IOM Vision
IOM Niger seeks to provide lifesaving assistance to crisis-affected populations and to vulnerable Nigerien migrants within Niger or abroad, as well as to foreign migrants, the majority from West Africa, stranded in Niger, who have expressed their willingness to return to their countries of origin. This is complemented by the promotion of social cohesion and peaceful coexistence between host communities, internally displaced persons (IDPs) and migrants. Through community stabilization and peacebuilding interventions, IOM aims to reduce factors of instability that could lead to irregular and forced migration. IOM Niger also envisions scaling up its assistance in crisis-prone areas to strengthen resilience to shocks.
Objective
Saving lives and protecting people on the move
IOM will provide humanitarian assistance and protection services to individuals and households affected by crises (IDPs, refugees, returnees, and host communities) in the Niger. These individuals are considered as being in vulnerable situations/living under vulnerable conditions even without compounding factors such as disaster or conflict-related displacement or increased pressures on limited natural resources and basic social infrastructures. In addition, IOM will support migrants in the region of Agadez arriving from Algeria and Libya or those who find themselves stranded and/or abandoned by smugglers. |
IOM will continue to provide need-based assistance to migrants and other populations affected by conflict and natural hazards in accordance with Sphere standards. IOM will:
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 Gender-Based Violence in Crises (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. |
IOM will provide community-based and individual mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) services to migrants and crisis-affected populations in Niger, to maintain their mental health, enhance their psychosocial well-being and strengthen their resilience. IOM will:
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. |
IOM seeks to ensure that crisis-affected populations in areas of displacement as well as areas of return in the regions of Diffa, Tahoua, Tillabéri and Maradi have access to effective WASH services and can adopt improved hygiene practices to ensure positive public health outcomes including prevention and control of cholera, COVID-19 and other communicable and WASH-related diseases. By doing so, IOM will support upholding the human right to safe water and sanitation, whilst ensuring the dignity and well-being of populations. IOM will:
|
IOM aims to partner with local organizations and partners assessed to have strong community links and capacity, to:
|
Third-country nationals in Niger or in transit in Niger have the possibility to avail of IOM’s movement assistance to voluntarily return and reintegrate into their country of origin. IOM will:
|
With regard to the protection of the most vulnerable migrants, displaced and other crisis-affected people, IOM Niger plans to:
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 Disability Inclusion of Persons throughout the program cycle. Particular attention will be given to effective participation and empowerment of the community. 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 (to be published in 2023) are in place to prevent misconduct and guarantee accountability to the affected population, in line with the IOM Accountability to Affected Populations (AAP) Framework. |
Border areas in Niger are particularly fragile due to the high level of permeability of the borders coupled with the operational challenges of managing and patrolling such an extended area. As a result, cross-border criminal activities threaten the security and stability of local communities. Therefore, IOM aims to strengthen humanitarian border management in order to contribute to the stability in border areas. This fosters a holistic approach inclusive of humanitarian services to improve Health and Humanitarian Border Management (HHBM). IOM aims to:
- Improve access to legal identity for third-country nationals in Niger and Nigerien in neighbouring countries in order to have a regular status, and access basic services and humanitarian assistance as needed in the country of transit or destination;
- Increase Humanitarian Border Management and Community Engagement and Policing (CEP) interventions in remote border areas affected by the migration crisis, in order to build a greater feeling of safety and security in communities;
- Strengthen collaboration mechanisms among relevant State authorities in border communities, ultimately contributing to border governance and rule of law, to finally protect citizens and migrant population from shocks conducive to massive displacements.
Objective
Driving solutions to displacement
IOM will work to address the root causes of conflict and instability and seek to improve social cohesion in the regions of Agadez, Diffa, Tillabéri, Maradi and Tahoua targeting local communities, including authorities, women, youth, as well as IDPs and refugees - as relevant to the social cohesion and stability needs. IOM will also seek to strengthen the relations between authorities and communities, targeting local authorities with capacity re-enforcement to enhance service delivery and increase the confidence of populations. IOM further seeks to support host communities and migrants in the Agadez region to enhance their socioeconomic resilience and reduce the impact of conflict and/or natural hazard-related shocks as well as to prevent recruitment into NSAG in the regions of Diffa, Maradi, Tillabéri, and Tahoua. In 2023, IOM will also target the most vulnerable migrants, refugees, IDPs, returnees, and host communities with a strategic component to facilitate enhanced access to health services and other basic social services. |
IOM aims to reinforce social cohesion between communities and authorities in Niger by addressing underlying factors of fragility and supporting inclusive and transparent governance mechanisms at the community level. IOM will:
|
IOM seeks to prevent, manage and resolve conflict as the driver of displacement and obstacle to return and reintegration in the regions of Diffa, Maradi, Tahoua, and Tillabéri. IOM works at the individual, community, and institutional levels to address the 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:
|
IOM aims to build on its strong partnership with the GoN at the national (Ministry of Public Health) and regional (Regional Directorate for Public Health, DRSP) levels through continuing and sustained support, and the provision of health assistance at the cluster level. IOM will continue to improve access to, and improve the quality of healthcare for all populations in the target areas, whilst working to facilitate more migrant-sensitive healthcare provision. With this aim, IOM will:
|
