Somalia: Cash Snapshot (as of April 2017)

OVERVIEW

With more than 6.7 million in need of humanitarian assistance in Somalia, expansion of cash-based programming is central to the strategy for prevention of famine. As outlined in the revised Humanitarian Response Plan for Somalia issued on 10 May 2017, this approach is underpinned by a strong focus on risk management and close coordination with national and state-level structures. Thanks to generous resources provided by donors, NGOs and UN agencies continue to scale up cash-based humanitarian interventions (cash and vouchers), reaching more than 2.4 million people in April alone, disbursing more than US$34 million to people affected by the drought.

The majority of cash transfers are in support of Food Security objectives, benefitting some 2.2 million people in April alone. WASH partners reached 578,000 people with water vouchers in April, while Shelter partners reached 62,000, multi-purpose cash grants were issued to 31,300 people, and Protection and Education partners reached 17,400 and 3,700, respectively. Local cash coordination is being strengthened through a country-wide network of local cash coordinators established by the Cash Working Group chaired by WFP and Adeso, and closely linked with the regional Inter-Cluster Coordination Groups chaired by OCHA.

Humanitarian partners continue to monitor reactions of markets to the scale-up in cash-based interventions. Monitoring of over 40 markets throughout the country indicates that market-based interventions remain feasible. The latest Dashboard for Cash and Markets is available at: