Somalia

Our emergency team provides a multi-sector response to drought, flood and displacement-affected households across the country. A key pillar of our response is unconditional cash transfers delivered through mobile phones, which enable families to quickly receive money to buy what they most need from local markets to feed their family and meet other basic needs such as healthcare.

Additionally, we support emergency education classes for vulnerable children who would otherwise miss out on the chance of going to school. We run clinics providing basic health and nutrition screening and treatment, with particular focus on young children and their mothers and we ensure access to toilet facilities as well as safe water for drinking, household, and agricultural use through constructing pipelines and water catchment dams, reservoirs and tanks. Families newly arriving into camps for displaced people receive a kit of items including cooking sets, hygiene items, and materials to construct a shelter.

Living in displacement is challenging, especially when it lasts for years or multiple moves. Durable solutions projects improve conditions for internally-displaced people (IDPs) and help them live normal lives. 

In Somalia, Concern is one of the lead organizations for durable solutions programming. We work with fellow organizations and institutions and IDP communities to find community-driven solutions to common challenges. Our focus includes communities that have been displaced multiple times. 

This approach includes livelihoods and financial security, access to health and education services, security and protection, and shelter. Concern is a lead in the EU's BREACH programme in Afgoye, and part of an IOM-led consortium working in south-central Somalia. We are one of 13 organizations that form a regional durable solutions secretariat for the Horn of Africa.

We recognize the importance of not only responding to emergencies when a big shock occurs, but also in building people’s resilience to these shocks. This takes a longer-term approach to understanding and anticipating the risks and minimizing vulnerability to their effects. 

We approach this from many angles, working closely with communities and local partners to put in place community-led development and disaster management plans. These include early warning mechanisms and preemptive measures such as fodder production, rainwater catchments, and climate-smart agricultural practices. For example, during the recent drought, Concern supported farmers by supplying fodder for their livestock and food for their families. 

Start-up grants coupled with vocational and entrepreneurship training help to diversify livelihoods for youth. Once women's self-help groups have saved a certain amount, Concern provides them with matching grants, which, along with small business training, support women to diversify and strengthen their livelihoods.