IOM aims to continue providing a better understanding of population displacement numbers and trends and the evolving profiles and needs of conflict and disaster-affected populations in the Far-North, North-West, South-West, West and Littoral regions of Cameroon, and include the Centre region, through the regular collection, processing and dissemination of data to support the humanitarian community to assess and analyze the  needs of vulnerable populations and provide an immediate response to the most vulnerable people.

IOM will also engage with information management (IM) stakeholders to ensure that both DTM and secondary data are properly shared and used. In the wake of the Global Information Management, Assessment and Analysis Cell (GIMAC) - Data Entry and Exploratory Platform (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.). Based on partners’ needs, IOM will: 

• Conduct and distribute the Emergency Tracking Tool (ETT) to help coordinate partners’ emergency response to sudden displacements, caused by both conflict and disaster in the North-West, South-West and Far North regions. 
• Conduct Multi-Sectoral Needs Assessments (MSNA) that will fit into wider Humanitarian Country Team planning and be developed jointly with active clusters in the North-West, South-West, Littoral, West, Far North and Centre regions. 
• Ensure the continued roll-out of, and expansion of the Solutions and Mobility Index (SMI) to identify “pockets of stability” where the environment is conducive for humanitarian-development-peace nexus programming to converge. 
• Undertake thematic data collection and analysis such as the Future Intention Survey and Mobility Tracking, aiming to inform humanitarian and transition and recovery actors on the number of internally displaced persons and returnees and their unique living conditions, future intentions and multisectoral needs. 
• Monitor population movements at crossing points in the East region, along the border with the Central African Republic, to gain deeper insights into migration dynamics and trends through the Flow Monitoring (FM) activity. 
• Conduct data collection and disseminate findings on transhumance flows and agro-pastoral tensions through IOM’s Transhumance Tracking Tool (TTT) to reduce tensions linked to unexpected movements of cattle, resource management and the subsequent small conflicts surrounding transhumance in the East, Adamawa, North and Far north regions.

IOM will implement tailored, context-specific approaches that work to prevent the recruitment of at-risk individuals into armed groups, including violent extremist organizations, to develop viable and transparent pathways towards the reintegration of former associates to violent extremist organizations (VEOs), and promote sustainable reconciliation at the community level. Communities will be supported to manage local conflict, reduce violence and strengthen social cohesion through:

• Support DDRR processes in the Far North region to ensure the sustainable reintegration of former low risk associates of violent extremist groups into society and increase community resilience to VEO recruitment and exploitation. This includes promoting livelihood opportunities, and small quick impact projects to promote socio-economic reintegration.  
• Create community early warning – early response mechanisms in localities in the country presenting a very high risk of conflict.
• Produce and disseminate warning products and strengthen the capacities of local partners for the operationalization of the system.
• Conduct awareness-raising and capacity-strengthening of community peace committees by promoting coordination between community conflict management mechanisms and local/community institutional mechanisms.
• Facilitate the reintegration of former associates, and IDPs with host communities to progress towards durable solutions.
• Organize intra- and inter-community dialogues to identify tensions and stress for better mutual understanding.
• Establish continuous communication mechanisms through the media to relay messages of peace.
• Support main actors leading justice mechanisms at different levels, with particular attention to the involvement of women and youth.

Interventions will be in line with the Shelter/NFI and WASH Clusters guidelines and the Cash Working Group guidelines with different shelter support options and implementation modalities (e.g. in-kind support with emergency shelter kits, transitional shelters, and Rapid Response Mechanism (RRM) kits and cash-based interventions (CBI) such as for NFIs, housing rehabilitation, housing construction or rental support, among others) depending on the needs, vulnerability criteria and local context. Throughout, interventions will ensure separate spaces for men, women and families to mitigate GBV risks. In the context of overall low donor funding, IOM will aim at providing more holistic rapid response assistance in line with the RRM and strengthen the Area RRMs in both crisis areas. Initiatives in shelter, housing, infrastructures, settlements, and NFIs will include:

