El Salvador Crisis Response Plan 2023 - 2025

CRP last updated: January 22 2024
Funding last updated: October 08 2024
$14,580,000
Funding required
1,100,000
People in need
63,500
People Targeted

IOM Vision

IOM, in partnership with other key strategic actors, seeks to strengthen institutional and community capacities to better prepare for and respond to crisis situations in El Salvador. IOM will contribute to efforts to address humanitarian needs arising from disasters, alongside the challenges arising from large-scale movements to and from the United States and Mexico, working to reduce the risks and vulnerabilities of affected populations and support sustainable recovery, reintegration and preparedness at national and local levels.  

Key Operating Modalities
Participation and empowerment Collaboration and partnership Localization Cash-based interventions
Cross-cutting priorities
Data and evidence Protection Mainstreaming Gender Equality Prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse Disaster Risk Climate Change Law and policy

Objective 1 - Saving lives and protecting people on the move
Objective
Saving lives and protecting people on the move

$7,380,000
Funding required
45,750
People Targeted
19
Entities Targeted
Internal migrant, Internally displaced person, International migrant, Local population / community
Primary target groups
Description of People and Entities Targeted

IOM will provide immediate life-saving assistance and protection to local communities, and internally displaced persons affected by disasters anywhere in El Salvador, in close collaboration with the government and partners. In 2024, IOM expects to respond to at least one emergency, such as hurricanes, tropical storms, floods and earthquakes or any consequence related to the El Niño phenomenon related to IOM's mandate. In addition, IOM will strengthen the Government and other partners' preparedness for emergencies.

IOM will also strengthen partnerships with the DGPC and Local Emergency Committees in order to promote the availability of timely information on internally displaced populations due to natural hazards. On one hand, IOM will support government capacities to collect, process, analyse and share data for evidence-based decision-making. On the other hand, IOM will collect information on IDPs through DTM to inform decision-making. Based on the key role data-sharing plays in humanitarian emergencies, data will be promoted with local and central government institutions, humanitarian sectors, United Nations agencies, donors, local committees, civil society, and other key stakeholders. Findings will also inform internal IOM programmes and project proposal development.

 

Basic needs, including food and multi-purpose cash assistance

IOM will support the basic needs of affected communities and displaced persons in at least one emergency in El Salvador through:   

  • Distribution of multi-purpose cash assistance to populations of interest in coordination with social protection agencies and partners (local non-governmental organizations (NGOs), National Direction of Shelters and GBV service providers).
  • Distribution of food items for vulnerable groups in collective centres, as well as non-food items (NFIs) kits including shelter, kitchen supplies, cleaning supplies, and clothes.
Funding required
$1,000,000
Plan types

Camp coordination and camp management

IOM will support the government in the coordination and management of their temporary collective centres for displaced populations, follow up activities to the previous year, in emergencies in El Salvador through: 

  • Strengthening and expansion of CCCM/emergency shelter coordination teams (coordinator, information manager, CCCM technical advisor) to support inclusive coordination among all stakeholders.
  • Contribute to coordinated assessments among the Technical Sector Committee (CTS), UN agencies and the government.  
  • Strengthen the capacity of local authorities, Sector partners and more community leads through the provision of trainings on CCCM. 
  • Support the management, equipment, and operations of temporary collective centers to respond to recent disasters.  
  • Coordinate the Sector for Coordination and Management of Temporary collective centres and enable access to basic services (water, health, basic sanitation, food, among others and in coordination with other humanitarian sectors).
  • Strengthen the relevant regional and national shelter and CCCM coordination structure in collaboration with DGPC, DA and other partners by deploying (Emergency) Shelter Sector Specialists to monitor stakeholder activities, coordinate assessments, set standards, and active coordination of activities and development of durable solutions in an early stage.
Funding required
$100,000
Plan types

Protection

IOM will provide protection assistance to affected populations focusing on displaced persons and returnees, in all phases of displacement through:

  • Mainstreaming protection across all sectors of interventions by conducting trainings on protection principles for staff in temporary collective centers, strengthening safeguarding measures, and disseminating brochures on protection risks, available services and referral pathways in line with the guidelines developed by the Protection Cluster.

