In order to strengthen the protection response to vulnerable returnee migrants at Points of Entry, IOM plans to carry out the following interventions:

• Registration of returnees’ biodata to better identify the protection needs of returnees and to facilitate referrals.
• Family tracing and reunification.
• Provision of safe return options in the form of cash for onward transportation allowances to the most vulnerable returnees.
• Protection monitoring and mainstreaming, particularly on aspects of child protection, GBV, PSEA and rights-based approaches.
• Training of key stakeholders, including government and non-government agencies as well as IOM staff, on key protection issues such as child protection and counter-trafficking and smuggling, and GBV risk mitigation.

IOM’s 2021 Shelter and Non-Food Items (S-NFI) program will pursue interventions supporting the nexus between emergency and recovery phases. Emergency response interventions will ensure critical steps are taken to provide safety and dignity and access to basic household supplies for displacement affected populations and returnee migrants, while recovery programs will pursue participatory shelter repairs and rehabilitation. Housing and land issues will be assessed and prioritized for support in all relevant contexts to ensure adequate security of tenure and avoid the eviction of beneficiaries. Cash-Based Interventions (CBI) will be considered dependent on the context of each target area. Where possible, shelter interventions will be conducted alongside WASH, Site Management Support (SMS), and Health sectors to increase the impact of the response.

Activities include:

• Response to sudden displacement due to floods, drought, conflict and other events through the appropriate response modality based on needs assessments, including the provision of ES/NFI kits, basic shelter repair assistance (capacity building and provision of rehabilitation kits) or cash-based interventions.
• Establishment of an ES/NFI pipeline integrating hygiene needs (WASH items) to guarantee timely emergency responses for internally displaced populations in Ethiopia.
• Decongestion activities in cluster prioritized IDP sites to mitigate the risks of overcrowding due to the current COVID-19 pandemic.
• Provision of emergency shelter and NFI kits to vulnerable migrants returning to Ethiopia being required to quarantine/for their stay at Points of Entry.

IOM’s 2020 WASH strategy will focus on the expansion of emergency response capacities to ensure timely and appropriate services across the country while prioritising activities that reduce the likelihood of public health outbreaks in view of the COVID-19 pandemic and other common diseases in Ethiopia. All distribution, training and mass gathering activities will be implemented following national/WHO COVID-19 preventive measures to promote safety.

Activities include:

• Rehabilitation and expansion of water supply systems.
• Construction or rehabilitation of communal sanitation facilities, including handwashing facilities in health posts/facilities and schools, based on community consultations and taking into account gender-specific needs.
• Improvement and management of existing WASH facilities at entry and border points.
• Hygiene promotion and awareness-raising, including capacity building of relevant local actors.
• Provision of basic hygiene kits including menstrual hygiene management (MHM) components.
• Increasing cash-based intervention (CBI) opportunities within the WASH sector.

In 2021, Site Management Support (SMS) teams will provide coordination and information management support to enable the provision of assistance and protection to displaced populations and returnees, including activities to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. Support will focus on the four pillars of response:

- Site/Area Coordination, including Information Management

• Support to site management/local authorities for the coordination of humanitarian response in their area of responsibility (IDP Sites, Kebele, Woreda, etc.)
• Production of information products for coordination and decision making, including COVID-19 preparedness and response.

- Site Planning, Maintenance & Upgrading

• Maintenance/improvement of communal structures, small-scale sites or local infrastructure.
• Safety, accessibility, and protection risk audits, including on GBV. Identified risks are addressed either through direct implementation (e.g. partitioning of communal spaces) or referrals.

- Community Participation/Self-Governance Activities

• Establishment and training of community representative bodies, such as site management committees, Kebele committees (in return/out-of-site locations), women’s committees and youth committees, to act as a liaison between communities and humanitarian actors/authorities.
• Running of community feedback mechanisms (CFM) in both IDP and returnee locations, including referral of complaints to relevant actors for follow-up/closure.

- Capacity Building

• Camp/site management training for staff, authorities, partners and other stakeholders, with an emphasis on COVID-19 mitigation and protection mainstreaming, including GBV risk mitigation and response.

IOM seeks to strengthen and expand upon its core health activities in current areas and launch further support to new operational locations in response to needs, incorporating COVID-19 support in its routine primary health care provision. IOM’s interventions are closely coordinated and integrated with the governmental health system.