• Plan and develop public-private partnerships (PPP) and community and voluntary engagement for settlement planning and development with multiple partners across the HDPN. 
• Design and implement environmentally sensitive activities, including the promotion of local materials in shelters, housing and infrastructures.
• Support the integration of indigenous knowledge and locally appropriate solutions into adaptation planning, shelter and infrastructure designs, and decision-making processes where local knowledge and expertise are utilized to inform decision-making and implementation processes.
• Contribute to strengthening localization by implementing activities with local organizations through the transfer of skills and resources.
• Strengthen national authorities' capacities in emergency stockpile management through technical training, mentoring, and progressive transfer of responsibilities in pre-positioning and distribution of shelter materials and non-food items (NFI).
• Design, set-up/construct, and upgrade transitional/durable shelters and housing.
• Conduct settlement level interventions such as site and settlement planning, rehabilitation/building and upgrading of settlement basic social infrastructures, participatory enumeration, address systems, activities to reduce risk related to settlement conditions etc.
• Implement market-based interventions, including cash or voucher assistance to access NFI/shelter/housing (may include cash or voucher assistance for rental, repairs, construction, shelter NFI and household items), and to support community infrastructure at the settlement level.
• Provide material, technical and/or financial assistance for self-recovery, including information, education and communication (IEC) materials.
• Provide shelter and settlement related training to implementing partners (IPs) in coordination with the Cluster or support to Build Back Better.
• Participate in the coordination of cluster and cluster-like mechanisms and technical working groups on Shelter NFI.

IOM is committed to providing policy guidance, expert advice and technical assistance to resolve issues relating to housing, land and property (HLP) rights. Strategic HLP activities include:

• Conduct rapid and HLP assessment including mapping of affected areas to identify housing, land and property issues and needs.
• Conduct awareness raising activities on HLP rights and available redress mechanisms, with a focus on individuals who are experiencing HLP-related issues or abuses. 
• Produce and disseminate information, education and communication messages on HLP cross-cutting issues to displaced populations, host communities, local authorities and community leaders.
• Implement measures towards strengthening tenure security by providing temporary housing solutions, formalizing tenure rights, and supporting the issuance of missing documentation of affected populations such as:
  • Support community or state-driven land titling and land right identification.
  • Establish legal aid services to help individuals understand, claim and assert their HLP rights. 
  • Facilitate the resolution of HLP related disputes in accordance with national and international norms. 
• Reinforce HLP capacity of local communities, institutions and organizations through awareness building and training on managing land and property issues through collaborative dispute resolution (CDR), in line with the IOM strategy being developed to strengthen HLP local capacity.
• Conduct advocacy efforts, including:
  • Conduct evidence based studies include legal framework analysis, impact assessments, vulnerability mapping and best practices and lessons learned from other countries.
  • Support and initiate advocacy for national and local policy changes including the better integration of HLP rights in all situations. 
  • Enhance protection mechanisms for HLP rights, with programming specifically designed to increase safeguards for vulnerable populations, including women and minorities in displacement contexts.

IOM’s support aims to mitigate the impact of crises causing population displacement by bolstering Cameroon’s health system using its Health Border Mobility Management Framework and the World Health Organization (WHO) health system strengthening and governance guidance. Key areas of focus include:

• Provide primary health care within the Minimum Services Package (at fixed facilities or through mobile clinics) in camp settings in close collaboration with CCCM, WASH, Climate Action, and Protection teams, using the established referral mechanism.
• Enhance readiness for public health emergencies through collaboration with the affiliated national authorities and the Health Cluster under the One Health approach, 
• Assist health districts in developing comprehensive contingency plans to address public health threats.
• Support health systems in preparedness and response to disease outbreaks through mass and routine vaccination campaigns, community-based surveillance, and reinforced risk communication to address rumors and misinformation.
• Conduct Population Mobility Mapping (PMM) with a focus on internal and cross-border mobility patterns, using the results to assess public health risks and inform strategic planning.
• Support in preventing, detecting, and responding to mpox and other communicable disease outbreaks focusing on points of entry (PoE) and exit, key congregation points along mobility corridors, and sites for displaced people, other mobile populations and cross-border communities.
• Support the rehabilitation (construction where applicable) of health facilities in crisis-affected and hard-to-reach areas, including provision of essential medical equipment, establishment of WASH facilities, and support the health worker retention strategies through capacity building and resource provision, in coordination with the Ministry of Health and health cluster partners. 

