Somalia: Supporting Floods Affected Somali households with Multipurpose Cash Assistance

Baardheere District, Gedo region, is located near the Juba River. Due to the heavy rains, the river overflowed its banks, causing flash floods and inundating most of the villages of the town. As a consequence, homes, infrastructures, and livelihoods were severely damaged.

The impact was particularly severe for communities already residing in IDP sites within the district. These households, having already faced displacement and loss of livelihoods due to previous droughts, conflicts, and climate disasters, were in dire need of assistance to meet their basic needs.

With the support from ECHO, through the Somali Cash Consortium (SCC), Acted has been providing Multipurpose Cash Assistance (MPCA) for a year (April 2023- March 2024), to support the famine prevention response of crisis-affected communities in Somalia.  This project intends to deliver life-saving support and improve the ability of the most vulnerable households to meet their basic needs.   After receiving the cash assistance, the households were able to buy food, , procureNon-Food Items, improve their shelter condition, replace the damaged livestock, as well as meet health and education expenses.

In response to the projected floods induced by El Niño in Baardheere district, Acted delivered multi-purpose cash assistance (MPCA) to 600 households, being moderately to severely food insecure, in two IDP sites, Elwak and Kulmiye, Gedo Region, Jubaland.

The cash assistance aimed to address urgent and immediate needs of the flood affected IDP households.  Acted provided the households with three months of cash cycles so as to enable them to purchase essential goods, including restocking food supplies and access to clean drinking water, thereby contributing to their resilience and recovery from the consequences of the floods.

Zeynab Buli* a 42-year-old mother of five, resides in Kulmiye IDP camp, located one and a half kilometres from Baardheere district. During the last flood episode of March 2023, the site was already significantly impacted.

Three years ago, Zeynab lost her means of livelihood due to recurrent droughts. Since then, the experience of living as an IDP has been fraught with challenges for her and her family, ranging from food scarcity to inadequate access to clean water and sanitation facilities. The situation further deteriorated when the El Niño floods hit in late 2023, exacerbating Zeynab’s plight and leaving her in dire need of life-saving assistance.

The floods severely impacted Zeynad and her family, as it has partially destroyed her makeshift shelter and washed away their utensils and anything that was not firmly fixed to the ground.

In response to the flood-related crisis, Acted, as part of the SCC’s anticipatory response, launched a multi-purpose cash assistance (MPCA) in October 2023 to address the needs of affected individuals in Elwak and Kulmiye IDP camps. Zeynab was one of the beneficiaries who met the selection criteria and was registered and   received three cycles of110 USD each.

Following the three cash transfers, Zeynab was able to address her immediate needs, including buying food and rebuilding her shelter. Moreover, thanks to the assistance and some loans from her relatives, she invested in three goats, ensuring sustainable livelihoods and enhancing her animal husbandry skills. The goats not only provided milk to nourish her family but also served as a source of income. Zeynab has seized income-generation opportunities by selling goat milk to neighbouring communities, and the surplus milk is processed into value-added products such as cheese and yogurt, that she can then sell in the local market.

With the support of Acted and the SCC, Zeynab has managed to respond to the basic needs of her family and to create an enduring source of income, which has dramatically improved her and her family’s condition.

*OCHA Somalia Situation Report, Dec. 2023: https://www.unocha.org/publications/report/somalia/somalia-situation-report-26-dec-2023

*Names have changed to protect the privacy of the beneficiaries.