At the headquarters level, IOM actively participates in the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN) led by WHO. As a member of the Global Health Cluster and an active participant in the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC), IOM coordinates closely with United Nations (UN) agencies, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), donors, other clusters, and committee actors to ensure a holistic response in its health programming.  

At the continental level, IOM participates in continental coordination meetings on mpox and MVD preparedness and response activities with Member States, UN agencies, partners and donors. As a leading organization for the PoE under surveillance pillar in the Mpox Continental Preparedness and Response Plan for Africa, IOM chairs the PoE Technical Working Group (TWG) meetings in partnership with the Africa CDC and WHO to support Member States on PoE response. 

At the regional level, the IOM Regional Office for East, Horn, and Southern Africa (EHSA) participates in the Health Group Partner meeting, a joint Eastern African regional meeting led by Africa CDC, and the IOM Regional Office for West and Central Africa (WCA) also participates in relevant regional coordination meetings. Through participation in these meetings, IOM coordinates with UN agencies, the Africa CDC, Regional Economic Communities (East African Community, Intergovernmental Authority on Development, and Economic Community of West African States), partners, and donors for the regional response to mpox and other health emergencies. Additionally, the Regional Offices for EHSA and WCA participate in several TWGs including risk communication and community engagement (RCCE) and surveillance. The Regional Office for EHSA also coordinates biweekly internal coordination meetings with multi-sectoral participants at the headquarters, regional, and country levels.  

At the country level, IOM has long-standing relationships with various actors including Ministries of Health, National Programmes of Hygiene at Borders, National Public Health Institutes, Public Health Emergency Operations Centres,  Expanded Programmes on Immunization, Ministries of Interior, district local governments and district health teams, UN agencies, Africa CDC, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), civil society organizations (CSO), and local communities including community health workers (CHWs). In each country, IOM's main partner is the IHR designated Port Health Authority and IOM aims to support national governments to meet their commitments to IHR by supporting national, provincial and local efforts on disease prevention and control, as well as cross border coordination, including understanding population movement across borders. IOM participates in several coordination platforms including the national coordination platform, the surveillance subcommittee, national PoE working groups, the UN emergency coordination team, and TWG meetings on RCCE, PoE, and Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS). IOM leads coordination leadership roles in several countries, including IOM South Sudan co-leading surveillance at PoEs, IOM Malawi co-leading port health coordination, IOM Tanzania co-chairing the UN Emergency Coordination Group, and IOM Zambia providing leadership in the UN Network on Migration to support bilateral cross-border meetings on health. 

IOM will continue to implement programming in partnership with all government stakeholders, and in collaboration with UN agencies, specifically WHO, Africa CDC, national and sub-national taskforces and committees, intersectoral and inter-agency mechanisms and partners in each country, and at the regional, continental and headquarters levels to ensure a synergy of efforts.  

IOM, as a leading organization for the PoE sub-pillar in the Mpox Continental Preparedness and Response Plan for Africa and a leading global actor on migration health, responds to the health needs of migrants including IDPs, refugees, and highly mobile populations throughout all phases of the migration process, as well as to the public health needs of host communities by strengthening health systems and migration policies and practices. IOM has substantial experience in responding to public health emergencies including Ebola Virus Disease (EVD), COVID-19, mpox, cholera, measles, and other disease outbreaks at the national and regional levels, particularly with regard to understanding human mobility and border surveillance and management during extraordinary circumstances, including the influx of IDPs and refugees and health outbreaks . The Organization’s health and cross-sectoral expertise is in part based on IOM’s Health, Border and Mobility Management Framework (HBMM) developed during the West Africa EVD outbreak.  

Through the HBMM framework, IOM delivers and promotes comprehensive preventive and curative health programmes, which are beneficial, accessible, and equitable for migrants and other mobile populations, and local populations worldwide. IOM does this by assisting governmental and non-governmental partners in the development and implementation of relevant programmes and policies to prevent, detect and respond to potential health threats along the mobility continuum (at points of origin, transit, destination and return). At the core of HBMM is the understanding of the implications of human mobility for communicable disease by population mobility mapping (PMM) and targeting of public health interventions throughout the mobility continuum at physical or regulated border areas. These locations include official PoEs as well as locations where informal cross-border movements take place, travel routes, and spaces of vulnerability where the risk of disease transmission may be high. PMM is a participatory mapping of cross-border and in-country population movements against epidemiological data to identify priority spaces of vulnerability where IOM supports governments in implementing health screening and active surveillance, RCCE, and establishment of infection prevention and control (IPC) measures to strengthen of operational capacity and address immediate life-saving gaps. 

IOM is equipped with the technical capacity and on-the-ground experience in outbreak preparedness and response based on its successful interventions through the HBMM framework and has expertise in PMM, screening and surveillance, risk communication, and establishment of IPC systems in Algeria, Burundi, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, DRC, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Libya, Nigeria, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, the United Republic of Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. IOM health teams also have global deployment rosters to support the implementation of the HBMM framework during health emergencies.  

IOM’s comparative advantage includes its multi-sectoral collaboration; health teams’ work alongside IOM’s protection including MHPSS, gender-based violence (GBV) and sexual exploitation and abuse - water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM), camp coordination and camp management (CCCM), immigration and border governance, and shelter and settlements teams. IOM commits to addressing mobility dimensions of crises in conflict-affected and fragile contexts and applying a conflict sensitive approach in all humanitarian and public health emergency programmes.

This mpox preparedness and response plan aims to support governments to address the mobility dimensions of public health threats by supporting governments to conduct needs assessments and PMM, capacity strengthening, technical support to develop standard operating procedures (SOPs) and policies, assisting coordination within countries and across borders. At the regional level, IOM supports Member States to facilitate multi-country dialogue and coordination. 

At the country level, IOM supports governments to meet IHR requirements for public health emergency preparedness and response at PoEs. IOM supports national mpox initiatives led by the MoH and engages with relevant government actors to support PoE health interventions. IOM works closely with local authorities to ensure that outreach activities are culturally appropriate, sensitive, and acceptable to community members to maximize their impact.

For example, IOM Tanzania  supports the government at the national and regional levels to address health emergency situations. IOM Tunisia supports the MoH to improve its IHR capacities at PoEs. IOM Uganda supported the government to integrate crisis response measures into the broader national development plan and mpox national response plan. IOM Zambia actively engaged with the MoH through participating in national and regional mpox coordination platforms. IOM Zimbabwe supports the government to strengthen global health security at PoEs. IOM in Benin, Ghana and Togo is recognized as a key actor for health and border activities by governments and supports Member States to improve policies, legislation, operational systems, and human resources to address migration and border management challenges.