EU-IGAD COVID-19 Response programme has provided health and socioeconomic support to more than 2.3 million people across 7 countries

The EU-IGAD COVID-19 Response programme is mitigating the health and socioeconomic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic across Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda through a multilateral, coordinated response. The programme has already supported 2.38 million people across 45 sites through programme activities.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has posed a health and socioeconomic threat to countries across the world. In the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) sub-region, deficient healthcare systems, overstretched frontline workers, and limited monitoring, testing and reporting capacities pose a challenge to the COVID-19 health response. In addition, mitigation measures such as lockdowns, border closures and flight suspensions can impact essential movement of people and supplies, food security and cross-border trade. 

Funded by the European Union, the programme is managed by UNOPS and implemented in partnership with IGAD, International Organization for Migration (IOM), TradeMark East Africa (TMEA) and The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). The digital health solutions component is co-funded by the German Government and managed by Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH. 

The regional programme is responding to the COVID-19 pandemic by delivering coordinated actions in critical cross-border areas, Migrant Response Centers and Refugee Camps at border areas. The programme is supporting vulnerable groups, including frontline workers, healthcare personnel, migrants, refugees, custom officials, travelers, internally displaced persons (IDPs) and community members. 

To improve the regional coordination of the COVID-19 response, the programme is increasing IGAD’s coordination capacity at the national and regional levels. In order to provide health and socioeconomic support to vulnerable groups, the programme is improving the health response capacity in each country by providing health and WASH services, delivering gender-responsive actions and preventing gender-based violence, and sensitising beneficiaries through community engagement and awareness-raising activities. 

Focused on points of entry and exit, the programme is ensuring that borders and critical supply chains remain safe for trade during the pandemic by establishing quarantine and isolation centres, setting up Safe Trade Zones, preserving critical supply chains, facilitating safe trade and distributing personal protective equipment (PPEs). The programme is also developing digital health solutions by putting a regional surveillance system in place for COVID-19 and ensuring the connectivity of the surveillance and monitoring systems. 

The programme is managed by UNOPS by a dedicated Programme Management Unit (PMU) based in Djibouti. The PMU oversees the management and delivery of this widespread regional programme, ensuring that the multiple programme components work in tandem to provide support to the most vulnerable groups affected by the pandemic. 

To address the evolving impact of the pandemic, and ensure that the programme is responding to areas of greatest need, the programme has remained flexible and adaptable in order to support the IGAD region. As part of this effort, a new action was launched under this programme in eastern Sudan in June 2021 to provide an integrated health and WASH response in cross-border areas where an influx of refugees led to overcrowding and contributed to the spread of COVID-19. In order to support increased testing for COVID-19, the programme is procuring and delivering PCR machines to Member States and providing training to personnel on the running of this equipment. To limit the spread of COVID-19 and ensure safe trade, a new action under this programme is working towards the vaccination of commercial truck drivers in the Djibouti-Ethiopia corridor. 

The programme continues to evaluate and respond to changing conditions on the ground, including security and accessibility challenges, to ensure ongoing health and socioeconomic support to the IGAD region. The PMU, in coordination with the European Union and programme Implementing Partners, continuously assesses and adapts to the changing circumstances in each programme country to ensure the programme activities can be delivered effectively.

The programme has reached more than 2.38 million individuals in the IGAD region. More than 6.1 million PPEs and 175,506 COVID-19 test kits have been provided across the region, as well as 22 ambulances and 5 vehicles. The programme is continuing to deliver critical actions in the IGAD region and provide ongoing support to mitigate the impact of COVID-19.

To learn more, please visit our programme website: euigadcovid19response.com