In Niger, due to the official government policy on formal displacement sites, vulnerable populations displaced by conflicts or natural hazards are forced to live in spontaneous sites referred to as “community groups”. In fragile contexts such as the regions of Diffa, Tillabéri, Maradi, and Tahoua, where displacement has increased over the recent years, IOM has elaborated an “out-of-camp” approach that simultaneously addresses the immediate vital needs of the most vulnerable communities affected by displacement, while taking into account the needs to strengthen the resilience of both displaced populations and host communities in coping with the effects of prolonged forced displacement, ensuring synergy between humanitarian assistance and development-oriented actions for the broader community. This approach aims to contribute to the progressive achievement of durable solutions for vulnerable populations affected by forced displacement, including host communities, in line with IOM's Progressive Resolution of Displacement Situations Framework and the UN Secretary-General's Action Agenda on Internal Displacement. In order to achieve this IOM will:
In parallel, IOM is working towards the integration of the migration environment and climate change link into public policies and is looking at creating alternatives to forced mobility in territories affected by environmental degradation. IOM will:
|
Objective
Strengthen preparedness and reduce disaster risk
IOM will target Nigerien authorities with capacity-building activities to strengthen disaster preparedness, especially in the Diffa, Tahoua, Tillabéri, Maradi and Niamey regions. IOM Niger’s interventions will specifically target the Ministry of Humanitarian Action, the Ministry of Public Health, the Regional Security Councils, and the Directorate for Territorial Surveillance (DST). Additionally, IOM will target communities with prevention and mitigation measures related to communicable diseases such as COVID-19 or cholera outbreaks, as well as with disaster risk reduction activities (evacuation sites) for communities exposed to hazards (floods and droughts). |
In 2023, IOM Niger will continue its efforts on emergency preparedness and continue to:
|
In order to strengthen the mental health and psychosocial support system IOM will:
|
To support the prevention of disasters or man-made crises IOM will:
|
IOM will:
|
Objective
Contribute to an evidence-based and efficient crisis response system
IOM will support the GoN as well as national and international humanitarian partners by providing up-to-date information and data through IOM’s tool which includes information through the flow monitoring points (FMPs), data flow monitoring surveys and registries, emergency tracking, village assessment surveys, and the stability index surveys. These data collection activities will provide humanitarian responders, sectors and clusters, transition and recovery and development actors, and national authorities with key data and information thus contributing to evidence-based programming and informed policies that will directly benefit displaced populations (IDPs, migrants, and returnees). In addition, evidence-based information on transhumance patterns in the tri-border area with Mali and Burkina Faso will be shared with local authorities, to enable them to take actionable steps to mitigate and prevent agro-pastoralist conflicts; with national authorities, whose better understanding of transhumance routes and flows are expected to lead to policies to better manage transhumance; with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and other actors for improved knowledge on available infrastructure and vaccination of cattle, as well as health and infrastructure needs; as well as agro-pastoralist communities as a priority, for information on natural disasters and conflict risks to allow them to select new routes or avoid conflict and disaster-affected zones; and farming communities to enable them to take measures to protect their farmland. |
In order to support the data needs of the humanitarian response in Niger, IOM will:
- Conduct data collection at nine flow monitoring points (FMPs) and 11 information points (IPs) along the southern and northern regions to track migration trends and movements to, through, and from Niger as well as from/to neighbouring countries, including Algeria and Libya;
- Implement four rounds of DTM village assessments at regular intervals to track the mobility of IDPs, determine numbers, locations, places of origin, and reasons for displacement, and assess the IDP population’s vulnerabilities and basic humanitarian needs. Village Assessments will evaluate the capacity to support the current population and will inform multisectoral planning and response with the aim of building the humanitarian-peace-development nexus;
- Carry out a Return Intention survey in communities hosting IDPs to gather information on the intentions of displaced persons, the factors influencing their intentions, and the conditions of their communities of return in order to inform the development of durable solutions;
- Conduct data collection through the emergency tracking tool (ETT) to track and monitor displaced persons and assess the conditions of communities affected by urgent and sudden events including floods and conflict in the regions of Diffa, Maradi, Tahoua, and Tillabéri;
- Conduct two rounds of stability index data collection to identify pockets of stability and assess the conditions in displacement-hosting locations and facilitate the programming of durable solutions in areas of high return. This tool will serve as a measure of stability in return areas in Niger to enable partners to better develop strategies, and plan resources and operations in specific vulnerable areas for coherent interventions that link humanitarian, recovery, and stabilization. The stability index, implemented in Tahoua/Tillabéri and Diffa, is part of two sub-regional data collection projects in the Liptako Gourma countries and Lake Chad Basin countries to provide a complete, regional understanding of stability in displacement-affected locations in areas prioritized for the humanitarian- development-peace nexus approach to programming in coordination with partners;
- Implement data collection on transhumance flows and movements of cattle through IOM’s transhumance tracking tool (TTT) in order to inform social cohesion programs and prevent and reduce tensions linked to resources management and conflict surrounding transhumance campaigns in the Tillabéri region, which borders Burkina Faso and Mali. This action will be conducted in complementarity with TTT conducted in Benin, Burkina Faso, and Nigeria;
- Build the capacity of targeted local administrative entities in different regions on displacement data collection and analysis through workshops as well as in-kind assistance through computers and other office supplies.
Niger
The map used here is for illustration purposes only. Names and boundaries do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by IOM.
Figures are as of 31 December 2023. For more details of IOM's operational capacity in country, please see the IOM Capacity section.