 Activities include:

• Provision of essential lifesaving primary health care services to underserved, unreached, crisis-affected communities and returning IDPs.
• Provision of sexual and reproductive health services and referral of GBV cases using existing referral pathways as well as strengthened coordination with the Protection Cluster.
• Health and hygiene promotion on common communicable diseases and other priority health topics.
• Mass and routine vaccinations, particularly for children under five years and women of childbearing age.
• Rehabilitation of damaged or destroyed health facilities, including the provision of medicines and medical supplies.
• Deploying IOM Health Rapid Response Teams/Mobile Health and Nutrition Teams (MHNTs) to assist governmental health offices at all levels in the early detection, referral and emergency case management.
• Supporting the disease surveillance, early warning and response system.
• Health support for returnee migrants, including diseases surveillance and basic medical support.

In 2021, IOM will focus on providing mental health and psychosocial support activities, including counselling to IDPs and vulnerable returnee migrants, while capacitating local actors to provide quality assistance.  IOM applies an integrated approach to ensure that community resilience is adequately boosted, while severe cases are properly supported in line with IOM’s Manual on Community-Based MHPSS in Emergencies and Displacement and government referral pathways. Activities include:

• Provision of psychological first aid, screening and referral of severe cases for displaced populations and vulnerable returnee migrants, including victims of trafficking.
• Expanding the buddy system and peer to peer networks for migrant returnees.
• Capacity building of government, UN and non-government staff to provide quality MHPSS services to IDPs and returnee migrants, while mainstreaming COVID-19 prevention and response approaches.
• Awareness-raising on sexual reproductive health stigma, gender-based violence and protection of girls.
• Support local partners in providing MHPSS services in areas of return to ensure continuity of care.

In 2021, IOM, in coordination with UNHCR, government and other partners, will provide relocation assistance and protection in a timely, safe and dignified way for emergency transportation from Points of Entry (PoEs) to designated camps in Ethiopia, as well as relocation between camps. An effective feedback mechanism is in place to ensure beneficiaries receive adequate and timely information on access to travel and assistance. To ensure their safety and dignity, experienced medical and operations staff are deployed in our operational areas.

 Activities include:

• Pre-departure awareness and medical screening to evaluate fitness to travel for significant protection concerns.
• Referrals for urgent medical and vulnerable protection cases.
• Operational escorts for movements. 
• Emergency transportation of refugees from PoEs to camps as well as inter-camp transportation for protection purposes.
• Providing medical escorts to the most vulnerable. 

COVID-19 is expected to exacerbate the factors contributing to unsafe irregular migration in the most vulnerable households of migration hotspot areas. IOM aims to provide viable alternatives to (re)migration and to stabilise socioeconomically distressed communities through community-based interventions in 20 key migration hotspots. These interventions will promote partnerships among returnees and non-migrant members of the community, as well as with local NGOs that have an active presence at the grassroots level.

Activities include:

• Community resources mappings
• Community-based reintegration projects such as community infrastructure rehabilitations prioritizing lifesaving infrastructure in the immediate term and critical economic infrastructure during the recovery phase or livelihoods projects to recover livelihoods lost as a cause of COVID-19. This will include support for small to medium enterprises to recover lost livelihoods
• Individual reintegration assistance to 5,000 of the most vulnerable returnees/community members, prioritizing households whose livelihoods have been affected by the impacts of COVID-19.
• Develop the capacities of local government and non-government actors with livelihood support mandates to provide services to mitigate the negative socio-economic impact of the crisis.
• Conduct awareness-raising campaigns on safe migration practices, mainstreaming COVID-19 prevention and IPC, in prominent areas of origin reaching out to 55,000 community conversation group members.

With the overall goal of contributing to the Government of Ethiopia’s efforts to progressively resolve the displacement of IDPs in the country, IOM focuses on supporting the implementation of the Durable Solutions Initiative (DSI) Ethiopia, jointly launched by the GoE and the UN in December 2019. In 2021, IOM will continue to support:

• Establishing and/or coordinating federal, regional and zonal Durable Solutions Working Groups (DSWG).
• Providing technical support to federal and regional governments to deliver principled durable solutions interventions.
• Setting up national and regional governance systems for post-crisis recovery.
• Increasing government and DSWGs’ institutional capacity for the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of durable solutions, and improving data for durable solutions policy and program design.
• Community-Based Planning (CBP) processes to address communities’ self-identified recovery priorities, including rehabilitation of community infrastructure.

