Protection Monitoring Note

1.0 Introduction

Protection monitoring is systematically and regularly collecting, verifying and analysing

information over an extended period of time in order to identify violations of rights and
protection risks for populations of concern for the purpose of informing effective responses.
Protection monitoring is an essential UNHCR activity used to understand the evolution of
the protection situation of persons of concern in countries affected by displacement and
statelessness. Both in its supervisory function and through its Protection Cluster leadership
role, UNHCR uses the outputs of protection monitoring to support evidence-based decisions
and actions, to engage governments and partners more effectively, to tailor advocacy
strategies and messages, and to tell a compelling story about displacement and
statelessness
The key methods for protection monitoring are Observation, Key informant interview, Focus
group discussion, Individual / household interview, Profiling, Survey, and Referrals using an
Age, Gender and Diversity approach.
What is Protection monitoring?
As an activity, protection monitoring serves to generate data and information about trends
(over time) in the protection situation at specific location(s) and/or for specific population
group(s). Locations can include for example accommodation centres, transit centres, IDP
settlements or local communities.
The outputs of protection monitoring are qualitative and/or quantitative data and
information about the evolution of the protection ‘situation’, which can be defined as
including:

 Protection issues and concerns in the specified location or context, such as access to
adequate shelter, health, livelihoods or civil documentation.

 Protection risks and threats

 Protection incidents and human rights violations and abuses, such as SGBV, child
protection

 The capacities and self-protection and coping mechanisms of the specified

population group(s).

Why do we do protection monitoring?

Protection monitoring aims to provide quality and timely data and information to enable
evidence-informed action for quality protection outcomes. It is inherently action-oriented.
The information collected should directly support decisions and actions that ultimately help

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achieve the protection and solutions objectives defined by relevant operations and regions.
Every data point collected should be tied to a specific purpose.
Trends information is helpful to ensure that programming is responsive to changes in the
protection environment. More specifically, protection monitoring will generate trends
information – evidence – that can be used:

 By actors to:
 Inform the response (protection and assistance needs) to prevent and
respond to protection incidents, and address protection issues
 Inform communication messages to IDPs
 Inform advocacy messages and identify relevant authorities and
humanitarian actors to prevent and address protection issues and incidents.
 Identify immediate or urgent protection cases in need of life-saving
assistance, immediate support, and/or referral.
 Plan the response (protection and assistance needs) at the border and in the
CoA for persons of concern/ Plan the response in the expected host
communities
 Identify the profile of individuals who are most at risk of incidents, to inform
prevention and mitigation measures.
 Inform future protection and solutions strategies, including decisions about
resource mobilization and allocation, prioritization, and partnerships.

How is protection monitoring related to other activities?

 To deliver this ‘video’ of the protection situation over time, the same data points
must be systematically collected at pre-determined intervals of time: at time t, t+1,
t+2, etc.
 By contrast, a protection needs assessment provides a snapshot of the needs and
capacities of a specific population group at a specific time and place (at time t). The
data collected is more specifically about the needs and capacities of identified
persons, rather than the broader protection situation. Although these activities are
distinct, they are also linked. The findings of needs assessments can be used as
baseline figures for monitoring, if the indicators are the same. Conversely, the
findings of protection monitoring can inform decisions about the design and
implementation of needs assessments.
 Population data systems record the number and characteristics of a population in a
specific place and time period. Population data is a basic information requirement to
plan and implement any type of activity, including protection monitoring. We first
need to know who is where before we can monitor their situation. Of course, the
context may require that population data and protection monitoring data be
collected at the same time or during the same visit to a location. This may often be
the case in protection monitoring, when the staff collecting protection information
may also be required to generate population estimates about the number and
profile of persons .Regardless, population data collected through protection

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 monitoring activities should be understood and managed as distinct from the
protection monitoring data. Population data should also be more readily shared with
relevant actors to inform the overall response.

2.0 Objective

1. To collect information on need of life-saving assistance or immediate support

2. To obtain protection trends
3. To access protection coping mechanisms and capabilities.
4. Get the site location info
5. Map multiple services and structures
6. Obtain priority needs from multiple key informants
7. Report an incident
8. Make an individual or group referral
9. Make observations and collect photos

3.0 Scope

The Protection monitoring will be done in the existing accommodation sites, IDP sites and
local community located in Sofala Province that was affected by the Cyclone. There are over
88 accommodations sites in schools, health centers and churches where persons of concern
are sheltered. There are 6 IDP sites that have been designated by the government in Beira
through the INGC. The monitoring will also be carried out in the local communities in those
areas of IDP sites and accommodation centers.

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Map of affected areas

4.0 Deliverables

The following deliverables are expected from the protection monitoring on a periodic basis.

1. Progress status report on exercise.

2. The analysis of data to show different trends
3. A protection risk matrix
4. A period report on completion of each round of exercise.
5. A visualization of data on dashboards and maps.

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5.0 Methodology
The protection monitoring will be done by combination of the methods where information
will be collected from community leaders, head of households, youth, women, IDPs from
various sex, age and disability groups, other protection agencies, government, International
protection organizations and others.

The data will be collected using smart devices where forms are deployed and will be synced
to server on the availability of internet connection. This offers for a centralized data storage,
analysis and manipulation. The methodology of data collection will be done on household
level to understand the needs, risks as well as key informants that will provide information
on site information.

6.0 Team

A team will be on regular basis collecting information on the protection trends in the sites.
Some of the sites are a distance from the main coordination hub of Beira. The map of the
existing accommodation sites will be updated on period basis to support the protection
monitoring exercise.

Each team member will move to area of interest and capture information related to
services, location and protection concern. There will be a dedicated member of the team
that will be validating the data collected on a periodic basis.

7.0 Planned Schedule

The exercise intends to cover the sites in Sofala province and others if necessary. In the
initial stage, from week 15/04 to 20/05

S. No District Locations Est. No. Est. No. of days

Interviews
1 IDP sites and IFAPA – 255 ind 125 4
local community IFP – 340 ind
San Pedro – 285 ind
Samora Machel – 1,395 ind
Picoco – 704 ind

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 2 Beira other sites 19 Sites (see sites in 300 10
and local Appendix)
communities
3 Buzi: 2 Sites and 2 sites - 3701 400 12
local community
4 Dondo district 36 sites - 3946 420 15
and local
community
5 Nhamatanda 35 sites – 10,610 1500 20
and local
community
6 Muanza and 1 site - 815 120 3
local community
Source: CCCM/DTM data 10 April 2019

The sites per districts are in the appendix for reference.

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8.0 Appendix

Map of Buzi

Source: OCHA 26 March 2019

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Sites

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