Who is my neighbor? - Somalia Hunger Crisis Appeal

Acknowledgement: We at the Somali Resilience Program (SomReP) would like to express our sincere gratitude to all the generous supporters whose contributions have enabled us to serve the most vulnerable families during the time of dire humanitarian crisis in Somalia. We would also like to thank our partners at the Cooperazione Internazionale (COOPI) for their support in identifying the needs of the vulnerable households in Somalia most impacted by the recent flood. 

Context: The year 2023 witnessed Somalia experiencing the worst drought in 40 years and the worst flooding in the last 70 years at the end of the year. Somalia's 2023 humanitarian crisis was dire, with drought impacting a staggering 7.8 million people according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). This extreme weather forced millions from their homes, with estimates exceeding 1 million internally displaced. Drought crippled agriculture, leading to severe food insecurity with over 6.3 million facing acute food shortages, and some areas on the brink of famine. Malnutrition rates soared, particularly amongst children. Somalia's resources were overwhelmed, necessitating a large-scale international humanitarian response to address the crisis.

Somalia's 2023 El Niño brought heavy rains and devastating floods, impacting an estimated 2.5 million people. Over 1.2 million were displaced, with Southwest, Jubaland, and Hirshabelle states suffering the worst. Floods destroyed property, infrastructure, and farmlands, worsening existing food insecurity and raising the risk of disease outbreaks. Humanitarian efforts focused on providing aid to displaced populations.

One of the most hard-hit areas by the floodings induced by the El Niño was Baidoa, the largest city in the South West State of Somalia. The recent flooding in Baidoa, Somalia occurred in early October 2023, caused by heavy rains. The summary of the impact is as follows:

• Affected People: Over 122,000 people (20,347 families) were affected, with Baidoa city and surrounding areas being the worst hit. Many of those affected were internally displaced persons (IDPs) living in makeshift shelters, which were inundated by floodwaters.
• Casualties: Three people were reported dead in Baidoa due to collapsing houses, with one additional death in Galmudug state.
• Damage: Flooding caused destruction of shelters, damage to infrastructure like roads and bridges, and disruption of daily life. Schools, health facilities, and sanitation systems were also impacted.

The floods highlighted the vulnerability of displaced populations and the need for improved early warning systems and infrastructure in Somalia. Humanitarian organizations and resilience actors like SomReP provided assistance to those affected by the flood. 

Who is my Neighbour? Project Implementation Status Report

In order to reach out to the most vulnerable families impacted by the extreme weather and further exacerbated by the ongoing armed conflicts in Somalia, the Somali Resilience Program (SomReP) pivoted from drought response to the recent flood relief initiatives to ensure that the resources from the humanitarian agencies are well synchronised and the impact is broader. As such, SomReP's consortium member Cooperazione Internazionale (COOPI) conducted spot check visits in November 2023 to the project locations as well as triangulation of information gathered from various flood assessments conducted in Baidoa, the following were observed, with regards to the food security and floods situation in Baidoa: 

• All the project locations in the district were found to be in severe food insecurity due to loss of livelihood, caused by the El Niño floods during the 2023 dry season.
• Key productive assets, including crops, houses, roads, and bridges were severely damaged by the El Niño floods during the dry season.
• Displacement had been rampant as a result of the destroyed shelters, WASH infrastructure and livelihood assets. New displacements have been on the rise in Baidoa down with new IDP camps on the rise at an alarming rate.
• In parts of Baidoa, flooding damaged the electrical infrastructures causing power disruptions in parts of the peri-urban and surrounding areas, affecting communication systems, business, and services.
• The majority of the affected households haven’t moved with key basic items such as food, NFIs and Livelihood assets cash, with almost all livestock dying. 
• Almost all the affected communities reported low adaptive capacity, with all of them showing negative coping strategies.
• The prices of the key commodities nearly doubled, due to the limitation of the movement of goods into the town.
• Key commodities such as sugar, rice, flour, and cooking oil have increased by more than 30%. Most markets are functioning, with the availability of essential items such as food, but lack items such as vegetables.
• The rains destroyed crops of farmers who has started planting early into the Deyr season, having anticipated average to above-average rains. 

Based on the above observation, the following recommendations were made by the project team at COOPI:

• Immediate-term support should be offered to the affected households, with the goal of saving the lives of extremely low-income HHs and vulnerable households in hard-to-reach areas.
• Provision of basic food or cash/voucher aid support to boost HH purchasing power (UCT).
• Provision of short-term assistance to the most vulnerable affected households that face severe food insecurity, poor income levels and sources as well as the agro-pastoralists whose productive assets were completely damaged by floods
• Constant support to local farmers through flood protection, and rehabilitation of damaged roads, markets, farmlands, and rangeland through cash for work.
• Creating, strengthening and linkages of VSLAs with cash for work activities and other financial incentives to improve access to social safety nets by the flood-affected households.
• Provide children under five years old, expectant mothers, and pregnant and lactating women with nutrition, security, and protection (for supplementary feeding).
• Production and preservation of fodder for pastoralist households.
• Continuous support to local farmers through the provision of viable agricultural inputs to enhance production capacities is an urgent need in agro-pastoral villages so as to restore income generation and access to nutritious foods. This includes the provision of quality, drought-resistant high-yield varieties of sorghum and maize seeds and pesticides.

Project Approach

Considering the total donation size of USD 4,052 received for the Who is My Neighbour? – Somali Drought Crisis Appeal through the GlobalGiving platform (as of February 2024), SomReP and its partner focused on supporting the Bulla Kerrow village, the hardest hit place by the 2023 El Nino weather incident. Therefore, SomReP and its partner agreed on Bulla Kerrow, since it experienced a high number of property destruction and displacement.

Unconditional Cash Transfer remains the top-most priority to boost recovery of HHs that were hit by the floods and could not rebuild even after the end of the rains in late 2023 (please refer to the photographs from the community engagement exercise attached). Bulla Kerrow is still a village that was hardest hit with many having dropped out of livelihood activities and displaced. As such, COOPI on behalf of the SomReP will provide unconditional cash transfers of USD 120 each to 33 households most affected by the recent floods that have been unable to recover from its devastating effects. Based on the local market assessment aftermath of the flood, it is anticipated that USD 120 can help a family regain livelihoods by provision and treatment of goats including daily household essentials like flour, vegetable oils, sorghum, water, and legumes in Bulla Kerrow, Baidoa.

Next steps

The unconditional cash distribution to 33 households from the hardest hit village as well as belonging to the most impacted social groups will be completed by April 30, 2024. The impact stories and multimedia captured during the cash distribution process will be shared by the 31^st of May, 2024.

Thank you for all your kind support.