IOM will provide protection direct assistance, strengthen the capacities of relevant stakeholders, and raise awareness about protection principles and basic rights. IOM will also strengthen GBV risk mitigation capacities and strengthen referral pathways. Activities will include:

• Provide direct assistance (individual listening, referrals, awareness-raising) to displaced people and host populations to meet their protection needs. 
• Organize community-based awareness-raising campaigns focusing on broader protection principles, including women and girls' rights, access to services, and community-based protection mechanisms (radio spots, awareness sheets, small-group awareness-raising campaigns, etc.).. The messages will be aimed at displaced people, the host community and community leaders, to ensure better integration of displaced people, living together and respect for their rights. 
• Organize capacity strengthening sessions for protection stakeholders in the North-West, South-West and in the East, focusing on protection principles and standards, PSEA, safe referrals and GBV risk mitigation, amongst others. Key stakeholders include: representatives of community leaders, women's and youth associations, and NGOs working on protection issues. 
• Facilitate the obtention of birth certificates for children to facilitate their reintegration.
• In coordination with specialized partners, particularly the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), strengthen capacity to identify and mitigate GBV risks in IOM programming. Through this partnership approach, IOM will conduct basic safety audits and community consultations to inform the implementation of essential risk mitigation measures across its multi-sectoral interventions.
• Disseminate the completed national mapping of protection and MHPSS structures, establish formal partnership agreements with reliable service providers, and strengthen their capacity through training on IOM's protection principles. This coordinated approach will enable IOM to provide quality holistic assistance throughout the country while ensuring safe and effective access to services for vulnerable individuals and households.

In line with the Sendai Framework priorities, 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, prioritize 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. IOM will support the following initiatives:

• Develop a DRR action plan/update the National DDR strategy under the leadership of the Civil Protection, through capacity-strengthening of relevant stakeholders on DRR as identified through the Capacity for Disaster Risk Reduction Initiative (CADRI) diagnostic process.
• Coordinate forums/platforms engaging different specialized stakeholders, including governmental counterparts, UN agencies, NGOs and the private sector, about DRR.
• Strengthen community-based disaster risk management capacities, including support to develop local early warning systems and community-led initiatives that reduce risk while building resilience to disasters/hazards, which would also support conflict resolution/mediation efforts in areas where climate hazards interact with intercommunal conflicts, for instance, between transhumance and farming communities.
• In flood-prone areas, work in camps and/or spontaneous displacement sites and host communities to reduce the impact of flooding through structural and non-structural flood mitigation.
• Community Resilience Building: IOM will engage local communities in disaster risk reduction and resilience building initiatives. This includes training community members in emergency preparedness, supporting local governance structures in crisis management, and developing infrastructure that can withstand natural hazard-induced and human-made disasters.

MHPSS activities will be in line with Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) principles and guidelines and IOM's Manual on Community-based Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) in Emergencies and Displacement. These will include:

