IOM plans to provide tailored shelter/NFI assistance to the most vulnerable IDPs identified through vulnerability assessments (based on national cluster guidelines and including persons with special needs, single female-headed households, elderly, etc.) in the North-West, South-West and Far-North throughout 2021-2022, to increase the overall capacity of the cluster to address urgent needs and alleviate suffering. Interventions will be in line with the Shelter/NFI cluster guidelines, with intervention modalities (e.g. in-kind distributions, cash-based interventions, among others), populations targeted (e.g. IDPs in sites, collective centres, in host communities) depending on the local context and vulnerability criteria. Initiatives will include:

• Distribution of NFI and emergency shelter kits;
• Provision of transitional shelter solutions;
• Host community support through cash interventions.

Following IOM’s Manual on Community-Based Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergencies and Displacement, the Organization will target conflict-affected populations in the North-West, South-West as well as the Far-North region of Cameroon with a range of needs, including victims of gender-based violence (GBV). Initiatives will include:

• MHPSS assessment to identify the available approaches, resources and key stakeholders;
• Implementation of MHPSS activities in target communities with interdisciplinary teams (e.g. art-based, sports and play, socio-cultural) to address psychosocial needs and strengthen community networks, as well as to aid victims of GBV;
• Additional support will also be given to strengthen local capacities to carry out community-based MHPSS activities, ensuring sustainability for the future.

IOM will continue its active participation in the Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus Task Force, set-up in Cameroon in August 2019, to unite key stakeholders including UN agencies and governmental counterparts that are working on the development and implementation of durable solutions for displacement affected populations. Once the Task Force finalizes its durable solutions strategy, IOM plans to: 

• Apply principles from its Framework on the Progressive Resolution of Displacement Situations to build community resilience to address the factors causing displacement, by working to improve access to basic social services, to durable livelihoods and greater economic opportunities, protection and inclusive governance;
• Develop a human security dashboard based on IOM’s Stability Index to guide coordination in the Far-North with other HDPN Task Force agencies, both for the identification and engagement of municipalities on areas of convergence for improved nexus programming in Cameroon.

IOM's community stabilization initiatives are dedicated to addressing the root causes of conflict and instability, always from a community based approach that guarantees local buy-in and ownership. Activities planned include:

• Organization of social cohesion activities along 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.

Continuing from its technical support to the government in the framework of the COVID-19 pandemic, IOM plans in 2021-2022 to continue using its specialised health capacity to strengthen public health preparedness in preparation for future health crises in Cameroon, in partnership with WHO. Initiatives will include:

• Further developing the national preparedness plan for public health crises in Cameroon;
• Coordination and establishment of early response mechanisms, including lists of prioritised sites for public health interventions based on participatory mobility mapping, and cross-border communication mechanisms and channels for quick response to the spread of communicable diseases;
• General strengthening of disease surveillance mechanisms and capacities.

IOM will continue to participate in the Task Force working on the socio-economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, continuing with work towards alleviating the health crisis with synergies and partnerships with other agencies. With a sharp contraction in planned remittances a a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, IOM seeks to respond to the negative gender and socio-economic impacts of COVID-19 on remittance flows through short-term and long-term interventions for sustainable development, including engagement with the government and service providers to reduce remittances transaction costs, in line with SDG 10.c.1. Interventions will include:

• Money management workshops on the usage of small-scale financial instruments and financial literacy;
• Sensitisation on the options available for remittance transfer, and the launching of a remittance task force in Cameroon bringing together a variety of stakeholders to advocate for overall lower remittance transfer costs;
• Cash or voucher transfers to safeguard food security and access to basic services for individuals not covered by existing social protection schemes.

IOM will continue its efforts to reinforce capacities at all coordination levels for disaster risk reduction and emergency preparedness, acknowledging that preparedness activities save time and costs in potential humanitarian responses. IOM will engage government counterparts, UN Country Team members including UNDP, NGO partners and multi-disciplinary experts in the coordination of preparedness measures, to work together to prepare for the potential impacts of natural hazards. In particular, IOM will:

• Support the development of monitoring tools, in ensuring minimum preparedness and contingency planning;
• Engage with humanitarian partners including, local NGOs in the Far North region, to improve humanitarian emergency response to floods and conduct a study to identify precise flood-prone areas and needs, and propose, in coordination with OCHA, a yearly intervention plan to enhance disaster risk reduction and emergency preparedness.

In line with the Sendai Framework priorities and in collaboration with the Capacity for Disaster Risk Reduction Partnership (CADRI), IOM Cameroon works with multiple stakeholders, including governmental counterparts, the Resident Coordinator and multi-disciplinary experts in disaster risk reduction (DRR) and climate change adaptation to strengthen the country's risk information systems, prioritise risk reduction in national and local plans and enhance preparedness systems. Activities and measures will be designed to mitigate existing and prevent new disaster risks. In collaboration with CADRI, the following initiatives will be prioritized in Cameroon this year:

• Mapping and analysis of existing stakeholders, measures, capacities in-country as well as gaps in terms of disaster prevention, preparedness and response;
• Development of a DRR action plan/national strategy in collaboration with pertinent governmental counterparts (including the Civil Protection Division);
• Capacity-building of relevant stakeholders on DRR;
• Setting-up coordination forums/platforms engaging different specialized stakeholders, including governmental counterparts, UN agencies, NGOs and the private sector on the subject of DRR.

Continuing IOM’s co-lead role with the government for the Points of Entry (PoEs) working group for COVID-19 preparedness and response in Cameroon, and leveraging existing partnerships over previous PoE work with local authorities, WHO, and the National Observatory for Public Health, IOM plans to continue:

• Providing operational and technical assistance through the strengthening of both technical and material capacities at priority PoEs in Cameroon, including the rehabilitation of infrastructures at PoEs when necessary, provision of new stocks of personal protective equipment (PPE) and provision of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) capacities;
• Promoting cross-border coordination and collaboration for standardised bilateral and regional public health frameworks;
• Technical and coordination support for preparedness measures taken at PoEs for future public health crises in Cameroon, including improved health screening to support early detection of infectious diseases and border coordination to ensure contact tracing across borders.

IOM plans to strengthen systems for MHPSS in crisis contexts, ensuring that systems are well prepared for sudden shocks. Initiatives will include:

• Integrating community-based MHPSS responses to address the most common types of victimisation in the different regions of intervention;
• Strengthening or establishing safe spaces, local structures and committees;
• Building community capacity to promote supportive environments;
• Reinforcing protection and safety in referral pathways to ensure that no one is left behind.

As in previous years, IOM aims to continue providing a better understanding of population movements and the evolving needs of conflict-affected populations in the Far-North, South-West and North-West regions of Cameroon through the regular collection, processing and dissemination of data on displacement events and trends. IOM will further engage with governmental counterparts to ensure capacity transfer and appropriation on specific data collection activities conducted for several years in the Far North region. A range of information products will be distributed throughout 2021-2022 depending on partners’ needs:

• The Emergency Tracking Tool (ETT) to help coordinate partners’ emergency response to sudden displacements;
• Larger-scale Multi-Sectoral Needs Assessments (MSNA) that will fit into wider Humanitarian Country Team planning;
• The continued roll-out of the Stability Index to identify the ‘pockets of stability’ where humanitarian-development-peace nexus programming can converge;
• Thematic data collection and analysis such as the return intention survey;
• Data collection on transhumance and agro-pastoral tensions through IOM’s Transhumance Tracking Tool (TTT) in order to reduce tensions linked to resources management and conflict surrounding transhumance campaigns in the East, Adamawa and North regions.

All of these activities will contribute to a general improvement in the quality of partners’ programming and targeting with more informed and appropriate crisis response based on accurate and up to date information made available. They will also strengthen efforts for an IOM sub-regional strategy of harmonization of methodologies, calendars and products across the Lack Chad Basin countries. These activities will support the creation of a sub-regional DTM able to provide better cross-country analyses information to national and sub-regional authorities (LCBC). IOM will also engage with information management (IM) stakeholders to ensure DTM primary and secondary data is properly shared and used. In the wake of the GIMAC-DEEP initiative, IOM will provide the expert panel with relevant information and advocate for common data sharing between UN agencies and with partners working on information management and statistics in Cameroon (Information Management Working Group, National Institute for Statistics, etc.).