Additionally, IOM will particularly advocate for the government and NGOs to offer options of long-term solutions to GBV for the population of interest in an early stage and accountability of government entities and NGOs and GBV referral mechanisms. Activities will include:

  • Provision of technical guidance to other IOM sectors, IOM’s implementing partners and governments, starting from GBV risk analyses in emergency situations, through capacity-building and action plans. The activities may include training of the community emergency groups to detect and address GBV risks and include such actions in working plans. 
  • Mitigation activities: Creating risk assessment working groups in collective centers. Providing a GBV referral pathway, mental health assistance, psychosocial assistance and legal and counselling services. 
  • Integrating gender mainstreaming in response plans of government institutions on emergency situations, especially on manuals and guidelines to all collective centers staff to have the tools to mitigate the appearance of new GBV cases within collective centers and in the communities of origin of the IDPs.
  • Promoting educational activities and campaigns with children and their legal guardians to avoid gender inequalities within households, and to promote co-responsibility of the reproductive and care tasks. 
  • Promoting the prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse (PSEA) with IOM partners and staff, including training on the key concepts of PSEA, how to report incidents, responsibilities, obligations, and the victim-centred approach. 
  • Strengthen the capacity and quality of the services provided by safe houses for women, to keep their integrity and life. These safe houses in the affected territories must be equipped to provide services that women and girls may need. This support may include the provision of furniture, provision of spendable products such as hygiene kits, food, operating budgets, and others. 
  • Provision of GBV risk mitigation activities established in IOM’s Institutional Framework for Addressing GBV in Crisis, which is aligned with the GBV guidelines by training non-GBV specialized staff on how to handle a GBV disclosure safely and ethically and promoting the participation of women and girls throughout the design, implementation, and monitoring processes of shelter-related activities. This will be implemented in close coordination and consultation with the GBV specialist.
Funding required
$300,000
Plan types

Provision of water, sanitation and hygiene in emergencies

IOM will provide life-saving WASH assistance to the affected communities and displaced persons in at least one emergency in El Salvador through: 

  • Transportation and distribution of pre-positioned 5,000 differentiated hygiene kits including MHM for women and girls of reproductive age in collaboration with standby partners. 
  • Improving access to water and sanitation systems including the rehabilitation of sanitation facilities in 4 collective centers. The main necessities are restroom door repair, toilet repair, sink repair, shower construction, inclusive toilet construction, and overhead reservoirs.
Funding required
$500,000
Plan types

Shelter and settlements

IOM will provide life-saving shelter and non-food item assistance to affected communities and displaced persons in at least one emergency in El Salvador through:

  • Improving infrastructure in collective centers in communities identified with government partners by recent disasters. 
  • Rapid provision of cash-based interventions (CBI) to meet the shelter needs of families whose home has been damaged by disaster. CBI will support beneficiaries’ capacities with new materials to rebuild their homes to facilitate return.
  • Transportation and distribution of pre-positioned emergency shelter NFIs for 5,000 households (25,000 persons), including emergency shelter kits, solar lamps, and kitchen sets from the IOM warehouses in Panama to displaced and affected households in collaboration with partners. The composition of the kits will be reviewed and agreed with the Sector. When needed shelter and non-food item assistance can also be provided through cash transfer, as appropriate and if feasible.
  • Support community/owner driven house repairs for 400 displaced households through a combination of technical assistance, awareness-raising/training on safe construction, construction materials, labour and conditional cash support for reconstruction; in partnership with international and local NGOs' support. 
Funding required
$3,000,000
Plan types

Mental health and psychosocial support in humanitarian response

Under Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Humanitarian Response, IOM will: 

  • Provide community-based mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) (including psychoeducation, psychological first aid, counselling and socio-relational cultural and play-based psychosocial activities) for the most vulnerable groups and communities in emergencies, and referrals to specialized life-saving mental healthcare for specific cases.
Funding required
$200,000
Plan types

Emergency preparedness

Through the Sector for Coordination and Management of Temporary Shelters in El Salvador, IOM is planning to: 

