IOM will continue the implementation of life-saving humanitarian activities through coordination, service monitoring and referral, inclusive community engagement, advocating for resilience-inclined interventions in all services to improve community coping mechanisms. IOM maintains a static presence in the Bentiu IDP Camp (former Protection of Civilians, PoC, site) and the Malakal PoC site, while setting the stage for durable solutions in Naivasha and Hai Masna IDP Camps. Activities will include:

• Conduct service coordination and monitoring within displacement sites.
• Implement site planning, development and care and maintenance, with an emphasis on community-led interventions and resilience, as well as flood mitigation; including settlement planning for areas of local integration to support durable solutions for IDPs. 
• Support governance structures to increase participation and ownership.
• Conduct communication with communities (CwC), including the operation of Zite Manager (IOM CCCM service referral platform) across missions) emphasizing accountability to affected populations (AAP).
• Conduct camp management operations, including fire safety and prevention, response to public health crises and dead body management.
• In line with the localization agenda and for IOM’s mobile responses, work with local NGOs as implementing partners in delivering essential camp management functions, including site care and maintenance, coordination of humanitarian services, and capacity-building of community leadership structures and governance activities.
• In line with the humanitarian-development-peace nexus approach, work with peacebuilding and development actors in preparing the community to life beyond camp, closely work with protection partners in carrying out intention survey and facilitate solutions planning. 

IOM will continue to provide direct health services and health promotion activities for crisis affected populations in the IDP camps of Wau, Bentiu and Malakal and among IDP returnees and host communities within the respective counties of Wau, Rubkona, Malakal and Abyei Administrative Area. IOM’s health service delivery approach will continue to be conducted through static facilities, outreach/mobile clinics, and rapid response teams (RRTs). The services will include primary health care, RRT deployments, outreach interventions for remote areas, communicable diseases detection and management including HIV and tuberculosis; sexual reproductive, maternal and child health and nutrition.

IOM health service delivery points within IDP camps will enhance the collaborative response to mpox, strengthening active surveillance by screening to identify suspected cases and supporting sample collection and transportation for laboratory tests at the National Public Health Laboratory. Risk communication at the health facilities will contribute to raising awareness and improving the detection of cases through strengthened community-based surveillance. IOM mpox health support is in line with the South Sudan Mpox Preparedness and Response Plan 2024-2026, supporting national efforts to prevent and control mpox in South Sudan and contributing to a reduction in the morbidity and mortality associated with the disease, especially in cross border areas.

Other activities will include:

• Implement migration-responsive strategies and tools within national immunization plans to increase vaccination coverage and presumptive treatment including COVID-19 vaccine for mobile and hard-to-reach populations, including migrant communities, returnees and IDPs, as well as communities hosting returnees, such as cross-border communities in Nimule, Yei, Morobo, Kajokeji, Renk and Abyei Administrative area and along mobility trajectories.
• Enhance protection services within IOM health services delivery to most vulnerable migrants including the role of the health system in the identification and referral of victims of human trafficking and other vulnerabilities (e.g. victims of trafficking, unaccompanied children, undocumented migrants, older persons, nomads and others) in conjunction with the migration management and protection units.
• Provide protection services to women and girls including those at risk of GBV and IOM health providers will be ready to provide specialized health responses to GBV survivors referred for support.
• Share positive experiences, best practices, policy instruments, effective tools and lessons learned in migrant health promotion and protection among agencies, and other relevant actors to support learning and adaptation or replication of successful interventions.

IOM will continue to work closely with the Government of South Sudan, supporting efforts to strengthen rights-based migration management, including preventing transnational organized crime and improving migrant protection through capacity building at the institutional, individual and community levels, as well as legislation and policy development, promoting intra and inter-agency cooperation at the national and regional level, and strengthening infrastructure to manage the emergency-related assistance to the population on the move. Therefore, IOM will:

• Support the establishment of standard procedures to assist in the delivery of aid, including goods and equipment, and entry for humanitarian workers at the border.
• Include migration health assessments and provide travel health assistance during HBM activities.
• Enhance the capacity at the sub-national level across borders and along migratory routes for preparedness and response to epidemics and other public health emergencies in accordance with the 2005 International Health Regulations (IHR).
• Train national authorities in evaluating migration movements and migration legislation and policies related to identity, temporary entry, health requirements, migrant smuggling and trafficking, and migrants in need of protection.

