PROTECTING PEOPLE IN NEED AND INTERNALLY DISPLACED DUE TO CONFLICT AND FROM HEALTH EMERGENCIES, INCLUDING COVID-19, IN THE REGIONS OF TIGRAY, AFAR AND AMHARA To provide lifesaving health and nutrition services for conflict affected population including IDPs due to floods, droughts, landslides and intercommunal conflict and the host community populations in the Tigray, Afar, and Amhara regions of Ethiopia. WHO teams will provide training, support, and supervision to health and project staff serving affected populations on the (1) surveillance and reporting of suspected cases of infectious diseases including COVID-19 , (2) MHPSS service delivery, (3) updated national guidelines on the management of malnutrition, and (4) infection prevention and control (IPC) measures to reduce the risk of facility-acquired infections of cholera, COVID-19, and other infectious diseases. For COVID-19 prevention, WHO will provide health care providers working in IDP settings with personal protective equipment (PPEs) and health facilities will be assessed and provided with essential materials to ensure adequate hygiene measures can be observed by patients and staff to prevent COVID-19 transmission in facilities. To prevent outbreaks of water-borne illnesses, responsible woreda authorities will be trained and mentored in regular conducting of drinking water quality testing in IDP settlements/shelters and issued with necessary water quality testing kits and reagents.
Essential preventive and curative health services will be provided to IDPs and their host populations with an estimated 500,000 direct beneficiaries and an estimated 3 million indirect beneficiaries. Support will include the procurement and supply of emergency health kits which will be distributed to (a) mobile health and nutrition teams (MHNTs) deployed to serve 500,000 direct beneficiaries and (b) partner-supported public health facilities experiencing increased patient loads, covering another 420,000 direct beneficiaries. Four Stabilization Centers (SCs) for children with severe acute malnutrition with medical complications (SAM/MC) will be established in the pediatric wards of referral hospitals, one each in Tigray, Afar, and Amhara regions, and the referral pathways to these centers as well as for MHPSS and other critical care services will be strengthened. Jointly with health partners, risk communication messaging on COVID-19, mental health, and other health messages will be prepared and disseminated to at least 3 million IDPs and host populations. Eight rapid response teams (RRTs) will be trained and deployed to support surveillance and outbreak investigation covering an estimated 3 million conflict and disasters -affected people, as well as the host communities in locations where the affected populations are residing. Through the Regional Health Bureaus, RRTs will receive logistics support (vehicles, fuel, trained drivers), as well as refresher trainings for the RRT team members on principles of surveillance and on effectively protecting themselves from COVID-19 and other infections. RHBs will receive data management support to improve quality and reporting of surveillance activities to strengthen the COVID-19 response. Funding is also allocated to the deployment of vaccination teams to cover a total population of 450,000 children under 5 for immunization against cholera, measles, and other vaccine-preventable diseases.
The WHO also proposes to scale up GBV service availability through ongoing capacity building on clinical management of rape and intimate partner violence for the health workforce. There will be continuous integration with other health pillars including through the Mobile health and Nutrition teams, sexual and reproductive health, mental health, and psychosocial support (MHPSS) among others to ensure these serve as entry points for access to GBV services. The different pillars will further engage in awareness creation as part of ongoing health education to inform the community about importance of reporting GBV incidences within 72 hours.