  • Strengthen the preparedness of selected (vulnerable) municipalities by profiling the emergency shelter capacity and upgrading at least 40 collective centres, developing community evacuation plans, emergency response training of communities and improving access to data. 
  • Preposition and store NFIs (including tarpaulins, fasteners, kitchen sets, mats, solar lamps, tools, hygiene items etc.) for at least 10,000 persons in warehouses in Panama. 
  • Support DGPC, DA and the UN system with all aspects of human mobility in emergencies, including the development of policies and protocols around planned relocations, mass evacuations, and collective centers, contributing to the development of regional and subregional UN contingency plans with the focus on Shelter, CCCM, WASH, and Protection.
  • Increase government capacity-building in site planning and collective center physical interventions due to natural hazards, more specifically in earthquakes where collective centers may be destroyed or damaged. 
  • Play an active role in coordination platforms, such as the Humanitarian Country Team, during emergencies.
Funding required
$2,000,000
Plan types

Displacement tracking

Based on the constant and high impact of disasters that affect the country every year, there is a need to fill in the current information gap on internally displaced populations. Therefore, it is fundamental to strengthen the capacities of El Salvadoran institutions to collect, process, analyze and share data on displaced populations due to natural hazards. Additionally, it is important to generate information on the link between internal displacement and migration, since one leads to the other in some cases. DTM activities will illuminate this key area. IOM information management activities for data for action and data for insight will revolve around two main outcomes:  

  • Capacity development of government institutions such as DGPC and other relevant stakeholders to collect, process and analyze timely information on displaced populations affected by natural disasters. In 2024, the focus of capacity development will be on the analysis and sharing stages of the information management cycle. Based on the reliability of the data, key stakeholders will be strengthened to analyze and share the data they collect and process.
  • Developing mechanisms to share timely data collected using DTM tools and methodologies on displaced populations to better prepare for and respond to emergencies related to natural hazards and mixed migratory flows (displacement due to violence, return migration and in transit). In 2024, the focus of this component will be to improve data-sharing mechanisms to better inform decision-making processes of different stakeholders and allow them to interact with the data to explore specific insights based on their needs.

Key stakeholders that will benefit from the data-sharing include UN Agencies, the Humanitarian Country Team, NGOs, other government institutions, donors and international cooperation, and IOM internal programmes and units, among others. Examples of data usage include emergency response plans, resource allocation for humanitarian assistance, development of project proposals, etc.

Funding required
$280,000
Plan types
IOM's participation in the Risk Reduction Fair. © Noe Alvarado / IOM El Salvador 2023
IOM's participation in the Risk Reduction Fair. © Noe Alvarado / IOM El Salvador 2023

Objective 2 - Driving solutions to displacement
Objective
Driving solutions to displacement

$3,600,000
Funding required
17,750
People Targeted
5
Entities Targeted
Internal migrant, Internally displaced person, International migrant, Local population / community
Primary target groups
Description of People and Entities Targeted

IOM will support health systems strengthening efforts in El Salvador’s local government and enhance the preparedness and response capacity of the national and local health systems in line with 2005 International Health Regulations (IHR). In collaboration with local authorities and partners, IOM seeks to build inclusive health systems to ensure services are readily available to migrants, IDPs and other vulnerable groups.

IOM will also support El Salvador’s government on reconstruction, reparation, housing, land and property rights and planned relocations for displaced households or households at risk.

High-risk exposure combined with low resilience and coping capacities hinders disaster preparedness and response in the country, as exemplified by floods and landslides experienced in 2022 and 2023, with a notable focus on major urban centres, or impacts related to the El Niño phenomenon. IOM will work with communities employing community-based resilience-building methodologies through Community-Based Disaster Risk Management (CBDRM) planning and disaster risk management projects, as well as employing the Migrants in Countries in Crisis (MICIC) guidelines.

Funding confirmed 4%
96% Funding gap

Land and property

IOM El Salvador will provide technical, coordination and planning support to the El Salvador Government, including the Ministry of the Interior through the General Directorate of Civil Protection (DGPC) and the National Directorate of Shelters (DA); Ministry of Public Security (MSP), Ministry of Health (MINSAL) and the Cooperation Agency of El Salvador (ESCO) on:

  • Risk assessment of plots and housing, land and property rights and planned relocations, land planning, to pave the path, both politically and socially, for relocations.
  • Providing transport to people of displaced households or households at risk.
Funding required
$400,000
Plan types

