Somalia Humanitarian Fund Annual Report 2019

2019 IN REVIEW

This Annual Report presents information on the achievements of the Somalia Humanitarian Fund during the 2019 calendar year. However, because grant allocation, project implementation and reporting processes often take place over multiple years (CBPFs are designed to support ongoing and evolving humanitarian responses), the achievement of CBPFs are reported in two distinct ways:

Information on allocations granted in 2019 (shown in blue). This method considers intended impact of the allocations rather than achieved results as project implementation and reporting often continues into the subsequent year and results information is not immediately available at the time of publication of annual reports.

Results reported in 2019 attributed to allocations granted in 2019 and prior years (shown in orange). This method provides a more complete picture of achievements during a given calendar year but includes results from allocations that were granted in previous years. This data is extracted from final narrative reports approved between 1 February 2019 - 31 January 2020.

Figures for people targeted and reached may include double counting as individuals often receive aid from multiple cluster/sectors.

Contribution recorded based on the exchange rate when the cash was received which may differ from the Certified Statement of Accounts that records contributions based on the exchange rate at the time of the pledge.

HUMANITARIAN CONTEXT

Humanitarian situation in 2019

The humanitarian situation in Somalia remained fragile in 2019. The prolonged conflict, insecurity, displacement and recurrent climatic shocks have continued to exacerbate humanitarian needs and undermine community resilience.
In comparison to 2018, the number of people in need of assistance in 2019 reduced by 32 per cent, from 6.2 to 4.2 million.

Climate conditions, food security and malnutrition

Cyclical droughts and floods trapped millions of Somalis in severe hunger and malnutrition. Deterioration of the food security situation in the country was driven by drought conditions from late 2018 through mid-May 2019, followed by delayed below-average April to June Gu rains, which resulted in the poorest harvest since the 2011 famine. The 2019 post Gu assessment estimated 6.3 million Somalis as acutely food insecure through December 2019. As the year unfolded, the above normal Deyr (October to December) rains affected just over half a million Somalis, causing massive displacement, destroying infrastructure including roads and facilities, inundating farmlands and disrupting livelihoods.

Nutrition situation remained precarious with median National Global Acute Malnutrition (GAM) rate of 13.8 per cent during the Gu season in 2019, which was slight improvement from previous years, 14 per cent in 2018 and 17.4 per cent in 2017. Majority of the high GAM rates are concentrated in 5 regions of Banadir (14.8 per cent), Shabelle (11 per cent), Bay 8.8 per cent, Hiran (6.1per cent), Woqooyi Galbeed (5.6 per cent), and Gedo (5.4 per cent). Protracted conflict, displacement, climatic shocks, and lack of basic social and protection services continued to exacerbate the nutrition situation in the country. The nutrition cluster estimated that 1 in 10 children were acutely malnourished, which is about 1.08 million children of which 178,000 were affected by life threatening severe acute malnutrition and 830,000 with moderate malnutrition.

By end-2019, some 4.2 million people, including 2.5 million children, remained in need of humanitarian assistance.
While that was less than in early 2018 (5.2 million), Somalia remained one of the most complex and long-standing humanitarian crises in the world.

Internal displacements

Protracted internal displacement and evictions continued to cause human suffering in the country, with an estimated 2.6 million internally displaced people (IDPs) living in over 2,000 displacement settlements at the end of 2019. The dry conditions and flooding caused further displacement of 370,000 people.

IDPs also faced forced evictions, discrimination, gender-based violence (GBV), and lacked adequate protection and durable solutions. The majority were women, children, people with disabilities, older persons and members of marginalized communities. In 2019, almost 60 per cent of people in Crisis integrated phase classification* (IPC 3) and Emergency (IPC 4) levels were IDPs. With limited access to land and livelihoods opportunities, IDPs were largely dependent on humanitarian assistance and in need of durable solutions.

Security and access constraints
The operating environment in Somalia remained complex and dangerous. Humanitarian agencies continued to face huge challenges such as bureaucratic constraints, access impediments, movement restrictions, insecurity and violence.

Safety and security concerns continued to impact the ability of humanitarians to reach people in need in a timely manner and the ability of vulnerable people to access humanitarian assistance and protection.

By December 2019, 151 violent incidents were recorded against humanitarian workers in which 12 aid workers were killed, 24 injured, 21 abducted, 18 arrested or temporarily detained and two expelled by authorities for alleged infractions. Despite these challenges, the number of humanitarian partners continued to slightly increase in some areas, notably in Hiraan region due to the flood response.

The operational capacity increased by eight per cent over the course of 2019, from 328 humanitarian partners in December 2018 to 354 in December 2019. Assistance continued to be delivered through different modalities, including the use of air cargo, where feasible, cash transfer mechanisms and through local and international partners on the ground.