Closing the gap between disaster risk reduction and emergency relief

Project objective

This forecast-based financing project in Somaliland and Somalia seeks to ensure that the Somali Red Crescent Society has the capacity to implement early (anticipatory) actions in high-risk areas and effectively help communities to prepare and protect themselves and their livelihoods before an extreme event or other crisis.

Project description

Since the turn of the millennium, the Greater Horn of Africa region has experienced an increase in hydrometeorological disasters. Extreme weather events due to the climate crisis are becoming the ‘new normal’ in the region - and Somalia and Somaliland have not been spared. The many impacts of climate change, especially from droughts and floods, pose the most severe hazards. These are coupled with conflict and insecurity, resulting in severe vulnerability among exposed populations.

Economies and livelihoods in Somalia and Somaliland are dominated by agriculture, which means they are highly sensitive to climate change. For example, declining groundwater levels drive up water prices and increase the likelihood of conflict over water. And the inherent dry conditions in Somalia and Somaliland – which have been exacerbated by climate change – mean the region is prone to extreme drought, which leads to food insecurity. These impacts have increased the need for improved early warnings and early actions, especially for drought.

The Somali Red Crescent Society, in partnership with several government institutions and international NGOs, has been responding to weather- and conflict-related emergencies for many years. In late 2021, with support from the German Red Cross, it embarked on a forecast-based financing (FbF) project to introduce this mechanism in Somalia and Somaliland, with the aim of mitigating the impacts of drought on the most vulnerable communities.

The project will seek to put in place an early warning and early action system that enables the Somali Red Crescent Society, in partnership with government institutions and other humanitarian actors, to carry out predetermined actions prior to the peak of drought – and thus reduce the impacts on target populations.

The project's overall objective is to develop an early action protocol (EAP) that can be tested through a simulation exercise. The Somali Red Crescent Society will also be provided with resources and equipment to enable it to implement, update and manage its EAP. Capacity-strengthening and awareness-raising activities will also be necessary with the national stakeholders who will play a role in the development and the implementation of the EAP.

Outcomes and lessons learned

Key findings from the project will be shared here.