Disaster Preparedness

The International Organization for Migration's (IOM) Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) framework for Sri Lanka adopts a '3Cs' approach built around Community resilience, Capacity building and Coordination.

IOM strives to provide comprehensive services at the institutional level which influences the capacity of stakeholders to reduce disaster risk. At the community level, IOM promotes knowledge sharing, structural development, and direct beneficiary level assistance. IOM also considers disaster risk when designing and implementing other programming, to ensure that it builds resilience and recognizes local vulnerabilities.  This is especially significant when it is recognized that the impact of disasters can cause both short and long-term security, socio-economic and physical shifts which may influence migration-related decisions.

IOM will continue to promote the Migration Crisis Operational Framework (MCOF) as a tool to enhance the Government’s preparedness and response capacity to migration crises, and identify situations and conditions that, if left unmitigated, could lead to further crisis situations. 

Building upon a series of trainings conducted for government officials in disaster affected areas on Camp Coordination Camp Management (CCCM), for which IOM retains a global cluster lead, IOM will continue to sensitize actors and communities on key preparedness elements featured in CCCM training methodologies to enable quick response in the event of a disaster.

In 2017, IOM successfully rolled out for the first time its Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) in Sri Lanka as part of its emergency and recovery operations in flood and landslide affected regions and trained government officials and humanitarian partners on its use. The DTM is a system used to track and monitor displacement patterns and population mobility. It is designed to regularly and systematically capture, process and disseminate information to provide a better understanding of the movements and evolving needs of displaced populations, whether on site or en route, and to better plan and prepare for the next disaster. IOM continues to explore avenues for the replication and further application of the DTM in preparation for future natural disasters.