Improving health and protection services for vulnerable communities in Myebon and Mrauk-U townships in Central Rakhine State This project will support the strengthening of health surveillance systems in Myebon and Mrauk U Townships. It will also work to establish and re-invigorate protection safety nets, while working to improve access to basic services for marginalized amp vulnerable populations.

Activities will focus on identifying and addressing gaps/needs within the township communicable disease surveillance, prevention and response systems. This will be done through formal and practical risk analysis, improved provider capacity, enhanced communication models and community-side awareness-raising. Protection activities will contribute to the re-establishment of GBV, psychosocial and general protection monitoring in the Myebon IDP (internally displaced person) camp and the wider township. The most vulnerable and marginalized communities (including Muslims, IDPs, female headed households, people with disability, elderly, etc) will be identified through surveys and mapping and their representative organizations and/or individual members will be supported to lead efforts at improved access and equity.

Geographically, activities will be focused on the townships as a whole, in communities with limited access to essential services (ie. People with Disability), areas with weak health outcomes (ie. poor EPI uptake, high number of emergency referrals as seen from our 3MDG project), communities at-risk for disease outbreaks and other public health concerns (historical areas of Dengue HF outbreaks), the IDP camp in Myebon and Muslim villages (and adjacent Rakhine villages) in Mrauk-U. 

The focus on improved public health emergency response reflects need based on historical risk and local health authority concerns/priorities. Some of the targeted protection services and accessibility issues were previously supported by Relief International (RI) in Myebon through ECHO funding, but have been reduced during 2017 due to funding constraints. This initiative will allow for careful reflection and design of protection methods that can be expanded further within both townships and which can be anchored in local communities and institutional protocols for long-term durability. 

Targeted beneficiary populations have been consulted in the development of this project and will continue to be the driving forces in activity planning, implementation and monitoring. Activity methodology will be tailored to target different types of audiences (culturally amp demographically) and engagement and dialogue between service providers and communities will serve as a quintessential approach in the identification of needs and the subsequent development of solutions. Project activities will be conducted in close coordination with the State and township health departments, township administrators, UNOCHA, health and protection cluster agencies and other actors, such as the health department and camp management committee as well as adhering to Sphere standards. (Note: there are no civil society organisations (CSOs) in Myebon that will work with international non governmental organisations (INGOs) under the current circumstances.  In Mrauk U, we do not currently work with any women’s CSOs and they would also be unlikely to start working with an INGO under the present circumstances.)