Attachments
In Numbers
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USD 30 million in assistance delivered through cash-based transfers in September.
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3,318 mt of in-kind food assistance distributed in September.
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3 million people assisted in September.
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USD 351 million net funding requirements across all activities for the next six months (Oct 2023 – March 2024).
Situation Update
• Impacts from decades of armed conflict, irregular rainfall, poverty and internal displacement have pushed millions towards acute hunger and food insecurity. 4.3 million people are facing crisis-level or worse food insecurity between October and December 2023, with a million facing emergency-level hunger. The number of children under five years estimated to suffer from acute malnutrition in 2023 has dropped to 1.5 million with 331,000 children still likely to be facing lifethreatening severe malnutrition. 1.2 million people living in rural, urban and IDP sites along the flood plains face imminent threats of flooding due to the combined effect of El Niño and a positive Indian Ocean Dipole phenomenon during the Deyr rainfall season (October to December). Anticipated flash floods in urban areas are likely to impact internally displaced people (IDP) as over half of the IDP settlements are located in low-lying flood prone areas.
Operational Updates
Humanitarian Food Assistance
• WFP prioritizes cash-based transfers in Somalia to provide individuals with the freedom of choice and stimulate local economies. WFP’s humanitarian food assistance in September helped address food needs of 1.3 million food insecure people.
To further enhance the quality of programme delivery, WFP, together with United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UN OHCHR), is developing a protection map that overlays key protection risks with food insecurity in Somalia to support improved analysis and decision-making for food assistance targeting.
Flood Anticipatory Action
• WFP Somalia has been leading the design, development, and implementation of anticipatory action. In September, leveraging on Somalia’s national anticipatory action framework, WFP developed a flood anticipatory action plan for Somalia that identifies standard procedures for early warning message deliveries, unconditional anticipatory cash pay-outs, prepositioning of commodities and means/channels of delivery (boats), and construction of temporary markets. Following onset of anticipated floods in October and contingent on breach of trigger thresholds, the anticipatory actions will aim to support people across identified flood prone locations in Hiraan, Middle Shabelle, Gedo and Lower Shabelle regions.
Nutrition
• In September, WFP reached 253,000 people including children under five years, pregnant and lactating women and girls, and those suffering from tuberculosis or HIV. To promote long term programme sustainability and national ownership of the nutrition programme, WFP actively invests in capacity of the Government to take operational lead in service delivery. In light of the planned transition to the Somaliland Ministry of health and development (MOHD), in September, WFP completed a comprehensive multi-day training program focusing on Integrated Management of Acute Malnutrition (IMAM) and the ministry’s nutrition reporting capabilities.
Human Capital and Social Protection
• WFP supports the government-led Safety Net for Human Capital Project (Baxnaano) and provided predictable cash transfers to 1.2 million food insecure people. In September, WFP delivered health and nutrition awareness raising messages to Baxnaano project participants in Hirshabelle state.
• WFP, in partnership with Global Systems for Mobile Association (GSMA), is providing digital literacy trainings to women to enhance financial inclusion among Baxnaano participants in Somalia. By September, WFP completed two rounds of trainings reaching 160,000 women, enabling them to prevent fraud and use mobile money independently. Building on this, and aligned with WFP’s gender inclusion priorities, refresher trainings on mobile money and additional financial literacy skills will be delivered to enable optimal use and access of digital financial services among women.
Climate-smart food systems and resilient livelihoods
• In September, WFP engaged with various private and public food systems partners, including academia, through the Challenge Mapping Innovation Workshop in Somaliland to understand local food system issues, identify new partnerships, and explore innovative and sustainable solutions on resilience-building.
• WFP organized a trade fair for six farmer cooperatives in Baidoa to enhance smallholder farmer’s market-operation knowledge and strengthen business linkages between stakeholders to improve sales and optimize contracting and transactions.
• WFP improves food security and nutrition of smallholder farmers through the KOBICYE project. Under this project, skills training on improved access to market and distribution of agricultural tools benefited 200 farmers from four farmer cooperatives in Caabudwak district. Similarly, four producer groups in Karin, Ceeldaahir, Dulcadale, and Borookhle in Puntland were trained on marketing and branding concepts, enhancing their ability on market-oriented planning. In September WFP also facilitated eight producer groups to register with government institutions and set up bank accounts