• Depending on identified needs, provide community and family support (socio-cultural, artistic, sports and recreational activities, rituals and celebrations, etc.). 
• Provide focused support (individual counseling and support groups) and referral to specialized mental health care services.
•  Train  mental health actors, MHPSS partners and local stakeholders on mental health issues. Modules will include psychological first aid, helping relationships, managing emotions, consequences of conflict and forced displacement on mental health, etc.  
• In line with the IASC pyramid, refer  cases requiring specialized intervention to the appropriate services. 
• Organize  cultural, creative and sports and play activities in consultation with the local population and community leaders to strengthen social cohesion and peaceful co-existence. The population will be involved in the entire process. Activities will include soccer matches, participatory theater, storytelling and dance.     
• Ensure the care and psychosocial reintegration of ex-associates through individual follow-up, individual and group counselling, and psycho-education sessions, to help them and their family members and the communities they are returning to develop empathy, promote equal opportunities and strengthen trust and social connections.
• Organize recreational, social, ritual, artistic, sporting and educational activities for ex-associates to promote social cohesion and living together.
• Organize awareness-raising activities as part of the celebration of World Mental Health Day, International Migration Day, etc. The activities will focus on theater, sports walking, etc. 
• Support the state in finalizing the National Strategy for Mental Health and Psychosocial Support and strengthen the capacity of members of the Technical Working Group (TWG) on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support through co-leadership at the national and sub-national levels. Organize the TWG coordination meetings at the national and subnational levels. 

IOM's community stabilization initiatives engage local communities and stakeholders in bottom-up diagnostic and planning processes to address the root causes and drivers of conflict, instability and identifying jointly tangible actions to address them. This process ultimately supports transitions away from crisis towards a resumption of functioning social, economic, and political life. Initiatives will be aligned with IOM’s global community-based planning (CBP) methodology, which has been tailored to the context of the Far-North and NW-SW regions, including the creation of specific standard operating procedures. Planned activities will include:

• Support the national institutions responsible for decentralization and local development in general and the municipalities in particular in their efforts of decentralized cooperation to support local initiatives. 
• Support communities in prioritizing projects in community action plans (CAPs) and carrying out small community projects, giving priority to those aimed at empowering women and strengthening resilience to climate change.
• Promotion of socio-cultural and recreational activities bringing together different ethnic groups, religions and people of different status   including IDPs and host communities.
• Conduct awareness-raising and capacity-strengthening of local leaders (traditional, religious, women's and youth groups, IDPs, returnees, etc.) and institutions on community mobilization, inter-religious dialogue and community development.
• Support local authorities to host inclusive community dialogues to allow communities - IDPs, host community member, men, women and people living with disabilities – to define the priority areas and services that need to be restored, rehabilitated, or created to increase the communities’ access to basic services. IOM will then provide technical and financial support to build and/or rehabilitate the defined community infrastructures, in which the communities themselves will be actively involved to encourage local ownership and social cohesion.

IOM's WASH programme in Cameroon will prioritize immediate, scalable and sustainable interventions aimed at reducing morbidity and mortality rates and providing equal and sustainable access to safe and appropriate water, sanitation and hygiene services in displaced, host and migrant communities, in accordance with Sphere Standards. IOM will:

• Provide WASH support in displacement sites and underserved/hard-to-reach areas to address high WASH needs and gaps in services. Activities will include emergency water supply, rapid construction and/or rehabilitation of water supply systems and sanitation infrastructure and setting up/ reinforcement of solid waste collection and disposal systems among other interventions.
• Mainstream WASH infection prevention, and control activities into existing and planned interventions when required in response to disease outbreaks.
• Conduct sensitization campaigns and ensure that communities have the tools necessary to protect themselves from WASH-related diseases including, but not limited to, water-borne diseases such as cholera and vector-borne diseases such as malaria and communicable diseases.
• Promote improved hygiene practices among the supported households and communities through targeted sensitizations on topics such as handwashing, environmental cleaning, latrine maintenance, safe chain for drinking water collection, and storage, among others. 
• Ensure that communities have the necessary tools to protect themselves from WASH-related diseases (such as cholera, malaria, and others) through the provision of hygiene kits (including water treatment products, menstrual hygiene items among others); the composition of which will be in line with national recommendations.
• In drought and flood-prone areas, focus on community-based disaster risk management interventions related to WASH to ensure sustained access to safe water and sanitation through environmental protection measures and training on community early warning system and community-based DRR activities.