Given the fragility of state and community structures, IOM supports national processes to promote peace and reconciliation and the building of an inclusive peace infrastructure and dispute resolution mechanisms. Interventions aim to strengthen the capacity of local government and local inter-governmental structures on conflict prevention, as well as customary conflict resolution mechanisms. In addition, a bottom-up approach focuses on communities at the grassroots level – IOM organizes interactive community activities to find durable resolutions to conflicts and to foster stability and social cohesion of various ethnic groups, including marginalized community members such as youths, women and persons with disability. Activities will include:

• Supporting community dialogues for communities to settle disputes and grievances.
• Strengthening customary and statutory conflict management mechanisms through co-ordination platforms at different administrative levels.
• Create/capacitate women peace platforms on the conflict management systems. This platform will be used to discuss grievances and human rights violations and linking them with the respective referral systems.
• Capacity building of local government experts on conflict prevention and resolution.
• Establishing and strengthening Conflict Early Warning Systems at local level through establishing situation rooms and capacitating the local government on the Conflict Early Warning and Response Mechanism (CEWARN)
• Revitalizing peace communities at the local level and advocating on inclusive and peaceful communities through supporting the communities’ priorities such as income-generating activities, rehabilitation of social services (schools, health posts, water points etc.), and community cultural activities/games, etc.
• Social and economic reintegration of former combatants, including MHPSS support.

IOM supports climate- and conflict-affected communities across Ethiopia to re-establish social, economic, and local, regional as well as federal governance structures in the wake of crises. Interventions focus on working with community networks and local governance structures to promote social cohesion and strengthen institutional capacity, thus improving community self-reliance and the conditions necessary for recovery.

IOM also supports sustainable livelihood and economic activities to vulnerable IDPs, returnee and host community households to improve their socio-economic conditions and strengthen their local integration. In view of high youth unemployment and gender disparities in Ethiopia, interventions focus on the socio-economic empowerment of vulnerable youth and women.

Activities include:

• Supporting the rehabilitation and reconstruction of community infrastructure.
• Trainings and practical work experience.
• Livelihoods assistance through on- and off-farm enterprises.
• Inclusive governance dialogue and training, ensuring community-driven solutions and recovery through the community-based planning (CBP) model.

IOM will continue supporting Points of Entry (PoEs) and their main actors to strengthen health aspects of border management amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. This will include:

• Capacity development support to actors who are managing PoEs, particularly regarding health aspects of border management.

IOM uses a holistic two-fold approach to implement activities that contribute to disaster risk reduction and uplift communities overall. On the one hand, IOM supports preventing/mitigating displacement related to natural hazards through disaster prevention mechanisms, preparedness and response. On the other hand, IOM supports communities to build resilience through the recovery and reconstruction process in line with the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.

Activities include:

• Hazard mapping and multi-hazard risk assessments.
• Establishing community-based disaster risk management committees, including early warning systems and sustainable livelihoods recovery.
• Hazard resilient transitional shelter of housing and community infrastructure.
• Dialogue initiatives on mobility, risks, and resilience.
• Capacity building of the government on risk-informed policies and strategies, protection measures and policy development.

To provide the Government of Ethiopia and the crisis response community with a reliable evidence base for planning, advocacy, and response, IOM proposes a comprehensive data collection strategy that will apply a holistic view on the different trends and needs of mobile populations in Ethiopia.

Activities will include:

• Household Level Surveys: Multi Sectorial Needs Assessments to inform the humanitarian planning cycle.
• Site assessments: Multi-sector needs data of locations hosting 20 or more IDP households nationwide.
• Village assessments: Mapping of infrastructure and services of villages hosting 5 or more returning IDP households to assess the socio-economic status of return communities and their absorption capacity.
• Event tracking: Weekly tracking of population movements nationwide, triggering alerts for further assessment.
• Flow monitoring: Regular and irregular migrant movements data (including human trafficking) from strategic transit points nationwide to analyze regional routes and inform developmental programming.
• Thematic analyses: In 2021, IOM aims to produce thematic papers such as the Durable Solutions Index Report and Stability Index Report to monitor community stabilization, peace-building processes, safety and security, and livelihoods opportunities in order to better bridge the Humanitarian Development Nexus (HDN).

In 2021, IOM Ethiopia aims to continue providing critical health services to 8,444 eligible UN personnel, dependents, and other persons in need of care referred by the UN, as part of the ‘First Line of Defence (FLOD)’ for the COVID-19 response. IOM’s Migration Health Assessment Clinics (MHACs) provide services encompassing a range of clinical care services, including:

• Monitoring of COVID-19 patients through tele-medicine.
• Laboratory testing for COVID-19.
• Outpatient consultation of non-COVID-19 cases.
• Medical evacuation (MEDEVAC) support from the regions of Ethiopia to Addis Ababa.