In line with the IOM Manual on Community-Based Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) in Emergencies and Displacement, and in response to the spectrum of MHPSS needs that are expected in an emergency setting, IOM will continue offering multi-layered services including community and family-level MHPSS services, focused non-specialized MHPSS services and access to specialized MHPSS services. Activities will include:

• Engage in MHPSS mainstreaming and capacity-building of local stakeholders, humanitarian actors, and government partners, such as the Ministry of Gender, Child and Social Welfare, building on the previous work to train social workers of the Ministry of Gender, Child and Social Welfare to continue offering focused non-specialized services, individual and family counselling, and peer support to persons with psychosocial needs. 
• Provide multi-layered services in IOM MHPSS recreational and counselling centres, communities, or health centres to people in need, as well as through regional toll-free hotlines established in collaboration with the Ministry of Health. This will include focused, non-specialized MHPSS services, such as counselling and support group sessions for crisis-affected individuals and caretakers of persons with mental and neurological illnesses as part of integrated healthcare services (static MHPSS response on the premises of health clinic) and through community outreach and home visits as and when required. This will include identification and referral of these individuals requiring more specialized mental health care.
• Provide community-driven awareness raising and sensitization on priority MHPSS topics and concerns.
• Provide psychosocial support to families and communities and engage community and family-level support systems via socio-relational and recreational activities, including cultural and social activities complemented by non-formal learning and small-scale income-generating activities. This can be done through Psychosocial Mobile Teams (PMTs).
• Provide targeted interventions on positive parenting practices to facilitate the prevention of substance use and crime among youth and contribute to the strengthened intergenerational dialogue.

IOM will continue to undertake standalone protection activities, as well as to mainstream protection - including GBV risk mitigation, disability inclusion and protection from sexual exploitation and abuse across all IOM programming. IOM will also maintain close coordination with key protection partners and multi-sectoral and technical working groups. Key activities will include:

• Provide technical guidance, training and support to IOM teams and partners to ensure interventions are informed by robust protection and gender analyses and that services can be accessed in a safe and dignified manner.
• Deploy protection staff to multisectoral teams and missions for vulnerability screening and identification, prioritization of vulnerable individuals for services, including through the management of protection desks.
• Conduct GBV safety audits and protection assessments through participatory and inclusive approaches, support community engagement and management of complaints and feedback mechanisms, to strengthen protection mainstreaming.
• Implement protection monitoring in areas of displacement, local integration and return to identify human rights violations and protection risks, which can act as early warning mechanisms to support preparedness and response, as well as to identify individuals in need of assistance and referrals.
• Provide direct protection assistance to vulnerable individuals and households in need of time-sensitive assistance, including through cash-based individual protection assistance.
• Work with and build the capacity of organizations of persons with disabilities or other rights groups to advocate and ensure respect for the rights of marginalized groups.
• Following individual assessments by the IOM Physiotherapist, provide assistive devices to persons with disabilities in conjunction with physical rehabilitation and mobility orientation training, as well as inclusive livelihood activities and skills building, in order to improve self-reliance and increase access to services.
• Support family members and caregivers of persons with disabilities and raise awareness on disability inclusion at the community level.
• Support survivors of GBV, including conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) survivors, to exercise their rights, including access to justice and protection and multisectoral services, as well as tailored assistance to survivors, including livelihoods assistance and MHPSS, in support of their recovery, wellbeing and resilience.
• Through partnerships and capacity-building of local partners, strengthen direct GBV response services, including case management, MHPSS, and health services for GBV survivors, including CRSV survivors and victims of trafficking.

IOM will continue to provide integrated, safe, equitable and dignified access to cost-efficient, robust and climate-resilient water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services to most vulnerable IDPs, host communities, and returnees. Also, IOM will continue to provide WASH services in existing areas of operation and mobilize its emergency preparedness and response (EP&R) teams in order to rapidly restore service provision in response to crises (famine-like conditions, conflict/flood-related displacement) and prevent infectious diseases such as Hepatitis E virus, acute watery diarrhoea/cholera, thus safeguarding and reducing public health risks.  

