SOMALIA BAY REGION ACUTE CRISIS JOINT RESPONSE

As a result of 5 consecutive failed rainy seasons, Somalia currently faces its worst drought in 40 years. The government-declared emergency has already affected half Somalia’s population (7,8M people). 301K people face catastrophic levels of food insecurity (IPC Phase 5), mostly in Baidoa and Burhakaba, and 1.1 M people have been displaced as a result of the drought. Combined with continued conflict, the lack of water and food rapidly depletes people’s resilience. Humanitarian needs will therefore continue increasing well into 2023, with forecasts showing another poor rainy season is likely.

The Joint Response

The Bay Region JR addresses the gaps in the acute needs of IDPs and host communities affected by this historic drought. The 11 participating organizations cover Food Security, Health, Nutrition, Water, Sanitation & Hygiene (WASH) and Multi-Purpose Cash (MPC). Due to increased protection concerns as a result of IDP influxes, Protection is integrated in all JR interventions. The activities target both vulnerable IDPs and host community members, and special attention is given to the inclusion of vulnerable groups, including elderly, pregnant and lactating women, children under the age of five, and people with disabilities. Because of the geographic proximity of the joint response members, interventions are coordinated at a really local level, sometimes even on household level. The target communities include urban, agro-pastoral as well as pastoral communities, who are all present in Baidoa. All participating organizations participate in a rapid real-time review to improve the quality of the response. A joint cash and voucher assistance (CVA) training is organized to enhance local capacity for cash programming. The activities carried out under this joint response are the following:

Food security: 5,100 beneficiaries. The joint response helps the drought-affected population with food distributions and food vouchers, with IPC-5 affected households being prioritized.

Health: 10,000 beneficiaries. The JR provides life-saving health services through mobile health and nutrition teams and primary healthcare facilities, including primary healthcare facilities.
Nutrition: 28,281 beneficiaries. The Dutch Relief Alliance screens and refers children and pregnant and lactating women for acute malnutrition. Supplementary feeding is provided and mothers are trained to assess the nutrition status of their children themselves.

WASH: 87,633 beneficiaries. Drought-affected people are provided with vouchers to profit from water through water trucking, combined with hygiene promotion activities and WASH kits/NFI distribution. Women and girls receive dignity kits to meet hygienic needs.

Multi-purpose cash: 14,538 beneficiaries. The joint response will provide unrestricted cash in three rounds to families and individuals to meet basic needs. The joint response is planning to reach 143,867 people during the six-month response.