Attachments
1.0 Background
Decades of conflict, high burden of disease outbreaks, climate shocks and increasing poverty are devastating the people of Somalia. Despite progress in recent years, the compounding impacts of these shocks continue to erode coping strategies and undermine resilience against future crises. Conflict, insecurity, and drought have forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes in 2022 and are expected to remain key drivers of displacement in the coming years.
Somalia currently has some of the lowest health and well-being indicators globally. Extended periods of conflict and insecurity exacerbated by recurrent extreme droughts and subsequent food insecurity have devastated the health status of the population and severely damaged its fragile health system. Droughts result in displacements, which leads to unprecedented levels of malnutrition, health emergencies and epidemics. The country’s overall morbidity and mortality remain very high, particularly among women and children. Somalia currently has the world’s third highest child mortality rate. One out of seven children die before the age of five. Somali mothers suffer from the sixth highest maternal death risk in the world, with skilled health personnel attending only one in 10 births. The average Somali woman has 6.4 children, the second highest fertility rate in the world.