IOM colleagues from IOM missions in East and Southern Africa got together on the 24th to the 28th of October to share experiences in implementing health interventions for migration affected communities.  The gathering sought to build the capacity of IOM staff develop, implement, manage and monitor Service Delivery and Capacity Building projects.

IOM began implementing a Health Promotion and Service Delivery (HPSD) framework in five SADC countries with the aim of reducing HIV and health vulnerabilities among mobile populations and migration affected communities. This framework was piloted first in 2005 in Hoedspruit, South Africa and was later expanded to five other sites in southern Africa.  These sites targeted labour migrants in the construction, transport, commercial agriculture, fisheries, mining and informal cross-border trade sectors.

This workshop was in response to a growing need to provide guidance and support to IOM country offices to develop and implement service delivery and capacity building projects. In 2010 the health programme was extended to East Africa and broadened the scope from focusing only on HIV vulnerabilities to encompass wider health issues.  Since this expansion, IOM has increasingly focused on “hot spots” and “spaces of vulnerability” where migrants interact with host communities. The workshop stimulated discussions on best practices in: Facilitating migrant access to health services; supporting local implementing partners; promoting peer-led communication and education;  as well as addressing gender dynamics and other barriers to health.

To ensure that there was synergy between theory and practice, participants visited one of the farms in Musina, South Africa, where the HPSD framework is being implemented and had an opportunity to engage with the farm workers and management who shared their experiences of being part of the project, living on a farm and the communication tools they use.

Further visits were made to the Musina Local Municipality and the Department of Home Affairs to further illustrate and emphasise the importance of partnerships and collaborations amongst stakeholders.

Angola, Mozambique, Mauritius, South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe were represented at the workshop and action plans for these counties were developed to be implemented by colleagues in their respective countries.

A key issue coming out of the workshop is that, like monitoring and evaluation, sustainability and exit strategies are important components of any project and should be taken into consideration from the beginning of the project cycle.

This workshop was conducted with under the Partnership on Health and Mobility in East and Southern Africa, funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and the Nowergian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD).