Mongolia – Flow Monitoring in Ulaanbaatar (COVID-19 Preparedness) – Situation Report 18 (16 March 2020)

To increase its preparedness and also an eventual response to COVID-19, the Governor’s Office of the Capital City has requested the assistance of International Organization for Migration, Mission to Mongolia (IOM) to take evidence of all the incoming and outgoing flows of people by implementing its Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) methodology. Based on a joint agreement to implement DTM between IOM and the Governor’s Office of the Capital City, a total of over 300 health and education system personnel have been trained as data enumerators and technical assistance was provided to set up the overall data collection and analysis framework. The pilot phase of the DTM flow monitoring in Ulaanbaatar was started on February 27th, 08:00 hrs while the roads were still closed for general free movement. The active implementation phase commenced when roads were opened for free circulation at 06:00 hrs on March 3rd and is scheduled to last until March 24th, 2020. Enumerators placed at 6 major checkpoints around the city (Emeelt, Baruunturuun, Gunt, Ulziit, Morin and Nalaikh) are collecting non-personal data on type of vehicle, passengers’ profile, place as well as length of stay at origin and destination on a 24/7 time-schedule. This DTM implementation is funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) under “Understanding and Managing Internal Migration in Mongolia” project.