Empowerment of at-risk and acutely vulnerable out-of-camp IDPs communities through MPCA and referral services provision in the contex of the Covid-19 outbreak in Kurdistan Region of Iraq Based on CESVI experience in MPCA in KRI rural and urban out-of-camp settings and WEO experience in the country, the project aims at providing timely and gender sensitive MPCA to out-ofcamp IDPs and host community, while strengthening the referral systems to other sectors, such as protection, livelihood, health and WASH. As such, immediate responses to the COVID19 emergency will be implemented, building also on the systems and service delivery already present in the target areas, and continuing to build capacities of local civil society. Based on the MCNA data, as well as other secondary data from relevant clusters (mostly NPC and CWG) and other agencies, and Cesvi (INGO) and WEO (NNGO) own needs assessments, the 2 organizations, as a consortium led by Cesvi, propose to focus on Sumail, Zakho and Erbil. They has been selected for 3 main reasons: the needs of the population. According to 2019 CWG data, in Erbil there are 7840 catastrophically vulnerable and 6720 extremely vulnerable out of camp IDPs. In Zakho, respectively 9425 and 2856 individuals, and in Sumail 7178 and 1861. These are among the highest rates in the whole Iraq gaps coverage. In 2019
the actors that were implementing MPCA in the 3 locations were just UNHCR and GRC for Erbil, only UNHCR for Zakho and Tearfund, GRC, UNHCR for Sumail the 3 locations are easily accessible by Cesvi and WEO. Both Cesvi and WEO have an office in Erbil, while for Dohuk area, WEO used to be active in the area and Cesvi has already identified an office in Dohuk town. Cesvi is registered in Dohuk since November 2019 and has realized several assessment missions in the area, being Dohuk a priority area in its strategy in Kurdistan. Therefore, relationships with local authorities have been created and strengthened. This will be also improved by the experience that WEO has since years in the Governorate. Cesvi has also already available cash assistance experienced staff from Dohuk. Erbil will be covered mainly by WEO (WEO will cover 64% of the target population and Cesvi the remaining 36%), while Dohuk locations will be covered by Cesvi. The reason for this structure is to give a relevant role to WEO, with a relevant number of beneficiaries to be covered, ensuring at the same time train-onthe- job to WEO. For Dohuk, the choice of having only Cesvi covering the area instead of both organizations is driven by consideration of cost-efficiency of the intervention, allowing a lower amount of operation costs. Specific attention will be paid to link MPCA with other sectors interventions through referral pathways, coordination and information-sharing mechanisms, providing a comprehensive response to socioeconomic vulnerability to prevent reliance on negative coping mechanisms. This project directly targets adults, children and adolescents that are assessed to be living below the poverty line but special
attention will be given to households with members that are particularly at risk of COVID-19 contraction (elderly and chronically ill people).
All activities will be implemented respecting COVID-19 precautionary measures and avoiding group based activities and gatherings as long as context allows. Project teams will be equipped with PPE to ensure their own safety as well as the one of beneficiaries. In addition, the project staff will be trained in order to increase COVID-19 awareness among the beneficiaries when visiting them. Along with this, the FSP distribution points will be equipped with informative materials to prevent COVID-19 spreading. Capacity development of local partner will also be at the core of the project. By dedicating specific human and material resources to the capacity building of WEO, Cesvi will help increasing local capacity to respond to future MPCA-related matters and emergencies, ensuring that humanitarian assistance is increasingly based on local resources and capacities, and less on less on international actors.