IOM Community Engagement and M&E Teams in Marigot, Dominica with beneficiaries ©IOM – Jun 2018

CONTACTS

Highlights * Dominica has made some strides toward

an increased preparedness of its citizens for impending disasters— most immediate-ly, the rest of the 2018 Atlantic Hurricane season. A preliminary list of emergency shelter has been disseminated by the Lo-cal Government Authority and the Office of Disaster Management, the secretariat of the National Emergency Preparedness Or-ganization (NEPO), has put some measures in place to strengthen the subcommittees to ensure that emergency communication, shelter management, public services and the like are well organized.

* Some hurricane preparedness activities have been implemented, such as: negotia-tions within communities to identify person-al properties as well for potential collective centers; some construction work which has taken place for retrofitting of pre-identified collective centers and constructions of some new collective centers

* Under IOM’s current shelter recovery proj-

ects funded by DFID, ECHO and Australia Aid and supported by China-Aid through UNDP, IOM repaired 243 roofs and handed over six t-shelters (core houses) to 747 ben-eficiaries in Woodford Hill, Marigot, Morne Rachette, Coulibistrie, Wesley, Colihaut, St. Joseph, Salisbury, Dublanc and Bioche.

* IOM has partnered with the Dominica Wel-fare Department to specifically address the housing needs of families who are fostering children. In addition, IOM collaborates with the Ministry of Health to address the hou-sing repair needs of families that include members with Down syndrome or other disabilities.

1 767 245 0658 Cnr Old St & Cork St, third floor, Roseau, Dominica. www.iom.int

DOMINICA: HURRICANE RESPONSEINTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR MIGRATION

SITUATION REPORT NO. 13 / 29 JUN 2018

SITUATION REPORT · JUN 2018

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Situation Overviews

Visit to Grotto Home for the Homeless - June 8, 2018

Situation OverviewAs rehabilitation activities shift into overdrive, utility and telecom-munication companies continue to work feverishly to restore ser-vices in rural communities. To date, most of the country has been reconnected to the national power and water grids, and mobile phone service has improved greatly.

The Government of Dominica (GoD) launched the first phase of its housing reconstruction project. The prime minister, who is also the housing minister, along with other officials, has signed doz-ens of contracts for the building of apartment units and dwelling housing for the most vulnerable people on the island. Most of these constructions are scheduled to take a year.

Some IDPs are still being housed in collective shelters. The gov-ernment and other key stakeholders are currently in the process of identifying durable solutions for the affected families, for in-stance through rental homes or host families.

The government continues the process of identifying and estab-lishing seven Technical Assistance Centers (TACs).

However, a public information campaign about the role of those centers has not run yet.

The GoD is transitioning towards a coordination mechanism laid out in the Housing Framework policy and has appointed a hous-ing coordinator to oversee progress achieved with regards to the framework’s objectives. Before this transition, IOM supported the government through a housing and settlements coordination ad-visor and information manager. Their work has since been hand-ed over to the housing coordinator.

Concern remains about the capacity to review submitted plans, to monitor the reconstruction works and to ensure the adherence to building standards. Concerning the latter, IOM and other hu-manitarian agencies continue to actively share the “Build Back Better” messages with target communities and in trainings.

Housing repairing needs of families who are fostering children and of families with specific disability concerns were identified, with collaborations between IOM and the respective ministries aiming to address those needs.

DOMINICA · IOM RESPONSE

IOM RESPONSESITUATION REPORT · JUN 2018

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CCCM• IOM is supporting the Government of Dominica to assist with the coordination and management of collective

centers. The shelter subcommittee of NEPO has been tasked to identify and prepare such centers. Almost all centers are still in need of minor or larger repairs and there are no collective centers in about 12 villages.

• IOM conducted a monitoring visit to the Grotto Home, a collec-tive center for homeless individuals in Bellevue Rawle, which will receive a donation of CGI to improve its conditions. The collective center was found in highly favorable conditions. All residents were moved to the center and live- in, staff are also being housed com-fortably.

• IOM submitted a project proposal to OFDA regarding to the up-grading of collective centers, training of collective center manag-ers and of amateur radio communicators, and for equipment and NFI kits for those centers.

• A donation of ply wood was also made to local farmers groups to support their organic farming initiatives and by extension, small business development on island.

Shelter • 150 individuals are working with IOM shelter operations

with the goal of assisting as many vulnerable families as possible by September 2018.

• 40 migrant workers from Trinidad, Guyana, Jamaica and St Vin-cent were recruited in partnership with Habitat for Humanity. Ef-forts to employ or contract local laborers continue to take place, despite ongoing challenges

• IOM is planning to train 100 local tradesmen in collaboration with “The Builders and Contractors Association of Dominica” (BCAD) and Habitat for Humanity.

• 837 most vulnerable people were selected by IOM as beneficiaries of the shelter projects in the following seven communities: Marig-ot, Woodford Hill, Morne Racquette, Colihaut , Dublanc, Salisbury, Bioche and Bense .

• To date, 243 houses were repaired and six t-shelters (core hous-es) were handed over to approximately 747 IOM beneficiaries in Woodford Hill, Wesley, Coulibistrie, Marigot, Morne Rachette, Co-lihaut, St. Joseph, Dublanc, Salisbury and Bioche.

• The most vulnerable families whose houses require full repair works, will be referred to other actors, such as the Government of Dominica and the World Bank to consider under their housing projects

• The modality of communi-ty interaction with affected households is shifting from large community meet-ings to face-to-face communication, aiming to obtain and better address feed-back received from affected community members in the field. The Community Engagement team is holding daily sessions with the community members targeted by IOM in eastern and western regions of the island1, addressing concerns within the scope of the Dominica Shelter Recovery Project2, resolving any complaints, and raising awareness on Dominica’s revised building standards.

• The IOM Dominica Facebook page is also being used to dissem-inate Build Back Better messages, including Hurricane Prepared-ness Tips and an explanation of the Building Code revisions.

• This process is also feeding into beneficiary selection; as new infor-mation is received on vulnerable households which had not been obtained through the Government´s Vulnerability Needs Assess-ment or through the household lists of the Village Councils. The IOM Community Mobilisers are receiving and investigating these cases and adding new beneficiaries to the list for each village.

• Feedback was received from 606 persons, with 55 complaints, mainly regarding timing and IOM beneficiaries’ selection. 395 indi-viduals received a response from IOM, providing them with corre-sponding information.

• Facebook is now also being used as a communication tool by IOM Dominica, generating 165 likes and over 7,000 user engagements thus far. Community members send inquires, suggest beneficia-ries and provide much needed feedback to the community en-gagement team

1. Map of communities with shelter projects implemented by IOM.

2. In September 2017, Dominica was devastated by the category 5 Hurricane Maria, causing pervasive shelter damage and the potential for significant and extended dis-placement. The purpose of this project is to contribute toward and meet the immedi-ate, priority shelter needs of vulnerable households with severely damaged houses.

The key project deliverable includes: 1) Repairing house for the most vulnerable fam-ilies according to the structural assessment by the Ministry of Housing /UNDP. 2) Participatory vulnerability and needs assessments to identify beneficiaries according to standardised criteria in coordination with Village Councils. 3) Training program for construction teams (contractor/carpenter) on better, disaster-resilient practices. 4) A comprehensive and large scale public information campaign on disaster resilient shelter repair.