Activities will include: 

• Ensure provision of safe, dignified, expandable, cost-efficient and robust water, sanitation and hygiene services for most vulnerable people including conflict-affected and flood-affected IDPs and host communities, including population living in PoCs and IDP sites in Malakal, Bentiu, Wau, Twic, etc. A special focus will be exerted on reducing the likelihood of public health crisis by providing tailor-made flood-resilient services, and faecal sludge management and solid waste management systems in the intervention areas. 
• Provide surge support to the national WASH Cluster by the timely mobilization of a WASH rapid response team across the country in order to rapidly restore critical life-saving WASH service provision, including emergency rehabilitation of water drinking supplies, disinfection and distribution of WASH NFIs with a special emphasis on soap and menstrual hygiene management items. GBV-related risks and concerns are taken into consideration in all programming; 
• Ensure primary health facilities and schools in areas of return have minimum basic standards for WASH services and facilities, including latrines, water quality and quantity, drainage and waste management;  
• Strengthen local economies and improve community resilience through cash-for-work for community members in the intervention areas through their engagement in the rehabilitation of WASH facilities and promote community engagement and ownership. 

In 2024, IOM continues to be the lead agency for Shelter and NFI Cluster coordination in the country. It coordinates the work of all humanitarian organizations providing the assistance and provides technical support to specific programs. IOM provides critical life-saving support to vulnerable and at-risk communities, including emergency shelter, NFI kits, long-term shelter solutions, HLP support, and cash grants to help people rehabilitate their shelters. Shelter and Settlement programming will focus on promoting durable solutions for displaced people. IOM will work to help people find permanent and sustainable housing and livelihoods, so that they can rebuild their lives and no longer need to rely on humanitarian assistance. The key activities will include:

• Emergency assistance: Continue to provide emergency shelter and NFI assistance to returnees, new and protracted IDPs, and the most vulnerable host communities. This assistance is based on rigorous assessments and identification processes, and includes the construction of new shelters, repair and maintenance of existing shelters, and provision of NFI kits.
• Promote durable solutions: Continue to support returnees to rebuild their lives and become self-sufficient by providing long-term shelter solutions, other assistance, and support to local communities. This will include designing and building shelters that are appropriate for the local climate and culture, and working with local communities to find sustainable solutions for housing and other needs. IOM will also help returnees to develop skills and resources so that they can recover from shocks and rebuild their lives. Additionally, settlement level interventions, such as site and settlement planning, upgrading of settlement infrastructure, etc., including activities to reduce risk related to settlement conditions (in coordination with CCCM, WASH, disaster risk reduction (DRR), and other sectors). Expand cash and market-based interventions to empower communities to prioritize assistance based on their own needs, recover quickly from crises, strengthen the local economy, and promote localization. The cash assistance will include cash for work for shelter construction, vouchers for shelter materials, conditional and unconditional cash grants, and cash grants for social safety net programming.
• Housing, land and property activities: Support upholding, improving, or restoring security of tenure for shelter and settlements beneficiaries. Interventions may be at the individual or settlement level and may relate to occupancy contracts, due diligence, restoring documents, informal settlements upgrades or formalization, amongst others.

IOM South Sudan plans to provide humanitarian movement assistance to vulnerable returnees fleeing from the Sudan Crisis, whose deteriorating situation has severe implications for the affected populations. Onward transportation assistance remains a crucial priority in the returnee response. High arrival rates combined with existing limited transportation infrastructure and insufficient capacities of resident communities in border areas require increased support in onward transportation to prevent congestion in border areas and transit centres.

IOM's onward transportation assistance will safeguard dignified and safe human mobility, ensuring physical well-being and focusing on the prevention and mitigation of protection, health, and other physical risks along the movement continuum. IOM will:

• Provide humanitarian transportation assistance to vulnerable new arrivals from border points to IOM’s transit centres or urban areas where they can get appropriate assistance. 
• Provide onward transportation for returnees to their communities or reintegration sites. 

