GCRF_NF101: Internally Displaced Persons and COVID-19: Leveraging local low cost COVID-19 solutions in informal settlements in Zimbabwe

This project focuses on Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) residing in informal settlements in Harare, Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe is among the latest countries in the region to be affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Whilst the government has responded well to the pandemic, it is currently preoccupied with returning citizens, some of whom are testing positive on arrival, leading to increasing numbers in infection cases. The system is neglecting the plight of secluded populations such as IDPs, most of whom are of a migrant/refugee heritage and were victims of developmental displacement programmes (e.g. the infamous land reform programme) who lack resources and access to critical public health information. Bringing together an interdisciplinary team of two UK universities, three Zimbabwe universities and a local NGO, this impact-oriented project aims to complement the government's current response to the pandemic by adapting locally developed low cost COVID-19 solutions to fit IDPs' needs. Objectives are to: 1. identify through research what IDPs know about COVID-19, sources of the knowledge and current preventive/protective measures and the gaps; 2. adapt the recent low cost COVID-19 innovations (e.g. sanitisers and facemasks) developed by our co-investigator university, Zimbabwe Ezekiel Guti University, to fit the IDPs context; 3. develop a COVID-19 transformative public health education programme to be accessed through diverse interactive communication channels; 4. produce a toolkit and provide training through media to empower women to make COVID-19 protective products for use by their households; 5. produce policy briefs for engaging relevant government departments to include IDPs in their development plans.