Health system strengthening

IOM will support health system strengthening efforts in El Salvador and enhance the preparedness and response capacity of the national and local health systems in line with 2005 International Health Regulations (IHR). It seeks to build inclusive health systems to ensure services are readily available to migrants, IDPs and other vulnerable groups and build resilient health systems to combat public health emergencies such as to COVID-19, Tuberculosis (TB), tropical diseases and other public health threats. IOM’s initiatives in new vulnerable communities, following up on activities in 2023, include:

  • IOM is providing critical medical equipment and relevant trainings to healthcare staff to improve the prevention, detection and response to communicable diseases in the context of widespread and multi-directional human mobility. 
  • Strengthen evidence in data collection to have timely information and refer attention to appropriate health services. Empower migrants, people on the move and host communities through a risk communication campaign on communicable disease prevention and response.
  • Facilitating collaboration and sharing of best practices among the international, national, regional and local government health officials and experts to ensure alignment of local policies and practices with key standards such as the IHR and Philippine Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response.  
  • Supporting needs and capacity assessment of key points of entry (POEs) and health facilities and addressing their gaps in the provision of healthcare services including infection prevention and control (IPC), health screening, and testing, like: Tuberculosis (TB), tropical diseases and other public health threats referral and through the provision of technical assistance, training and equipment.  
  • Supporting the evidence generation and data-driven delivery of health services through the provision of technical assistance, technologies and training for improving coordination and enhancing local management, collection, analysis and information sharing, reporting on health data in line with national standards and in consideration of data protection policies.

To strengthen the health components of preparedness and risk reduction, IOM El Salvador will:

  • Support emergency public health risk reduction and prevention measures linked to disaster response activities; build health system capacity to prevent, detect and respond to disease outbreaks and health threats, including through the strengthening of disease surveillance systems and population mobility mapping (PMM) to foster a migration-sensitive approach to preparedness and risk reduction, as well as community events-based surveillance, data collection and ensuring information is integrated into national surveillance and reporting mechanisms.
Funding required
$1,200,000
Plan types

Adaptation and disaster risk reduction

IOM will provide support in developing the preparedness capacities of government and non-government partners in humanitarian response and assisting vulnerable populations and providing support for populations who are likely to be severely affected by the impact of disasters and crises. IOM’s initiatives will include:

  • Providing trainings on disaster risk reduction (DRR) in line with MICIC Guidelines and other internationally recognized standards, including on guidelines to protect migrants during disaster events, to crisis-affected communities as part of CCCM and evacuation, shelter response and recovery programmes, mainstreaming protection principles and durable solutions.  
  • Supporting the drafting, review and update of local policies on disaster risk reduction and management and local climate change adaptation plans and strengthening the implementation capacities of local actors through the provision of training, equipment and tools.
  • Conducting advocacy work to research and actions related to climate change adaptation (CCA) and some humanitarian impacts of the El Niño phenomenon, contributing to the generation of relevant science-based evidence and utilization of local knowledge to inform the government’s policies and programmes, and multi-sectoral programmes (i.e. food security-WASH-climate change, DTM-community stabilization) with other development partners including UN agencies and civil society organization (CSO) partners.  
  • Conducting consultations with communities vulnerable to climate risk to develop community action plans that identify localized climate adaptation strategies and providing technical assistance to implement these plans, in vulnerable communities.
  • Supporting at-risk communities and individuals to mainstream climate-smart, green livelihood strategies, including through the set-up of community-based climate risk monitoring and early warning systems.
Funding required
$800,000
Funding confirmed
$148,889
Last updated: 08 Oct 2024
Plan types
18%
Funding confirmed
82%
Funding gap

Provision of water, sanitation and hygiene in transitional and post-crisis situations

To support WASH preparedness in relevant municipalities, IOM will: 

  • Provide hygiene kits for at least 10,000 households, storing this humanitarian aid in the IOM warehouse in Panama. 
  • Coordinate with the government and DGPC to review and assess areas with high flood risk and to create an early warning system for risk reduction aimed at modelling and monitoring flood risk, identify priority interventions in infrastructure and subsequently carry out interventions in prioritized places. 
Funding required
$1,200,000
Plan types
Operational presence in

El Salvador

30
International staff and affiliated work force
324
National staff and affiliated work force
3
IOM field office

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.