ReliefWeb

The Ulaanbaatar DTM Flow Monitoring exercise was conducted between February 27 and May 31, 2020 by IOM in cooperation with the Municipality of Ulaanbaatar under the project “Understanding and Managing Internal Migration in Mongolia” funded by the Swiss Development Cooperation. The objective of this intervention was to support the Government of Mongolia’s efforts in planning prevention and response measures amid COVID-19 pandemic. The specific Flow Monitoring method was used to support the decision of the Municipality to monitor the flow of people via the 6 checkpoints around the capital city thereby ensuring availability of data on potential community transmission patterns as well as insights into possible preparedness and prevention actions. The present report summarizes the data collected during the implementation of the DTM Flow Monitoring in Ulaanbaatar, includes major analytical conclusions and presents recommendations for future utilization as well as enhancement of preparedness and response to emergencies. The activation of the DTM is testimony of the early and proactive measures that the Government of Mongolia and the Municipality of Ulaanbaatar took to prevent and mitigate the spread of COVID-19. It is important to mention that back in February 2020 Mongolia was the first country in the world to use DTM for COVID-19 prevention, thus leading by example in creating an evidence base for informed decision making in emergency context. At the time of publishing this report, Mongolia is facing the first clusters of community transmission which brings back the need for enhanced preparedness and response operations to ensure the safety of the people. IOM and the Government of Mongolia look forward to furthering their cooperation by institutionalizing DTM Flow Monitoring in Ulaanbaatar Municipality as well as by piloting and implementing the Mobility Tracking tool in Ulaanbaatar, making it one of the few capitals in the world to use it for emergency and general planning purposes.