IOM Cameroon is committed to increasing its focus on legal identity as a core enabler of sustainable development, and safe and regular migration. IOM will tackle several challenges related to access to documentation for IDPs and other vulnerable populations, including returnees and host communities. IOM will:

• Provide equipment including computers, printers, and other necessary hardware so that regional National Civil Status Offices (BUNEC in French) agencies have the necessary equipment to fulfill their mission of issuing civil status documents, especially in remote areas and during emergencies. Additionally, the supply of official civil status books is crucial for recording births, deaths, and marriages. Ensuring the availability of mobile registration kits equipped with cameras, biometric devices, and portable printers is also essential for reaching rural and hard-to-reach areas.
• Set up special operations to issue identity documents (birth certificates, identity cards) at scale to vulnerable populations, including IDPs, to allow them to regain legal identity.
• Strengthen the functional and technical capacities of consular services in certain African countries (such as Sao Tome and Principe and Equatorial Guinea) through improved training of civil status agents on technical and operational aspects to ensure effective management of registrations.
• Strengthen the capacities of local actors so that they can better coordinate and manage civil status services to ensure more efficient access to these services for IDPs
• Improve the training of civil status agents in consular services on the manual archiving of civil status documents, and the production, dissemination, and use of civil status statistics.

IOM Cameroon aims to assist institutional partners in designing and implementing policies to harness protection and durable solutions within national development planning while encouraging localization and ownership. In this regard, various sectoral policy development initiatives are in progress to adopt and implement key political strategies, including the National Labor Migration Policy, the Diaspora Mobilization Strategy for Socio-Economic Development to Cameroon, and the National Migration Policy.

This comprehensive approach is built on strategic orientations to enhance institutional dialogue. IOM will:

• In coordination with UN agencies, under the leadership of the Resident Coordination, support the Prime Minister’s Office in the development of national strategy of durable solutions for IDPs in Cameroon
• Provide training and technical support to state and non-state actors on the processes of developing and adopting current strategies and policies to improve their resilience and capacity to respond to crises.

IOM recognizes the need for humanitarian border management responses in times of crisis. IOM will provide capacity-strengthening assistance to the government to improve their preparedness and establish adequate response mechanisms to protect all migrants and refugees intending to cross the border while ensuring that the security of the border is maintained. IOM will: 

• Strengthen the health systems and border health capacities at entry points and along the mobility continuum for the prevention, detection, and response to communicable diseases: Assist border health posts in developing comprehensive contingency plans to address epidemiological threats.
• Strengthen protection referral mechanisms, and rights-based approaches at borders by supporting border management actors in handling migratory flows, identifying vulnerabilities and protection cases, providing care, and referring victims of abuses including trafficking.
• Enhance the data collection and management system at borders to support various actors in collecting quality data and its impact on response management.
• Support the community information and communication system at borders and assist civil society actors with capacity-strengthening sessions on response mechanisms and emergency communication.

IOM will implement sustainable, market-driven livelihood interventions to support crisis-affected populations in achieving economic self-reliance. Activities will focus on:

• Implement cash-for-work programmes targeting vulnerable households in crisis-affected areas, distribution of emergency livelihood kits to support quick income generation, market assessments to identify viable economic opportunities.
• Provide small business grants and technical support to micro-enterprises through implementation of IOM's Enterprise Development Fund (EDF), vocational and skills training programmes for beneficiaries based on market demands, business development services and mentoring support for start-ups, financial literacy training and facilitation of access to micro-credit facilities, Information Counselling Referrals Services (ICRS) socio-economic profiling for beneficiaries in the displacement affected communities.
• Develop partnerships with private sector actors for job placement, streamlining of market linkages between producers and buyers, support for value chain development in key economic sectors.
• Strengthen capacities by providing technical training in agricultural best practices and value addition, entrepreneurship skills development, financial management and business planning support, formation of community-based savings groups and cooperatives.