IOM will continue to leverage its network of key informants and enumerators to provide granular, accurate and regularly updated information on the number and geographic distribution of IDPs and returnees, trends in mixed migration flow and the evolving needs of crisis-affected populations. Activities will include:

• Scale up tailored surveys to inform policies and implement the Solutions and Mobility Index (SMI), which will help identify root causes of fragility through data to address protracted displacement. With an aim to help achieve durable solutions for vulnerable communities, the SMI provides data on stability, peace, development, recovery and reintegration dynamics.
• Develop a comprehensive Data for Solutions to Internal Displacements approach to provide partners and government with essential data and comprehensive analysis to measure progress towards solutions while identifying the gaps to be addressed.
• Continue with countrywide coverage of mobility tracking to provide regular updates on the numbers, locations and priority needs of IDPs and returnees, as well as comparative trends analysis.
• Continue to conduct multisectoral needs analysis undertaken through key informant interviews and household surveys, in coordination with humanitarian partners and relevant authorities.
• Continue with event tracking of new displacement incidents to contribute to early warning efforts and inform conflict prevention and rapid response efforts.
• Increase the understanding of the effects of WASH interventions across the entire crisis life cycle on the available natural resources. A particular emphasis will be exerted on the operationalization of integrated water resources assessment at the watershed level and the analysis of the environmental impact of WASH services in the intervention areas.  
• Conduct biometric registrations/Verification of affected/targeted populations on a needs basis to create a record of individuals and households in a location for beneficiary selection, vulnerability targeting, and humanitarian programming/intervention.

IOM South Sudan will support coordination initiatives that reinforce the agency of individuals households and communities combined with systemic support to create environments conducive to the resolution of displacement and sustainable returns and recovery. Activities will include:

• Conduct community engagements and community-based planning exercises to ensure programming aimed at creating a conducive environment for the resolution of displacement, pathways to durable solutions and recovery is informed by community preferences.
• Conduct coordination, capacity building and strategic planning with partners along the humanitarian, development and peace nexus, notably on durable solutions, including government actors, UN and NGO partners and community management structures.

IOM will continue to build the capacity of relevant stakeholders, including national and local authorities, NGOs, and community leaders on disaster risk management, preparedness and response, based on comprehensive and context-specific needs assessments, including through:

• Participate in joint inter-agency rapid needs assessments in hard-to-reach, underserved and new displacement areas through mobile response capacity to inform inter-agency emergency preparedness and contingency plans.
• Equip key stakeholders at the community level with the capacity to develop emergency preparedness and response plans to face future displacement whether due to conflict or natural hazards.
• Strengthen capacity for ad-hoc assessments and data collection activities using the DTM emergency event tracking tool to inform partners at the onset of the emergency and support them with planning.
• Strengthen emergency multi-sectoral coordination in response to displacement, including enhancing the emergency preparedness and response capacity of CCCM partners through capacity and skills-building training and strengthened CCCM coordination and site-level support.
• Pre-position shelter and NFI / WASH and other necessary stocks in key strategic locations, update stakeholder and partner mapping in hotspot areas, monitor trends and key events that trigger conflict or flood, advocate for anticipatory/early action funding build local capacities, and provide resources.

IOM will continue to design and deliver locally driven, development-principled initiatives that facilitate transformative change that address the drivers of vulnerability and risk including conflict, climate change and disasters, and mitigate further displacement, with a focus on access and provision of essential services, economic recovery, and local governance and social cohesion. IOM will:

• Support community development committees to play a central role in identifying factors of vulnerability and transforming these into sources of community resilience through inclusive and active participation of women and girls' decision-making processes.
• Mobilize communities into Community Development, Operation and Maintenance committees’ capacity-building to determine, lead and sustain community development disaster response projects.
• Train and empower community committees, women and vulnerable populations to facilitate linkages and safely participate as leaders and decision-makers in their community.
• Strengthen the capacity of local, state and national governments to provide and support local service delivery, formulate disaster management plans and respond to disasters.
• Develop and rehabilitate community-level infrastructures and services in selected vulnerable areas through a participatory planning process.

In 2024, IOM South Sudan will deliver multi-tiered initiatives that reinforce the agency of individuals households and communities combined with systemic support to create environments conducive to the resolution of displacement and sustainable returns and recovery. Relevant livelihoods and economic recovery activities will include:

• Engage communities in skills and livelihoods development and promote the local economy; including in areas of local integration of IDPs and reintegration of returnees;
• Continue to support enhancing skills in rural areas to address demands for socioeconomic development, leveraging local capacity and the establishment of value chains.

IOM will continue to strengthen health systems in South Sudan by providing operational and technical support in the provision of direct primary health care, including curative consultations, sexual and reproductive health services, health promotion, nutritional screening, and health screening at selected POEs during both routine and rapid response mission deployments. IOM will also support training health professionals, border health staff, and community health promoters to strengthen health service provision and assist in the provision of needed personal protective equipment and supplies for infection prevention and control.

In particular, IOM will support health systems strengthening with the MoH and partner agencies by enhancing disease surveillance, cross border coordination, and border health capacity building at PoEs for disease prevention, detection and response, including for the Mpox outbreak. IOM will contribute to enhancing community engagement and empowering migrants, mobile populations and host communities in Mpox prevention and response as well as for other relevant disease outbreaks. IOM will also support supplementary immunization campaigns. 

Activities include: 

• Through its partnership with the Ministry of Health, continue to support health systems strengthening and Health Border and Mobility Management at points of entry, in line with IHR (2005), where IOM supports the coordination and implementation of epidemic disease surveillance.
• Enhance resilience and promote humanitarian-development linkages to strengthen health system recovery and coping mechanisms through improved health infrastructure and support to county health departments towards the provision of quality health services.
• Strengthen the capacity of the government of South Sudan through the Ministry of Health to address migration health with a whole-of-government and society approach, including through facilitating consultations and multisectoral networks of expertise to inform migration health policy and governance to advance the migration health agenda in the country.
• Conduct advocacy and action to ensure that migrants, IDPs, returnees and cross-border communities are not left behind in migration health-related SDGs achievements, including universal health coverage (SDG3.8) in compliance with the World Health Assembly resolutions, WHO Global Action Plan and national processes and strategies.

In addition, IOM has strong experience in providing technical support and collaborating with key frontline government and non-governmental partners to enhance Health, Humanitarian Border and Mobility Management capacities, to improve capacities for prevention detection and response to public health threats. In line with national contingency plans.
In 2024, IOM will continue to support the prevention and response efforts of the MOH at PoEs, through coordinated multisectoral response:

• Support timely detection and coordinated response to epidemic-prone diseases.
• Provide WASH/infection prevention and control (IPC) support at Points of Entry (PoE), including construction, operation and maintenance of WASH facilities, and provision of IPC materials to minimize the risk of infection.
• Strengthen risk communication and community engagement interventions at PoEs, nearby health facilities and adjacent communities.
• Provide assistance during travel to ensure individuals' health and safety and manage public health conditions as people move across borders. 
• Facilitate inter-state dialogue and cross-border meetings for enhancing global health security and coordination in compliance with the 2005 IHR and its core capacities with reference to point of entry and border spaces.
• Develop practical migration-responsive public health tools of surveillance to detect possible alerts and threats along mobility corridors including joint analyses with partners of mobility data for forecasting disease transmission trends and identifying priorities health surveillance sites using population mobility mapping.
• Enhance community event-based surveillance and community engagement in areas highly affected by migration including cross-border zones.
• Develop and operationalize a PoE essential package toolkit including SOPs in conjunction with the Migration Management Unit and DTM.

In line with IOM's Manual on Community-Based Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) in Emergencies and Displacement, IOM will integrate MHPSS with conflict transformation and mediation activities, as well as within wider livelihood efforts. Activities will include:

• Provide MHPSS training community stakeholders, partners and staff members in the field, including on topics relevant to addressing dialogue and crisis prevention, including social cohesion and positive coping mechanisms.
• Provide MHPSS activities at the individual, family and community levels that contribute to wider efforts to mend social fabrics and strengthen social cohesion. This will include promoting positive coping strategies at individual, family and community levels to reduce emotional distress and use of violence among youth at risk. Examples include support groups and self-help groups for women, or youth, or people with disabilities; structured play activities for children; storytelling; music making; sports; and handicraft. Where possible, this can be delivered through the Psychosocial Mobile Teams.
• Build on existing mental health and psychosocial support activities to address harmful social and gender norms through specific family and community-level activities and through reinforcing community-level healing processes which is critical for the implementation of other outcome areas under transition and recovery.
• Develop guidelines around the integration of MHPSS in conflict transformation and mediation and provide training and other support to facilitate this integration.
• Develop guidelines around the integration of MHPSS in livelihoods and economic development programming and provide training and other support to facilitate this integration.

In 2024, IOM will continue to strengthen efforts at the national and community levels, including capacity building of key actors, and the integration of MHPSS considerations within wider humanitarian-development-peace efforts. Activities will include:

• Improve community infrastructure for the provision of mental health and psychosocial support services through expansion of recreational and counselling services/ activities across primary health care facilities and camp-based facilities. These facilities will have the capacity to offer community and family-level activities and focused non-specialised services such as, individual and family counselling, and peer support to persons with psychosocial needs.
• Engage in MHPSS mainstreaming and capacity building of local stakeholders, humanitarian actors, health partners, and government ministries, such as social workers of the Ministry of Gender, Child and Social Welfare, Ministry of Health on topics including MHPSS in emergencies, mobility dimensions, Psychological First Aid, and basic psychosocial support skills.
• Build the capacity of government and community leadership structure representatives (such as community and religious leaders, teachers, youth and women leaders, and caretakers of marginalized groups such as people with disabilities, and neurological and mental health conditions) and enable them to act as MHPSS resource persons and ambassadors of change in the community. Capacity-building efforts will focus on basic psychosocial support skills, advocacy skills, community analysis to identify relevant community groups to be involved in MHPSS, resource mobilization, problem-solving conflict resolution and peacebuilding while linking the relevant government entities for sustainability.
• Engage respective community leadership in trainings and awareness-raising to facilitate the handover of some of IOM’s recreational and counselling centres to the community.
• Scale-up engagement of academic partners within capacity-building efforts, including mentorships for students or young professionals, and capacity-building of students and lecturers.
• Coordinate the MHPSS Technical Working Group at the national and subnational levels, strengthening MHPSS as a cross-cutting topic among protection, education and health sectors, including enhancing MHPSS data collection and service mapping, harmonized capacity building, and the development of a national mental health strategy.

IOM will continue to support peace and social cohesion through targeted activities to address drivers of conflict that are blocking returns and recovery, as well as integrate community-level peace and cohesion activities throughout all interventions including environmental peacebuilding. Conflict issues blocking or arising from returns and reintegration of displaced persons will be regularly identified through analyses, partners and local stakeholders. Activities will include:

• Support community dialogue and cattle migration conferences to resolve disputes and past grievances that have come from violence and disputes triggered locally over, for example, access to land for grazing, access to water, disputes regarding the prolonged occupation of land, etc.
• Strengthen community-level conflict resolution and prevention mechanisms, including the establishment of conflict related early warning systems.
• Provide support for the establishment of community-based water management and pasture management groups.
• Build and extend climate security programming through tangible climate-adaptive stabilization packages that link to longer-term development through a functional nexus approach.  
• Reduce violence and tensions and strengthen social cohesion at community levels through ‘peace dividend’ projects.
• Develop and disseminate strategic messages on tolerance, peace, non-violence and interdependence in cooperation with communities utilizing various media and social communication platforms.
• Support initiatives that promote dispute resolution mechanisms under community stabilization including customary law and alternative dispute resolution. These are important first steps towards reconciliation and trust building.
• Deepen and expand gender-transformative programming to address the root causes of GBV by rolling out and integrating sessions on gender across IOM's peace initiatives. 
• Mainstream peacebuilding skills in livelihood programmes and strengthening the capacities of local Administrations and traditional authorities in participatory governance, leadership, and peacebuilding.

IOM’s WASH interventions will provide nature-based, climate-resilient, resource-oriented, cost-efficient, durable, gender-sensitive and inclusive water, sanitation and hygiene services in transitional and post-crisis contexts through the systematic application of integrated water resources management, circularity, systems design, ecological sanitation and WASH market-based programming, in support of food security, climate resilience and livelihoods. Key activities are highlighted below:  

• Ensure provision of nature-based, climate-resilient, resource-oriented, cost-efficient, durable, gender-sensitive and inclusive water, sanitation and hygiene services in transitional and post-crisis contexts through the systematic application of integrated water resources management, circularity, systems design, ecological sanitation and WASH market-based programming, in support of public health, food security, climate resilience and livelihoods. Gender-sensitivity and inclusiveness will be prioritized throughout all interventions. 
• Operationalize cost-efficient and self-replicable water supply techniques with a special emphasis on manual drilling and small-scale solar pumps. Operationalize water supply interventions which focus beyond domestic water uses by prioritizing integrated water resource management interventions. A particular focus will be exerted to the use of renewable water resources for pastoralists, small-scale farmers, and livelihood.  
• Operationalize nature-based, climate-resilient and resource-efficient WASH services through the implementation of green infrastructure and multi-functional WASH systems. A particular focus on ecological sanitation and water harvesting techniques will be exerted. 
• Strengthen self-sufficient WASH management mechanisms and governance systems to enable communities to better respond to their needs and endure future shocks. 
• Strengthen market-based programming by supporting entrepreneurship and small-scale enterprise development, by working through or supporting local markets.  

