IOM will continue implementing CCCM activities in three governorates (Marib, Ibb and Taizz - north and south), including community mobilization and capacity-building; site care and maintenance; and coordination and service monitoring. As mentioned in the coordination section, IOM leads the CCCM subnational cluster in Marib and coordinates response activities. In 2021, IOM will continue to:

• Expand its reach and coordinate partner response activities against the backdrop of the evolving conflict, with new displacements into Marib city and surrounding areas expected to continue if hostilities do not subside. Since January 2020, approximately 104,391 individuals have been displaced into Marib city and surrounding districts, with most of them settling in an estimated 132 displacement sites or spontaneous settlements.
• Implement CCCM interventions (site management, improvement, and coordination) in targeted sites and mobilise external partners to ensure a minimum service package is provided. IOM will also continue to provide technical support and capacity building to stakeholders acting as camp administration, IDP camp committees, and national non-governmental organisations working in site management and coordination.  
• In situations where they arise, IOM teams will work to address land and property issues in informal settlements and collective sites.

As the situation for migrants in Yemen continues to deteriorate, and exposure to protection risks rise within displaced and conflict-affected communities, IOM’s priority is to enhance the protection environment and referral pathways for the most vulnerable individuals, including those most at risk of harm and excluded from support systems. IOM’s protection activities are centred on improving living conditions for migrants, IDPs and conflict-affected communities in the country, through the delivery of lifesaving aid and protection assistance. To further achieve this, IOM will:

• Adopt a comprehensive approach, mainstreaming protection across all multi-sectoral programming, and train staff on safe and ethical referrals of protection cases.
• Continue providing direct assistance through migrant and community response points (M/CRPs) and mobile medical response teams (see "Health Support"). Through M/CRPs in Aden and Marib, IOM provides protection case management and referrals, health support and referrals including MHPSS services, GBV cases, and humanitarian (including food, water, NFI) as well as legal assistance. 
• Seek to establish M/CRPs in other locations that host migrant and IDP populations, access permitting. IOM will also continue to provide migrants and IDPs with emergency services through mobile medical teams operating on Yemen’s southern coast.
• Continue to support the development of long-term protection-sensitive and rights-based migration management solutions in Yemen and continue to engage with national and regional counterparts to strengthen migration management in Yemen. IOM’s Regional Migration Response Plan for the Horn of Africa, as well as the Somalia Migrant Response Plan present a starting point for regional dialogue and cooperation.

IOM will continue to provide safe, voluntary and dignified return solutions for stranded migrants and refugees in Yemen:

• Through IOM’s voluntary humanitarian return (VHR) programme, IOM will continue to assist migrants with their safe, voluntary and dignified return from Yemen to their countries of origin. Priority will be given to the most vulnerable including unaccompanied and separated children (UASC), women, elderly, medical cases, and persons who have experienced a series of grave human rights violations. All migrants interested in VHR assistance are individually counselled by case managers and provided with the necessary information to make an informed decision in line with their needs.
• In coordination with UNHCR, IOM will also support Somali refugees wishing to return home through the assisted spontaneous returns (ASR) programme. Through this collaboration, IOM provides operational support – such as medical screenings, land and sea transportation – ensuring that Somali refugees travel safely by boat from Aden, Yemen to Berbera, Somalia where they receive onward assistance. IOM will also work at the country and regional level on longer-term migration management support.

Working within United Nations frameworks and in coordination with the Ministry of Health and Population (MoPHP) and the World Health Organization (WHO), IOM is providing life-saving primary and secondary preventative and curative health-care services to IDPs, host communities and migrants, and integrating COVID-19 response efforts across its migration health programme.

• IOM’s frontline health activities are being carried out through IOM mobile and static teams across the country where access permits and include the provision of emergency health services and referrals, including screening and referral for malnutrition; health promotion; health assessments for resettlement and repatriation services; and disease outbreak preparedness and response (such as for cholera and COVID-19); mass and routine vaccinations; and integration with MHPSS.
• IOM is bolstering its response capacity, focusing on ensuring that its response in Yemen is needs-based and effective, person-centred in the case of health, and underpinned by robust assessment and monitoring activities. Direct field presence and regular health needs assessments throughout the programme allow IOM to adapt to the evolving contextual needs, as well as strengthen existing health system capacities (see below).
• IOM will continue to work closely with partners and stakeholders to prevent HIV, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria across the region, building upon gains made in 2017-2018, as the principal recipient of the Global Fund Middle East Response grant 2019-2021 in Yemen.
• Through partnerships with local, national and international actors, and working through the health cluster, IOM contributes to a coordinated health response effort, raising the profile on gaps where there is no capacity to respond.

IOM’s WASH programme in Yemen prioritizes immediate, scalable, and sustainable interventions aimed at reducing morbidity and mortality rates and providing equal and sustained access to safe and appropriate water and sanitation services in displaced, host, and migrant communities.

• As part of its emergency response in Marib, Hudaydah, Taizz, Ibb, Abyan, Aden, and Aal Dhale’e, IOM will meet immediate and life-saving needs through short-term hygiene promotion campaigns, hygiene kit distributions, water trucking, rapid rehabilitation/establishment of water and sanitation infrastructures, and rapid vector control activities.
• To ensure conflict-affected communities also have sustained access to water solutions, second-line WASH response will include activities that establish, extend or rehabilitate water, sanitation waste management, and drainage systems, and ensure environmental sustainability. Interventions are adapted to the needs of beneficiaries and implemented in response to gaps in areas where populations are affected by emergencies and shocks (displaced populations, epidemiological alerts, populations affected by disasters, host communities, and other affected populations).
• All WASH activities will be needs-based and aim to address potential risks, including risks of GBV, involving women and girls in the project design to ensure a safe and contextually appropriate response.
• Finally, IOM will continue to integrate WASH and health activities, particularly in response to disease outbreaks. 

With the overall objective of providing safe, dignified and sustainable shelter solutions in IDP settlements, IOM is providing NFI kits, emergency shelter kits (ESK), shelter/collective centre upgrades and transitional shelter solutions to displaced people residing in IDP hosting sites and to host community members across the country. In particular:

• Emergency shelter and NFI kit distributions will be carried out in response to new displacements or disaster shocks, or to cover response gaps in displacement sites.
• Where IDPs have been displaced for over six months, IOM will provide shelter items and technical support for transitional shelters or rehabilitate existing shelters. 
• IOM will also enable nationwide contingency activities by managing Yemen’s multi-sectoral contingency pipeline, facilitating the provision of coordinated, timely and relevant life-saving humanitarian assistance to the most vulnerable by ensuring the common procurement, warehousing and transportation of WASH services (diesel and hygiene kits), and emergency shelter and NFI kits.
• In 2021, IOM will expand multi-purpose cash assistance (MPCA) to cover over 96 districts across 6 governorates with the highest displacement (Al Hudaydah, Hajjah, Al Dhale’e, Taizz,Ibb and Marib), and continue its co-leadership of the rapid response mechanism cluster (together with the United Nations Populations Fund) and the Consortium of Yemen (CCY).

While the outlook for Yemen may appear bleak, there are pockets of the country that are stabilising, and where agriculture and industry continue despite insecurity in surrounding areas. IOM’s priority is to safeguard these pockets of stability using community-based and social cohesion approaches:

• To contribute to durable solutions in alignment with IOM’s Progressive Resolution of Displacement Situations framework, IOM is implementing vocational training, small businesses grants, cash for work and other livelihood initiatives to increase access to capital and diversify livelihoods based on local market demands – recognizing that these are especially critical to mitigate the impact COVID-19 has had on income generation and local economies and reduce impediments to the resolution of protracted displacement.
• A priority is also to strengthen existing economic sectors such as agriculture and fishing, as well as enhancing livelihood infrastructure (e.g. irrigation channels, farms and local markets), in line with IOM assessments on the impact of the conflict in areas like Marib and Lahj. IOM will roll out complementary initiatives to empower women and mitigate gender-related risks, as well as unemployed youth, IDPs and other groups whose access to services, social protection systems and employment opportunities are limited.
• The Organization is also focusing on developing infrastructure and community assets in displacement-affected communities – depending on identified needs, these may include schools, hospitals, clinics, WASH infrastructure, connecting roads and local markets.
• Community-based efforts that increase conflict resolution capacities and contribute to social cohesion in conflict-affected communities will be prioritised, particularly to alleviate competition for resources between host communities and IDPs at the community level.

In line with the minimum service package (MSP) guidelines for Yemen, a component of IOM’s migration health programme is centred on restoring Yemen’s weakened health system – rehabilitating and supporting operations in health facilities impacted by the conflict by providing medicine, medical equipment, human resources (incentive payments for medical staff):

• Under the MSP framework, services in health facilities are strengthened to provide: maternal and newborn care, as well as childhood and immunisation; nutrition support (including severe acute malnutrition and moderate acute malnutrition); communicable/non-communicable disease prevention and support; emergency health and minor surgery; MHPSS; and disability and rehabilitation support.
• In response to the COVID-19 outbreak, IOM is mainstreaming COVID-19 relevant activities across the health facilities it supports as well as supporting COVID-19 specific facilities, and the Organization has the capacity to support the implementation of routine and mass vaccination campaigns in locations like Marib, Aden, and the west coast.
• IOM will train health care workers to provide an appropriate GBV survivor response, and on MHPSS support as well as safe identification and referral, in line with IOM's Manual on Community-based Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergencies and Displacement.
• Disease surveillance information will continue to be regularly fed into the health cluster early warning system and local health system databases.
• IOM will continue to work closely with partners and stakeholders to prevent HIV, TB, and malaria across the country, building upon gains made in 2017-2018, as the principal receipt of the Global Fund grant for 2019-2021.

IOM Yemen is expanding programming to strengthen national laboratory systems in southern governorates. Yemen’s insufficient testing and contact tracing capacities are evident in the low reporting of COVID-19 case numbers and high fatality rates. There are currently only six functional COVID-19 testing facilities across the country, and capacity is stretched: one laboratory in Aden carries out testing for four surrounding governorates; in governorates like Marib, which hosts the largest displaced population in Yemen, there is no testing capacity. To address these gaps, IOM will:

• Contribute towards improving Yemen’s national laboratory capacity on COVID-19 by initially deploying GeneXpert COVID-19 testing systems to underserved locations and replacing these, in the longer-term, with real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) systems. GeneXpert systems are suitable for establishing immediate COVID-19 testing capacity in locations with limited infrastructure: the technology is easy to transport and set up and requires minimal training. IOM will deploy GeneXpert systems first to Marib, where it will complement laboratory improvements with activities that support rapid response teams (RRTs). RRTs will be responsible for active case finding, contact tracing, referrals, and risk communication and engagement activities across the governorate.
• Establish real-time PCR testing capacity in Marib and relocating GeneXpert systems to other underserved locations, in later phases of IOM’s COVID-19 testing programme. The PCR system will ensure that facilities are able to continue laboratory diagnosis beyond COVID-19, for HIV (including early infant diagnosis), TB, other forms of the Coronavirus and Pertussis.

In Yemen, IOM’s Displacement Tracking Matrix functions through technical expertise at the central level, in terms of assessment and survey design, Database and Geographic Information Systems (GIS)  as well as an expanding network of governorate-level focal points, enumerators and data entry clerks. Findings from IOM’s DTM assessments serve as operational baselines for humanitarian response activities targeting IDPs, returnees, and migrants.

Where IOM has access, IOM disseminates multi-layered datasets and information on the mobility, locations (villages or neighbourhoods), vulnerabilities and needs of displaced populations, as well as needs of host, non-host communities, and other mobile populations to inform preparedness and response activities and build an evidence base for response and risk reduction interventions. IOM’s work in this area is framed under the following workstreams, under which COVID-19 related mobility and impact assessments are also integrated:

• Mobility tracking (area assessments and rapid displacement tracking), which provides updated data and other basic characteristics of select population groups (IDPs, returnees) at repeat and regular intervals.
• Flow monitoring, which provides key insights into the analysis of overall migration trends in Yemen by monitoring incoming and outgoing flows at pre-identified locations of high migrant activity, known as flow monitoring points (FMPs).
• In-depth assessments, including the multi-cluster location assessment (MCLA) and ad-hoc assessments. The MCLA is carried out annually in collaboration with OCHA and clusters, and serves as an evidence base for the Humanitarian Needs Overview (HNO) and the Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP).