Severe drought continues to worsen across Somalia with warning for an eminent famine, if assistance is not scaled up quickly. The situation has been worsened due to the failure of three consecutive rainy seasons during 2015-2016, followed by a prolonged dry season Hagaa (July-September 2016) and significantly below-average Deyr rainfall (October-December 2016).

As of January 2017, over 363,000 children are reported to be acutely malnourished (with 71,000 severely malnourished) and require urgent treatment and nutrition support. In the first weeks of 2017, 33’000 people were reported to have been displaced due to drought in the South and Central parts of Somalia and 8,000 in Somaliland. Urgent humanitarian assistance is needed to support 2.9 million people who face acute food insecurity (IPC levels 3 & 4). Livelihood protection and support is needed for over 3.3 million people in acute food security stress (IPC 2). In total 6.2 million people across Somalia need assistance. In a worst case scenario where the expected April-June 2017 rain season performs poorly, purchasing power declines to levels seen in 2010/2011, and humanitarian assistance is unable to reach populations in need, famine (IPC 5) would be expected.

Intervention will prioritize areas and groups affected by drought:

1. Malnourished children (acute to moderate cases)
2. Internally displaced communities in different locations like Bay and Baidoa.
3. Pastoralists and urban poor.

The SHF 2017 first allocation is directly aligned to the HRP’s strategic objectives and the Somalia Operational Plan for Pre-Famine Scale-up. 

The first standard allocation will focus on the drought response as articulated by the clusters, with priority given to emergency food security, WASH, nutrition and health interventions.

Expected results:  

• Emergency response for drought affected schools (Puntland, South Central)
• Immediate access to food for acutely food insecure drought-affected populations
• Provision of lifesaving emergency and integrated health services and response to drought affected regions
• Access to safe water, appropriate sanitation facilities and hygiene promotion
• Prevention and response to child rights violations
• GBV prevention and response to the displaced communities

Results from previous phases:  

In 2016, the SHF continued to be a crucial tool for timely, coordinated and effective humanitarian response. USD 29.4 million was received with USD 25 million allocated to 35 agencies and 94 projects. Main achievements of the SHF 2016 are as follows;

The Fund contributed to life-saving response for 75,000 IDPs, evicted from Mogadishu in 2015; it provided non-food items for 24,000 of the 70,000 people displaced by floods in Belet Weyne in June 2016; it supported the collection and analysis of food and nutrition data, critical to inform response in Somalia; the SHF also implemented robust accountability measures to provide assurance to stakeholders in regards to the high risk environment that Somalia continues to be.

Phase 12 15.03.2017 - 31.12.2017   (Completed)