IOM will also systematically apply disaster preparedness, response and recovery approaches in support of climate and disaster risk resilience. Key activities are highlighted below:

• Provide nature-based, cost-efficient, durable, community-based disaster-resilient water, sanitation and hygiene services through the systematic application of disaster preparedness, response and recovery approaches in support of climate and disaster risk resilience, including in areas of local integration and return to support durable solutions for displacement affected people. 
• Operationalize community-based flood and drought-resilient programming by means of the construction of nature-based and resource-oriented infrastructure across South Sudan. A particular emphasis will be given to nature-based circular water resources and wastewater treatment systems. 
• Operationalize community-based flood and drought-resilient programming by means of the rehabilitation of grey infrastructure (dykes, weirs, etc.) across South Sudan.
• Increase the disaster risk resilience of existing WASH services to floods and droughts by means of tailor-made upgrades. A particular emphasis will be given to high-impact, cost-efficient and durable interventions. 
• Increase the understanding of the effects of WASH interventions across the entire crisis life cycle on the available natural resources. A particular emphasis will be exerted on the operationalization of integrated water resources assessment at watershed level and the analysis of the environmental impact of WASH services in the intervention areas. 

In 2024, IOM will continue to work with partners and national government alongside the state governments of Central Equatoria, Western Bahr-el Ghazal, and Unity to strengthen land governance mechanisms for alternative dispute resolution, promote consensus on an institutional approach to HLP dispute resolution, and reduce risk of conflict and violence due to HLP disputes emanating from competition over scarce resources. Activities include:

• Expand HLP rights-based education to individuals across the country, including comprehensive training in collaborative/alternative dispute resolution (CDR/ADR) methodologies, to provide community members with tools to settle disputes in a transparent, equitable and accessible manner, without reliance on overburdened and inaccessible court systems.
• Provide widespread education and training to ensure all parties are aware of their land rights as guaranteed by the national law and strengthen access to land rights for women and vulnerable people, including providing legal counselling and services to women and addressing harmful gender norms and HLP practices among traditional and formal HLP institutions.
• Promote the security of tenure for IDPs and returnee communities in South Sudan, through due diligence, awareness raising, capacity building, and legal assistance, to ensure high security of tenure that can support communities with safety, adequate housing, and sustainable access to scarce resources.
• Work with line Ministries and state-level governments on developing policies and operationalization of SOPs.
• Strengthen HLP initiatives by ensuring that people returning from displacement have secure land and property rights. This assistance will include consulting with all stakeholders to identify and implement sustainable solutions, such as community land tenure systems and regularization of informal settlements. IOM also provides legal assistance to people who are experiencing HLP violations or disputes. IOM's HLP activities include both engagement in national dialogue and policy and finding local solutions for those who are facing tenure insecurity.

In 2024, IOM will continue to implement disaster risk reduction (DRR) activities in South Sudan, with a particular focus on flood risk management in the Nile Basin including Jonglei, Upper Nile and Unity states. IOM's DRR activities will aim to enhance the effectiveness of disaster risk mitigation measures to mitigate displacement and food insecurity, and to inform and influence policymakers and the humanitarian community on DRR.

Specific activities will include:

• Conduct environmental and social impact assessments (ESIAs), socioeconomic studies, and hydrological studies to inform flood risk management programming.
• Construct and rehabilitate flood mitigation infrastructure, including drainage, embankments, dikes, culverts, water pumping stations, nature-based solutions, and waterways as recommended by the assessments.
• Support the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management in the operationalization of the disaster risk management (DRM) policy and support the consultation and finalization process for the DRM Bill.
• Establish state-, county-, and Payam-level disaster risk management bodies in coordination with the government, aligned with the new national DRM policy.
• Support capacity-building initiatives for DRM councils at the state, county, and Payam levels.
• Develop training manuals on DRM for communities and the government.
• Strengthen community resilience through community-based climate change adaptation programming in flood-affected areas of South Sudan.
• Strengthen the operations and maintenance capacity of the government by providing tools and resources to local government and local communities.