HIGHLIGHTS
• Humanitarian partners release the 2022 Somalia Humanitarian Response Plan. The plan seeks close to US$1.5 billion to assist 5.5 million of the most vulnerable people in the country.
• Drought worsens in Somalia with the number of affected people increasing to more than 3.2 million people in 66 out of the country’s 74 districts by end of December, including about 169,000 people displaced.
• Somalia Humanitarian Fund and the Central Emergency Response Fund significantly contribute to the overall Somalia response in 2021, with some $81 million allocated, representing about 10 per cent of the overall funding received for the Humanitarian Response Plan in 2021.
• UN inter-agency mission visits Ceel Waaq town for the first time in six years, following the reopening of the local airstrip by Jubaland authorities. The closure of the airstrip in March 2020 virtually made Ceel Waaq District inaccessible for humanitarians.
• National partner implements cash-for-work programme in 15 IDP sites in Daynille and Kaxda districts in Banadir region, providing temporary employment to 450 IDPs, including 325 women.
2022 HUMANITARIAN RESPONSE PLAN LAUNCHED
The UN and humanitarian partners in Somalia released, on 20 December, the 2022 Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) for Somalia, seeking close to $1.5 billion to assist 5.5 million of the most vulnerable people in the country. An estimated 7.7 million people in Somalia will require humanitarian assistance and protection in 2022, marking a 30 per cent rise in needs in just one year. The HRP will prioritize lifesaving assistance for the 5.5 million people, including 1 million children under 5, some 1.6 million internally displaced persons (IDPs), 3.9 million non-IDPs, as well as people with disability, across all the 74 districts, by ensuring safe, equitable and dignified access to livelihoods and essential services.
The humanitarian projects in the HRP will address both emerging and pre-existing protection and humanitarian assistance concerns, including decreasing the prevalence of hunger, acute malnutrition, public health threats and outbreaks, access to water, sanitation and hygiene conditions, abuse, violence and insecurity. In addition, the HRP aims to uphold commitments to the centrality of protection through protection mainstreaming, accountability to affected populations and monitoring of the protection environment. To support the humanitarian-development-peace nexus, the HRP is aligned with relevant resilience and durable solutions frameworks, with the aim to reduce humanitarian needs, risks, and vulnerabilities in the medium to longer term, whilst building synergies and complementarities with development, early recovery, and resilience initiatives.
Somalis have endured decades of conflict, recurrent climate shocks, and disease outbreaks, including the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, conflict and insecurity forced 544,000 people to flee their homes. Overall, more than 2.9 million people are internally displaced in Somalia – one of the highest figures in the world; of whom 2.2 million require urgent humanitarian assistance and protection. Most IDPs live in precarious conditions and need assistance to survive. Half are women and girls and face a heightened risk of sexual violence, harassment and intimate partner abuse.
Years of hardship have eroded livelihoods in Somalia. In rural areas, where the majority of the 71 per cent of the overall population living in poverty reside, access to basic services like health, water and food is a major challenge. Furthermore, conflict and insecurity remain widespread across the country and were the main drivers of internal displacement in 2021. Amidst chronic crises, Somalia also continues to exhibit some of the highest infant and child mortality, maternal mortality, and fertility rates in the world. COVID-19 has exacerbated these dynamics, with up to 20 per cent of Somalia’s population expected to suffer from direct and indirect impacts of the pandemic.
According to the 2022 HRP, the overall number of people in need of humanitarian assistance and protection has increased from 5.2 million people in 2020, to 5.9 million in 2021 and to 7.7 million people in 2022. Without sustained humanitarian assistance, an estimated 3.8 million people in Somalia will continue to face acute food insecurity in January 2022, with the number projected to rise by more than 21 per cent to 4.6 million people by May 2022.
In 2021, donor contributions enabled the humanitarian community to meet the immediate and life-saving needs of about 2.3 million people out of the 4 million targeted for humanitarian assistance and protection. This was made possible through the commitment of about 272 partners that were operational across the country, of whom 183 were national NGOs. Urgent and timely funding is critical in supporting the efforts of these partners to reach the affected people in a more robust and sustainable way.
Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs