Summary Learning Somalia 2021 Allocation

Topline

Complex crises require integrated solutions to help the most vulnerable withstand and cope with the impacts of varied shocks and stressors. Anticipatory action (AA) is one critical tool in the toolbox of solutions. Anticipatory action for drought in Somalia has proven to be timely, effective in meeting people’s needs, dignified, and successful in helping get ahead of drought impacts. Yet, learning has also shown that anticipatory action requires early and timely communication, better preparedness, and enhanced alignment to local, community structures and longer-term interventions. More about these learnings below.

Background

Somalia is a country highly exposed to the impacts of climate change. In addition, vulnerabilities are high, making it hard for many to cope with the recurring nature of weather-related disasters, among other shocks and stressors. 

It is in this context of great fragility that OCHA worked with the Humanitarian Country team, the government, and other stakeholders to develop a drought AA framework. The framework is made up of a trigger, pre-agreed actions, and pre-arranged finance from CERF which is released at the food security forecast reach the trigger threshold indicating an impending disaster. 
Due to high drought probability and elevated levels of projected food insecurity and malnutrition, the OCHA-supported framework was activated in early 2021, releasing $20 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF). The allocation to seven UN agencies (FAO, IOM, UNFPA, UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, and WHO) enabled anticipatory action across five critical sectors (food security and livelihoods, health, nutrition, protection and water and hygiene). Notably, this allocation was complemented by a $7 million CERF Rapid Response allocation and $13 million Somalia Humanitarian Fund allocation, for areas already experiencing high levels of food insecurity. 

OCHA frameworks are supported by a rigorous monitoring, evaluation, and learning component. As part of these efforts, the 2021 Somalia allocation benefitted from quantitative and qualitative assessments looking at the effectiveness of assistance and recipient satisfaction. This complements agency-specific monitoring and reporting. The key findings from these different pieces are summarized below.

Agency-specific Monitoring and Evaluation

AA contributes the delivery of a dignified response. UNFPA held a series of webinars and practical sessions with 142 gender-based violence (GBV) and cash working group actors to identify the needs of the population ahead of the drought in 2021. Based on these workshops, UNFPA identified that direct mobile-based cash assistance to vulnerable women and girls would meet non-traditional GBV needs that can otherwise predispose them to GBV risks, which can be leveraged to have discussions on gender issues and decision making at the household level.

“I was satisfied with the way I received the cash assistance on my mobile phone. Cash assistance through phone is far better than other methods because we received it while we were at home with our children”.

AA facilitates access to key resources that contribute to mitigating drought impact. The IOM activities significantly improved water access. At endline, a higher number of households (+36%) had access to boreholes and community protected wells compared to households at baseline. Distance from the water source decreased for 53% of survey respondents, with 90% reporting needing to walk less than 500 meters to collect water. The quality of water increased, and significantly fewer problems were reported at the water points, such as waiting times and overcrowding.

“Water is at our doorstep; we no longer walk long distances and the price is affordable for us. I am no longer worried”

“Life is still very hard, but today we have daily access to water not only for drinking and cooking but also to wash our clothes and bathing and handwashing”

AA benefits are greater when targeted households are afforded choice and the ability to expand risk management options. This is most commonly achieved through the use of cash transfers. Most of the people receiving assistance from UNFPA agreed that the funds were very useful to them, allowing them to cover costs for medical purposes, school fees, food, clothes, sanitary items, and transportation to service and water sites. For FAO’s target groups, cash was used for the same purposes, as well as debt repayment and batteries for power. Recipients noted that the cash assistance reduced tensions at the household level about the use of scarce resources. 

AA becomes more complex in a context of multiple shocks and stressors. Ahead of drought risk, FAO assisted 42,582 farmers from 18 districts with unconditional cash and quality agricultural inputs such as farming tools, sorghum or maize, cowpea, mung bean and assorted vegetable seeds, fertilizers, storage bags and training on Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) and nutrition. People reached noted that their livelihoods had been negatively affected not only by drought, but also desert locust, localized flooding, covid-19 impacts, and security risks. The intervention was still very much well received. 90% of people reached planted seeds provided by FAO. However, people’s needs were evolving, and they required additional means of support. 

AA interventions can have a greater impact by establishing linkages to longer term interventions. This is especially true when it pertains to initiatives that aim toward long term changes, such as behavioral change. Hygiene and sanitation practices offer one example. Sanitation, hygiene, and waste management practices largely stayed the same at the baseline and endline. Respondents noted that they were 22% more likely to report having soap at endline and 36% had improved access to water. Thus, there are entry points towards longer term changes, but more can be achieved by linking up to longer term interventions that have common objectives.

CERF Report

The CERF joint AA and RR allocations set a precent. While the RR was instrumental for addressing already high humanitarian needs, for example through water trucking, the AA helped get ahead of additional needs. This innovative approach was successful in helping prevent 600,000 people from sliding into emergency levels of food insecurity (IPC phase 4+). 
Early funding can support preparedness. The strong signal of the RR and AA pushed the humanitarian community to focus on preparedness and earlier action against drought. It laid the foundation for a scale up in the response. This also benefited from the slow onset nature of the shock, which allowed for a phased scale up. Finally, this was also useful across other shocks and stressors afflicting the country. 

Community based organizations have a role to play. Community capacity building initiatives were identified to help build local response capacity and improve overall quality of response. AA should consider ways to channel resources for capacity building of community members, local authorities, and community-based organizations, especially in ways that help better identify needs, risks, and viable ways to contextualize the response to the needs of the most vulnerable. 

Early and continued engagement and coordination with national and sub-national actors, principally the Government and clusters are key to success. This enabled timely and effective planning and prioritization from the onset, which continued to benefit the delivery assistance. Government discussion sessions, joint field missions, and design activities were instrumental. This was further enhanced by hosting similar discussions and sessions with the cluster system. Besides this being useful to AA delivery, it was also beneficial in establishing complementarity and linkages in the response, which was helpful beyond AA.

Survey with targeted people

As it was anticipated, the drought impacts were severe and AA much needed, as reported by targeted populations. 4 in 5 respondents noted that the drought impacts between May and October 2021 (when the AA allocation was implemented) were “extreme”. In addition, 1 in 4 respondents noted having to relocate from their homes because of the drought. This was largely driven by the drought impacts in people’s incomes, leaving many in search of alternative livelihoods. 

High recipient satisfaction from the AA allocation. 4 in 5 recipients reported at least some quality-of-life improvements because of the assistance provided. They talked about being better able to afford food, access clear water, and feel better emotionally and physically because of the assistance. Recipients of bundled assistance, i.e. cash and non-cash, showed particularly high satisfaction and self-reported recovery rates.

“My life changed because of the assistance. I stopped hovering around and asking people for help such as loans and I also paid most of my debts. I had the opportunity to take care of my children as a mother and not a father for the first time after so long.”

AA assistance was noted as timely. 9 in 10 recipients mention they received the assistance at the right time, allowing them to prepare and cope with the drought. This contributed to the recipient satisfaction and to them faring off better during the worse periods of the drought event in 2021. However, only 4% of recipients were able to make helpful decisions because of receiving the assistance sooner, such as relocating or avoiding debt, with a third of respondents not being sure.

More predictable, adequate and longer-term assistance is desired by the targeted populations to better withstand the impacts of drought. When asked about how they can be supported for any upcoming drought, recipients mention food and cash support as the top suggestions, in line with their current coping strategies. This would potentially reduce their reliance on credit and avoid any debt traps that they may be currently facing. In addition, while 1 in 4 respondents reported that the assistance provided met most or all of their needs, 60% had only some and 15% hardly any or none of their needs met. 

Overall Documentation
Framework
Framework summary
CERF Press Release
CERF allocation summary 2021
CERF Final Report 2021

Agency Stories
FAO Photo Gallery
IOM film
UNFPA Learning Brief

External evaluation
Survey report by 60 Decibels
Anticipation Hub: Listening to those in crisis: understanding perspectives on anticipatory action in Somalia