In Ethiopia’s Somali Region, women build businesses and resilience to climate change
Story | 25 April 2024
Emergency
Somalia
- 4.3 million
- people facing crisis or worse levels of hunger by December 2023
- 500,000
- people forced from their homes by flooding
- US$378 million
- funding gap from November 2023 to April 2024
Floods – by some estimates the worst in decades – have driven close to half a million people from their homes. They have also crippled families’ attempts to rebuild livelihoods ravaged by the 2020-2023 drought – the country’s longest on record, which pushed Somalia to the brink of famine.
These unrelenting climate shocks are prolonging Somalia’s hunger crisis, at a time when significant funding shortfalls mean that WFP is only able to provide food assistance to less than half of the people most in need.
WFP delivered cash transfers and early warnings in districts projected to suffer heavy flooding, reaching over 200,000 people. There are plans to distribute US$4.1 million in total. We also pre-positioned boats in key locations to support food delivery.
This anticipatory action meant families had the information and means to protect their homes or to move before the floods hit, leaving fewer people in need of emergency assistance.
Without additional funding, however, WFP will struggle to expand this preventive action or make longer-term investments to build resilience. WFP’s funding gap in Somalia is US$378 million from November 2023 to April 2024.
What the World Food Programme is doing to respond to the Somalia emergency
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Crisis response
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WFP, the largest humanitarian agency in Somalia, saves lives by providing food and nutrition assistance to people in crisis. WFP works both directly and through over 100 partners, even in areas where insecurity makes access challenging. Somalia is also home to WFP’s largest use of anticipatory action in Africa, helping drought-affected households to prepare for a potential fourth poor rainy season with cash transfers and an information campaign.
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Resilience
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WFP changes lives in Somalia by helping to build sustainable, long-term resilience at community, state and national level against recurrent shocks like drought and flooding. This includes working with the Government to implement social protection programmes; strengthening climate-smart food systems (for example by training smallholder farmers and linking them to new markets); and developing the capacity of national institutions to sustainably address hunger.
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Government and UN integration
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WFP works with all levels of government in alignment with Somalia’s Ninth National Development Plan, the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework, and the Humanitarian Response Plan. One example is WFP’s support for Baxnaano, a government-owned national safety net. WFP’s work is integrated with the broader United Nations, including joint programming with the United Nations Children’s Fund and the Food and Agriculture Organization.
How you can help
WFP urgently needs US$378 million for its response in Somalia, to help those people most in need.
Donate now