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COVID-19 Country Update, IRC Pakistan March-September, 2020

Pays
Pakistan
Sources
IRC
Date de publication

IRC Pakistan has been one of the leading INGOs working alongside the government on the COVID-19 response . Till date IRC has reached approximately 41 million individuals through its risk communication activities and 482,439 individuals (including marginalized groups such as women, gender and religious minorities) through services extended on ground.

INITIAL RESPONSE

ISince the first reported case in February 2020, in just 9 weeks’, from a category level 1 alert, COVID-19 jumped to category 5, as widespread transmission required a full-fledged response. To better prepare for a potential crisis in the wake of the spread IRC Pakistan formed a Country Support Team and a Master Response Plan. Since the very beginning of this pandemic, IRC Pakistan has taken key measures below at the organizational level to ensure that our team(s) can mobilize for effective response at scale and have adjusted to:

  1. Constitution of Country Support Team
  2. Regular Orientation(s) of all Staff on COVID19
  3. Execution Developed of Project Action Plans, Risk Mitigation Plans
  4. Rapid Needs Assessment(s)
  5. Ongoing Engagement with Key Stakeholders
  6. Development and Execution of Master Response Plan

MASTER RESPONSE PLAN

The Master Response Plan (MRP) was created by IRC Pakistan’s Country Support Team, which built upon and expanded IRC’s global emergency response learnings and helped partners and local authorities to plan, prepare and respond to COVID-19 effectively. The plan also incorporated the mitigation measures for the foreseeable future, where significant changes were made in IRC’s ongoing projects. These changes were necessary both to ensure the longer-term viability of IRC programs and more importantly to safeguard our staff and clients in midst of a pandemic. The MRP aimed to contribute towards the achievement of the following key objectives:

• Contain disease transmission and care for people and communities affected by COVID19

• Meet basic needs (health, food security etc.) and provide essential services

•Maintain business continuity through introduction of scenario-based planning

IRC Pakistan primarily focused on extending emergency response support, according to and fully aligned with priorities identified in the ‘National Action Plan (NAP) for Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19). The scope of work proposed under IRC’s MRP is well aligned with COVID19’s ‘National Action Plan’. Pakistan’s National Action Plan places the country as of now in ‘Mitigation Phase 6’. MRP is informed by emerging needs voiced by our clients and witnessed by our staff , and establishes a forward-thinking continuum of care across the arc of a pandemic that seeks to prevent harm, promote resilience, and position individuals, families, and communities for stability and recovery by: