The government of Somalia, the United Nations and humanitarian partners have launched the 2020 Somalia Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP).
The plan requires US$1.03 billion to provide life-saving assistance and livelihood support to 3 million people.
“The Federal Government of Somalia is fully committed to working with all humanitarian agencies operating in the country to implement the 2020 Humanitarian Response Plan,” said Hamza Said Hamza, Minister for Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management.
“The response plan complements ongoing government efforts to address the humanitarian and livelihood crises in the country.”
The people targeted for assistance include 1.7 million people displaced by conflict, insecurity, forced evictions, droughts and floods.
According to the HRP, more than half of Somalia’s population live below the poverty line. Among poor agro-pastoral, marginalised and displaced communities, huge food and nutrition gaps exist.
Severe acute malnutrition rates among children are high with some areas having Global Acute Malnutrition rates of over 20 per cent (above the WHO emergency threshold of 15 per cent).
People with disabilities, an estimated 15 per cent of the population, are more at risk of violence and abuse.
“As we implement the HRP, the UN and its partners are working to ensure that emergency and development assistance complement each other in line with the Government development plan in order to achieve long-term recovery and resilience,” said Adam Abdulmoula, Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia.
“That means we must increasingly focus on the humanitarian-development nexus to stimulate long-term development and to address the underlying causes of Somalia’s crises.”
The HRP focuses on four core objectives: reduce the prevalence of acute malnutrition and health needs; meet the basic needs of people across 74 districts; strengthen protection, right to safety and dignity; and enhance capacity of IDPs and non-IDPs to cope with significant shocks.
The plan aims to provide food assistance monthly to 2.1 million people, support access to education for more than 300,000 children, provide health assistance to 2.5 million people, deliver safe water to more than 1.2 million people and non-food items to 1.24 million people, and address conflict-related protection concerns including the risk of gender-based violence.
This year, the total HRP funding requirement has decreased by 11 per cent (or US$120 million) from $1.12 billion in 2019 to $1.03 billion.
While the total number of people in need has increased by 19 per cent (or 1 million people) from 4.2 million in 2109 to 5.2 million people, the total targeted population has decreased by 12 per cent (or 400,000 people), from 3.4 million in 2019 to 3 million people (58 per cent of the 5.2 million people in need of humanitarian assistance).
