Attachments
Somalia is in the midst of longest and most severe drought in 40 years history due to failure of five consecutive rainy seasons. The combined impacts of drought on livelihoods, recurrent conflict, the negative socio-economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the global rising food prices have all created and sustained a perfect storm of a humanitarian crisis in the country.
A catastrophe was avoided in late 2022 by timely scaled-up humanitarian assistance, multi-sectoral humanitarian assistance, supported by slightly more favourable than previously foreseen rainfall performance as well as the well-coordinated response by stakeholders. Despite the improvements in the country’s humanitarian crisis, food insecurity in Somalia is far from over and is becoming more severe every day.
According to the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report, 6.6 million people across the country are experiencing high levels of acute food insecurity, with 1.8 million children suffering from severe malnutrition. The Federal Ministry of Health also recently announced that close to 43,000 deaths may have occurred in 2022 due to the impact of the prolonged drought, half of them children under the age of five.
The drought-affected Somalis are the human face of the global climate emergency that they have done little to create, and it will take communities time to recover from the impact of the drought and the global economic melt-down.
According to UNICEF, four million children dropped out of school in 2022. Women and girls also face increased risks of gender-based violence (GBV) due to multiple displacements, overcrowded and poorly lit shelters and walking long distances to fetch firewood. The drought has also forced the girl- child into early marriage to secure dowries for the rest of the family to survive.
As humanitarians prioritize on saving lives and averting starvation, there is a critical need to invest in livelihoods, resilience, infrastructure development, climate adaptation and durable solutions to ensure those affected can adapt and thrive in the future.
KEY MESSAGES & ASKS
As UN agencies, donors and national decision-makers meet at the High-Level Horn of Africa pledging event, we the Members of the Somali NGO Consortium (SNC):
● Call upon donors, development partners, and governments to act with a sense of urgency to address the grave humanitarian situation in Somalia, where approximately 6.6 million people, nearly half of the population, are food insecure as a result of multiple factors, including a protracted climate-fueled drought and ongoing conflict. Moreover, over three million people have been displaced consequently. Donors and the humanitarian community should not wait until a formal famine declaration is made to warrant meaningful action in the Horn of Africa, when the lives of millions of people are already at risk.
● Call on the donors, development partners and the Governments to provide additional pledges and mobilize resources to fully fund the Somalia Humanitarian appeal to immediately respond to the life-threatening needs of children and families affected by the prolonged drought.
● Urge that donors ensure funding provided is fast, predictable, flexible, coordinated and clearly demarcate the amount available for Somalia. This will enable humanitarian partners on the ground to respond expeditiously and save lives.
● Urge donors to prioritize multi-year nexus funding to enable communities adapt to climate change and become more resilient to future shocks.
Resilient systems are a promising investment. Three years of emergency water trucking (cost per capita) is equivalent to the cost of a climate-resilient borehole equipped with a solar system and distribution system.
● NGOs continue to face complex humanitarian access challenges, including those related to security, logistics, and administration, which further complicates the delivery of life-saving assistance. We urge relevant authorities and parties to conflict to facilitate unimpeded humanitarian access to ensure timely delivery of lifesaving services to the most vulnerable children, their families and communities, given the most-in-need populations are living in areas less accessible because of insecurity and conflict. Donors and diplomatic missions should play a more initiative-taking role in their engagement with authorities and parties to address the specific bureaucratic and administrative constraints that NGOs face through increased advocacy.
● Donors should prioritize funding to local, national and international NGOs and consortia, including women-led organizations, who have a demonstrated capacity to respond when supported with direct, fast and flexible funding. This will also ensure that humanitarian partners on the ground response expeditiously and save lives. Furthermore, Women-led organizations are especially well-placed to respond to and mitigate the gender-based violence risks magnified by the hunger crisis.