PHAP & CCCM Cluster on Sphere and COVID-19: Webinar recording available now

Access the video and audio recordings of the PHAP and CCCM Cluster webinar that took place on 2 April

On Thursday 2 April, PHAP together with the Global Camp Coordination and Camp Management Cluster (CCCM) organized a webinar on COVID-19 prevention measures critical to the work of Camp Managers and others working in displacement settings. Sphere recently released guidance for how the Sphere Handbook can help guide humanitarian staff in the response to the COVID-19 outbreak. This session offered an opportunity for participants to hear about these relevant COVID-19 prevention guidelines and how best camp managers should apply those standards and strengthen the prevention measures recommended by technical sectors. 

During the session we were joined by Dher Hayo, Senior Durable Solutions Coordinator with UNHCR and previously the Whole of Syria Coordinator for the CCCM Cluster, who briefed participants on the experience of remote humanitarian response management for Syrian camps in the past and currently during the COVID-19 outbreak. He shared lessons learnt from this experience of restricted access to camps, such as the significance of camp coordination especially with other clusters, testing of communication channels, consistent messaging to the communities, and ensuring key services are provided both to the camp residents and the host communities. 

This presentation was followed by Sybilla Kitsios, Camp Manager for the Salamiyah camp in Iraq, ACTED who spoke on the current COVID-19 situation in Iraq and described the four-step response plan developed to respond to a suspected case in a camp. This has also involved constant coordination and communication with the Iraqi government, the Kurdish regional government, the CCCM, WASH, and Health Clusters. 

Richard Okello, the CCCM Cluster Coordinator in South Sudan also provided an overview of the current situation in the country in regards to the pandemic outbreak and the kind of prevention and response measures in place. He outlined the five key messages utilised in the camps to encourage IDPs to make informed decisions on whether to stay in the PoC sites during the pandemic; and the three-phased contingency plan coordinated with all their partners working in these sites. 

We then moved to Manuel Pereira, Deputy Chief of Mission at IOM in Bangladesh, who briefed attendees on the Cox's Bazaar COVID-19 situation. He highlighted the issue of social distancing versus the freedom of movement of refugees, and the water scarcity in camps when trying to increase hand-washing practices. 

In terms of the Sphere standards, Aninia Nadig, Policy and Practice Manager at Sphere, spoke on the overall relevance of the standards, the recently published Sphere COVID-19 guidance and lessons learnt from the Ebola pandemic. We also had two of the lead authors of the WASH and Health chapters of the 2018 revision of the Sphere Handbook on how these standards translate into our current COVID-19 reality. These were Judith Harvie, currently a practising clinician in the UK National Health Service (NHS), who was a lead author for the Health chapter; Kit Dyer, WASH Adviser at Norwegian Church Aid who was a lead author for the WASH chapter;  and together with Antonio Torres, Global Wash Coordinator at IOM.

Virginia M. Moncrieff of Crisis Response Program Manager (acting), Translators Without Borders (TWB) highlighted the struggle between social distancing and community engagement in camps. She emphasized the use of technology in communication through loudspeakers and pre-recorded messages played on loop in camps for unified messages; remote community feedback; and rumour tracking and management via WhatsApp for immediate programming adaption. 

With well over 2500 registrants, participants both participated actively in the discussion in the chat and submitted a large number of questions during the event. Many of these were addressed directly in the event, and others have also been discussed by the panellists and participants in the PHAP Community following the event.

This webinar was the first in a series of webinars and discussions to be organized by the CCCM Cluster on COVID-19, focusing on how to manage CCCM services during emergencies. If you missed the event, video recordings and an audio podcast version of the event are now available on the event page.