STATEMENT

As a humanitarian organization deployed, notably via its REACH initiative, in many vulnerable and crisis-affected countries, IMPACT is deeply concerned by the devastating impact the COVID-19 pandemic is having on the millions of affected people we seek to serve. Those who are already facing severe and extreme humanitarian needs risk being made even more vulnerable by the spread of the corona virus. Affected populations find themselves in places that are overcrowded and where public health and other services are already overstretched and have limited capacity. It is therefore of utmost importance to evaluate and monitor the situation of those who are already vulnerable in order to help communities prepare and respond to the ongoing spread of the virus.

While a range of measures have previously been taken by IMPACT to protect its IMPACT and REACH staff at country level, and to the best degree possible affected populations too, IMPACT is currently up-scaling its efforts in relation to COVID-19. The goal is to identify practical ways to inform the COVID-19 response in the 20+ countries in which we operate, wherever we can make a difference and wherever information might be required

In practical terms, IMPACT commits to:

• Leveraging and adapting existing and ongoing research to monitor and inform the humanitarian community about the vulnerability caused by COVID-19 and its impact on affected populations through ad-hoc briefing and analysis products. Many research tools and methodologies for collecting information employed by REACH can be geared to inform the effects of COVID-19 on markets, on the humanitarian situation, and on population movements.

• Exploring the feasibility of new COVID-19 dedicated activities in each of the countries it operates in depending on the context and the information needs of major aid actors seeking to respond.

All updates regarding our upcoming research, key findings, and everything in relation to our activities responding to COVID-19 will be accessible in a related thread on the REACH Initiative website.

Stay tuned for regular updates and please feel free to contact us for any further information, questions, or requests at the following email address: emilie.poisson (at) impact-initiatives.org