Population Mobility Data and Community Engagement for Informed COVID-19 Response In alignment with the WHO’s Global Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) and the Afghanistan COVID-19 Multi-Sector Humanitarian Country Plan (HCP), IOM’s Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) program will contribute to the COVID-19 response in Afghanistan, by implementing the following proposed activities, which address three areas of intervention: Risk Communication and Community Engagement (RCCE), Surveillance, and Points of Entry.

To meet the urgent need to raise awareness on COVID-19 facts, as elaborated in the Afghanistan multi-sector HCP, in coordination with MoPH, WHO, and the COVID-19 Risk Communication Working Group, DTM will capitalize upon its extensive network of 62,000 community leaders and change agents and outreach to over 11,700 villages nationwide to implement Risk Communication and Community Engagement (RCCE) activities, e.g.deliver COVID-19 IEC materials, mobilize community and religious leaders, and conduct sessions on risk awareness, infection prevention and control, and counteracting misinformation and stigma. Additionally, to inform better-targeted, evidence-based health response and recovery programming, DTM will also link mobility and surveillance data by simultaneously conducting Baseline Mobility Assessments (BMA) and Community-Based Needs Assessments (CBNA) to identify locations at potentially greater risk of cross-border transmission of COVID-19, as a result of the recent influx of Afghans returning from high-burden areas in Pakistan and Iran. Under other donor funding, DTM has already been implementing this activity in 25 provinces, since 1 March 2020. With AHF funding, DTM will extend coverage to six of the nine remaining provinces, deploying 6 DTM teams to conduct RCCE and BMA + CBNA in Kapisa (2 staff), Paktika (3 staff), Paktya (4 staff), Samangan (2 staff), Uruzgan (2 staff) and Zabul (4 staff).

In response to more frequent openings of borders to allow stranded Afghan migrants to return, DTM will leverage its well-established information systems and operational capacity to rapidly monitor and report cross-border population movements to identify destination areas at greater risk of cross-border transmission of COVID-19, which will inform better-targeted, evidence-based health response and recovery programming. Through AHF funding, DTM will implement flow monitoring at points of entry and major transit hubs, deploying four teams of 7 DTM enumerators at the four border provinces of Herat, Nimroz, Kandahar and Nangarhar. As a contingency, these teams will be mobile and responsive to any mass influx or migration abroad that may emerge in other provinces. Furthermore, as front-line responders, DTM flow monitoring teams will also support the screening of presumptive COVID-19 cases and provide essential risk awareness and infection prevention messaging, as well as identify and refer those migrants in need of immediate health care and protection assistance.

In order to better understand mobility patterns and dynamics within Afghanistan (currently non-existent), with AHF funding, DTM proposes to conduct participatory Population Mobility Mapping (PMM) exercises and Flow Monitoring, deploying teams of 9 DTM enumerators specifically in five areas of high incidence or outbreak of COVID-19. PMM aims to identify high-risk mobility corridors, communities, and Spaces of Vulnerability (SOVs) where mobile populations and local communities interact. Following a standardized methodology established by IOM’s Global Migration Health Unit (MHU), through PMM, communities and partners then jointly develop strategies, response plans, and accountability systems to strengthen of local health systems to mitigate the potential risk of spread of COVID-19 and contain potential and ongoing outbreak.