Somalia remains a chronically vulnerable context with looming threats of recurrent climate shocks, armed conflict and famine. The population has lived through the world’s most prolonged humanitarian crises. Facing acute levels of food insecurity, human rights abuses from armed actors, and diminishing work opportunities, one third of the total population (4.2 million people) is now reliant upon humanitarian assistance
Mission context
Given the wide spectrum of needs, ACTED worked across a number of sectors including: water, sanitation and hygiene assistance, food security, livelihoods support, and Camp Coordination and Camp Management (CCCM). Despite the emergency nature of the interventions, ACTED mainstreamed sustainability considerations into each project, providing the knowledge, skills and inputs required for communities to sustain the outcomes of ACTED programming.
ACTED in Somalia
Cash programming to provide life-saving assistance to crisis-affected populations
Cash assistance is an essential approach through which humanitarian actors in Somalia address gaps in the aid provided through other means. Through implementing large scale electronic cash transfers, ACTED aims to address the needs of the most vulnerable families to boost their purchasing power on the local market. This is particularly necessary for famine prevention as it allows families to fill the nutrition gaps which they face when reliant upon traditional food distributions. Based on its long experience as a cash actor, ACTED now plays a key role in coordinating cash interventions within the country.
ACTED’s cash interventions in Somalia carry a significance far beyond the life-saving role they play in allowing individuals to define and fulfil their family’s most pressing needs. The organisation sees such programming as part of a longer term strategy of building a cash delivery system that can one day be adapted into a nationwide state-run social safety net.
Maryan Abdi Ibrahim, a displaced mother works as a tailor inside her shop in Dalxiska IDP camp in the outskirts of Kismayo,
Hamdi Ahmed, an internally displaced mother with her kid on the back, fetches water from a water kiosk.
Sahra Mohamed Ahmed sells vegetables to a customer at her kiosk in Via Afmadow market in Kismayo, Somalia.
Support to displaced communities through Camp Coordination and Camp Management
With the rising number of displaced populations in Somalia, in 2018 ACTED expanded its projects in camps housing internally displaced persons (IDPs). All of ACTED’s camp-based intervention draw upon the ethos that the camp residents should be responsible for as much of the site maintenance and management as possible, and all decisions in this regard should be taken democratically through the establishment of camp-based committees comprised of IDPs. To this end, ACTED worked with community representatives to enhance coordination and communication, improve information sharing, conduct site monitoring, and ensure active community participation. ACTED also worked to provide integrated, multi-sectoral support to camp residents through ensuring access to latrines, hand-wash stations and shower facilities, in addition to shelter support to improve the living standards of residents, especially during extreme weather conditions.
Gender protection
Gender protection and integration are at the heart of ACTED’s programming in the country and are integrated throughout the project cycle. In this way, the teams ensure that the programmes take into account and address the particular needs of women, men, girls, and boys, at the project design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation stages. This mainstreaming approach ensures that ACTED’s operations are relevant and significant.
ACTED’s commitment to reach the most vulnerable communities, through targeted, needs-oriented programmes has enabled the organization to establish a strong presence in some of the most remote and inaccessible areas of Somalia. In these complex environments, ACTED has built relationships and trust with communities and key stakeholders, enabling the teams to reach the most vulnerable households in a participatory and locally led way. ACTED is firmly committed to the local agenda, and supports local authorities and NGOs in Somalia to ensure genuine local participation at all levels of development and disaster management.
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