOM wishes to:

• Continue and expand its COVID-19 support to the CERMES (Centre de Recherche Médicale et Sanitaire), the national laboratory in Niger;
• This support consists of procuring medical supplies, PPE and testing equipment to ensure that the CERMES can provide medical care. This will improve the quality and availability of health care available to migrants, refugees, IDPs, returnees and host communities.

IOM Niger will build upon its efforts to seek to promote integrated border management in Niger through the following:

• IOM will also continue working to ensure that PoEs (land borders and airports) meet International Health Regulations (IHR) standards to ensure preparedness and response to public health events of international concern (PHEICs), health emergencies or future pandemics, including COVID-19. Through this activity, IOM will support the Government of Niger in disease surveillance activities, especially on COVID-19 Prevention, Isolation, and Control (PIC) measures. More specifically, IOM Niger will continue to provide in-kind assistance to the authorities for the establishment of adequate sites for the mandatory quarantine of migrants upon arrival due to COVID-19 at border posts and ensure that border agents can conduct their work in a safe manner;
• Furthermore, IOM has and continues to support the provision of PPE for both migrants and the relevant authorities. This requires continued coordination at the regional and national level to facilitate continued coordination and management of the PoEs, with all the relevant border management and health actors.

With regards to emergency preparedness, IOM Niger will focus on:

• Training local authorities to provide coordinated and rapid response to a massive and sudden population displacement occurring at the borders. The crisis can have mixed origins, including security threats with people fleeing from an armed conflict or sudden-onset natural disaster in a neighbouring country. This means organizing simulation exercises and real condition simulation exercises called “SIMEX”, in order to elaborate Regional Intervention Plans (PIR) in all regions. The PIR will be used by Regional Security Councils in line with the National Contingency Plan for Border Crisis Management (PNC-GCF) adopted on 7 February 2020 by decree by the Council of Ministers. The SIMEX includes a health component on pandemic simulation to be used for COVID-19 related intervention plans;
• Conducting capacity building exercises to reinforce the preparedness of the Government of Niger in response to floods and other natural disasters in the country. This will include training the Ministry of Humanitarian Action and Disaster Management together with Civil Protection on Disaster Risk Reduction principles, including improving early warning systems and piloting interventions to support risk reduction in Niamey;
• Supporting local authorities with capacity building and contingency planning in areas affected by natural and man-made crises and their environs on out of camp preparedness for assistance to displaced populations and their integration into communities.

IOM will strengthen the MHPSS technical working group and support MHPSS inclusion in the emergency response in Niger, by:

• Mapping existing MHPSS resources and needs;
• Training relevant actors and providing MHPSS support for populations affected by crises resulting from armed conflict or natural disasters; depending on the specific needs of the beneficiary of this type of assistance, activities are carried out by IOM at either a group or individual level, and included playing djembe, soccer, bead making, knitting, painting, or playgroups for children.

IOM will implement the Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) through seven Flow Monitoring Points (FMPs) and ten Information Points (IPs) along the southern and northern regions to track migration trends and movements through Niger from/to neighbouring countries, including to/from Algeria and Libya. The following activities will be implemented:

• Under DTM, IOM will undertake four Mobility Tracking assessments to monitor mobility of IDPs, determine numbers and locations, places of origins, reasons for displacement, and gather information on vulnerabilities and needs. This tool will inform site/village assessments to be conducted in areas affected by displacement;
• In addition, IOM will roll out the Stability Index through which areas can be identified where convergence can be established between humanitarian assistance, and peace and development programming. In addition, village/site assessments will be carried out in which the capacities of these villages/sites are evaluated on the extent to which they can support the current population and potential additional displacement. This will inform the humanitarian response and allow for multisector planning and response to the affected communities with the aim of building upon the humanitarian-development-peace nexus approach;
• In order to reduce tensions linked to resources management and conflict surrounding transhumance campaigns in the Tillabery region which borders Burkina Faso and Mali, IOM plans further interventions to collect data on transhumance and agro-pastoral conflicts through IOM’s Transhumance Tracking Tool (TTT);
• Finally, IOM will target local administrative entities in different regions to build their capacities on displacement data collection and analysis through workshops as well as in-kind assistance through computers and other relevant office supplies.