Sierra Leone — Points of Entry, Cross-Border Mobility and Disease Surveillance: Focus on Kailahun, Pujahun and Falaba Districts (12—22 October 2021)

The emergence and spread of COVID-19 in Sierra Leone has highlighted the need for effective disease prevention and mitigating measures as well as ordered and structured border management. To that end, it was deemed crucial to garner a better and more comprehensive understanding of mobility patterns and trends, characteristics of mobility and to identify key crossing points with Guinea and Liberia, Sierra Leone’s neighbouring countries.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM)’s Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) conducted a participatory mapping exercise between 12 and 22 October 2021 in Kailahun, Pujehun and Falaba Districts, chosen for their strategic location in transboundary mobility, with the aim of identifying major crossing points between Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia, understanding mobility patterns and trends, and identifying key characteristics of cross-border mobility.  This is particularly important given the porousness of international borders, which make it more difficult to track movements between countries. This exercise sought, by enhancing comprehension of cross-border mobility, to inform programmes and policies to strengthen infection disease preparedness, monitoring and response.