An International Consortium With a Local Focus
Resilience in Somalia
The devastating drought of 2011, coming on the heels of droughts in 2008 and 2006 together with the political upheaval, highlighted the weak human and institutional capacity, lack of effective policies, rules, regulations and legislative arrangements that increased the instability and fragmentation of the country. This left those already vulnerable with less access to life-saving humanitarian support, leading to large population displacement which further put pressure on scarce resources within the region.
However, the 2011 drought and famine helped galvanize a sustained commitment to Somalia’s future by regional and global actors which has led, among other developments, to agenda of building resilience. In September 2011, the Inter-Governmental Authority for Development (IGAD) helped launch a regional platform for a 15-yearDrought Disaster Resilience and Sustainability Initiative (IDDRSI) and corresponding Country Programme Papers (CPPs) linked to the national development strategies and other sustainable development initiatives
SomReP’s Response
The Somalia Resilience Programme, or SomReP, is an ambitious approach to tackle the challenge of recurrent droughts—and the chronic vulnerability that results—among pastoralists, agro-pastoralists, and peri-urban households across Somalia. Seven international NGOs ACF, ADRA, CARE, COOPI, Oxfam and World Vision.with deep experience in Somalia have joined as a long-term consortium to build and field test a resilience model based on the latest global resilience thinking, innovative livelihood approaches for the Somalia context, and bridging the relief to development continuum.
With support from several donors, SomReP has implemented several projects which aim at enhancing the resilience of vulnerable populations by increasing the adaptive and absorptive capacities of communities, through community participatory planning, the use of financial instruments such as savings groups and the management of rangelands and eco-system health.
The SomReP programme targets two traditional livelihood sectors that are particularly vulnerable and central to Somali household survival—pastoral and agro-pastoral. A third focus group, the peri-urban poor, is a sub-strata of Somalia’s growing urban population, and these households face particular livelihood vulnerability given their high propensity to be internally displaced households, female-headed households, or youth with few employment prospects. By building resilience in livestock and farm related livelihoods, SomReP also aims to keep more households—particularly female-headed households who tend to be most vulnerable—engaged in their productive livelihoods during dry seasons and periods of drought, and reduce the numbers migrating to peri-urban areas to seek alternative livelihoods.
Absorptive Capacity Improvement
In contexts of repeated shocks, people’s livelihoods and productive assets are constantly being eroded. In order to build resilience, first a stable foundation of productive livelihood activities and assets needs to be established from which improvements can be made. SomReP endeavours to strengthen existing livelihoods and also improve livelihood assets and outcomes in the course of normal seasonal cycles
Adaptive Capacity Improvement
SomReP seeks to enhance the risk awareness, mitigation, and management of the target HHs and communities through community based disaster risk reduction activities, and linking these to the creation or strengthening of existing informal safety nets. Informal safety nets include self-help groups, Village Savings and Loans, and the use of remittances for community projects and vulnerable household needs
Transformative Capacity Improvement
Good, responsive, and accountable governance is essential for ensuring basic services and infrastructure are in place to allow for the development of resilient productive capacities, as well as support systems to allow people to cope during times of stress and crisis. It is also vital for ensuring information flows to support people to be agents of change in their own lives, rather than passive victims of drought and instability
Consortium Partners
Action Against Hunger
Action Against Hunger has been conducting humanitarian programs in Somalia since 1992. Currently, their activities focus on treating and preventing malnutrition, increasing access to clean water and appropriate sanitation, strengthening food security and livelihoods and thus boosting the resilience of communities in Somalia as well as rapid emergency response.
Adventist Development & Relief Agency
ADRA Somalia has been operating in Somalia since 1992 implementing emergency relief and development interventions. Their portfolio is in water and sanitation, education, energy and livelihoods, food security and relief interventions. Within this, ADRA emphasis on integration of key thematic areas such as resilience, conflict mitigation, gender mainstreaming, renewable energy approaches and capacity development in its programming.
CARE
CARE has been providing emergency relief and lifesaving assistance to the Somali people since 1981. Their main program activities since then have included projects in water and sanitation, sustainable pastoralist activities, civil society and media development, small-scale enterprise development, primary school education, teacher training, adult literacy and vocational training.
Cooperazione Internazionale
COOPI aims to contribute to the process of fighting poverty, developing communities, intervening in situations of emergency, reconstruction and development, in order to achieve a better balance between developed areas and deprived or developing areas. In Somalia they operate to strengthen the resilience and economic development of communities. This is through trainings such as good agricultural practices and creation of saving groups which allow beneficiaries to access capital required to start new entrepreneurial activities.
Danish Refugee Council
DRC is among the INGOs with the largest presence in Somalia. This has enabled them to respond rapidly to recurrent crises and the needs of Somalis affected by humanitarian crises. Since, 2013 DRC Somalia has been implementing a resilience programme through SomReP with the objective of improving household resilience to drought and other related risks. This has been through trainings, building of community infrastructure and government institutional structures and provision of start-up capital to women’s groups to enable them to build marketable businesses.
OXFAM
Oxfam wants to see a Somalia where poor women and youth are able to thrive and survive in safety and dignity in spite of the stresses and shocks they face. Building on their humanitarian relief work in the country, their livelihoods work helps to build and strengthen the resilience of communities to shocks by ensuring there is adequate linkage between relief and development. Their focus is on supporting the livestock sector, arable farming, natural resource management, alternative livelihoods and climate change adaptation
World Vision Somalia
Since 1993, World Vision has been working in areas of Somalia with the highest levels of child poverty. Their goal is to achieve long-lasting benefits in the quality of life for vulnerable children and their families, displaced persons, and communities using a development approach that increases participation, understanding and unity among people of different cultures while promoting the rights and interests of Somali children.