EU-IGAD COVID-19 Response programme marks one year of implementation at Project Steering Committee Meeting

The EU-IGAD COVID-19 Response programme hosted its 3rd Project Steering Committee meeting in Mombasa, Kenya, on 12th July, 2021, with senior representatives from the European Union (EU), UNOPS, Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ) and government officials from the IGAD member states of Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda. The meeting marks one year of the programme’s implementation.

The programme is mitigating the health and socio-economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the IGAD region through coordinated, comprehensive actions in 39 cross-border sites in 7 countries. The implementation is focused on critical cross border areas and aims to enhance IGAD’s coordination capacity, increase access to health and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services, combat gender-based violence, improve community engagement, ensure borders are safe for trade and promote digital health solutions. The programme particularly supports frontline workers and vulnerable groups, including migrants, refugees, internally displaced persons and cross-border communities.

Funded by the European Union, the €60 million programme is managed by UNOPS by a dedicated Programme Management Unit based in Djibouti, and implemented by IGAD, IOM, TradeMark East Africa and UNICEF. The digital health solutions component of the programme is co-funded by the German Government and independently managed and implemented by GIZ. The Project Steering Committee meeting brought together the key stakeholders of the programme to review the progress to date and engage with representatives from the IGAD member states, in line with the programme’s efforts to respond to the areas of greatest need and support vulnerable communities.

The programme has already reached nearly 640,000 people across the region through implementation in the areas of health, WASH, gender-based violence prevention, risk communication and community engagement (RCCE) and safe trade. Delivering in some of the most remote cross-border areas, the programme implementation includes rehabilitating 2 hospitals in eastern Sudan, providing essential water and sanitation services to more than 99,000 people, conducting COVID-19 surveillance and testing at cross-border points of entry and re-establishing trade corridors to fight food and medicine insecurity. To date, the programme has delivered nearly 5.6 million PPEs, more than 775,000 test kits and 21 ambulances all over the region. GIZ is working with IGAD on the implementation of a regional health data sharing policy which will help to make regional digital health tools available at the Horn of

Africa. 

Aidan O’Hara, Ambassador of the European Union to Djibouti and IGAD, said about the programme:

“The European Union is helping countries in the IGAD region tackle the health and socio-economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our focus is on the health and well-being of vulnerable groups across the region, especially front-line workers, cross-border communities, migrants and truckers. The European Union wants to ensure that no one is left behind.”