Democratic Republic of the Congo: Population Movement, Phase 1: Community Health Response Emergency Appeal n° MDRCD023 - Emergency Plan of Action Operation Update n° 2

Summary of major revisions made to emergency plan of action

The operation update reflects changes the operation has undergone to adapt its plan in order to comply with the latest epidemiological status which has tremendously changed, not only in terms of Cholera prevalence but also as regard affected zones and subsequent funding opportunities which requires an amendment as far as the implementation time and budget is concerned.

Whereas the latest WHO and MoH reports indicate that the Cholera is being far from being eradicated over at least in 3 provinces bordering Lomami, i.e. Kasai central, Sankuru where the epidemics prevails in weeks 46-48 of 2018, the government of DRC through the Ministry of Health (MoH) has urged all partners, especially the Red Cross, to scale up their efforts in order to put an end to Cholera epidemics in the designated provinces. While an increased vigilance will be put on WASH related activities including the finalization of the ongoing construction of public latrines and bore holes which was delayed due to the recruitment of an external consultancy expertise and delayed tender process. Community awareness on Cholera and water purification activities will equally be maintained during the revision period for better efficiency of the response.

While the project has faced several timing constraints namely the two Ebola outbreaks in Equateur and North Kivu which put an overwhelming pressure on available Human Resources and Logistics means to the National Society, difficulties in terms of accessibility of some hard-to-reach areas, poor road infrastructure in the region and the change of a population movement issue into a Cholera outbreak problem amongst the IPDs required a change of strategy both in terms of planning and implementation with a focus on:

1. Increased Surveillance and active case finding
2. Scale up of volunteers’ trainings on cholera sensitization
3. Training and distribution of water purification products, aqua tabs and hygiene kits in target households and IDPs
4. Continue the finalization of ongoing construction of WatSan infrastructures public latrines and bore holes

The operation is therefore seeking a 3-month No-Cost extension until 22 February 2019. This extension will allow the IFRC and DRCRC to finalize the currently engaged and not finalized activities and enable the project team to evaluate in a participatory way what has been done so far, and identify strengths, weaknesses of the operation for future similar operations. The 3-month extension will equally be used to finalize already initiated WatSan activities which had been delayed due to long tender processes.

The other reason of extension request is to facilitate multi-sector technical mission consisting of profile in operations coordination, health/cholera response, shelter, disaster law programme and PMER on mid-January 2018 to assess priorities and needs in changing context and inform changes on operational strategies. As the operation was designed to grow in planned phases, eventual scaleup in terms of geographical scope and areas of focus will be considered.

Since the revision done in September 2018, the operation has made further progress to outcomes. Despite operational challenges and changing context, the implementation rate stands at 55%.