February 2024 — Drought conditions have worsened significantly across Somalia following three consecutive failed rainy seasons and a poor performance of the 2021 (October to December) rainy season1. As of 17 December, local authorities and humanitarian actors throughout the country had reported that more than 3.2 million people in 66 of the country’s 74 districts are affected by drought, of whom 169,000 people are displaced in search of water, food and pasture. The current drought diminished coping capacities and a lack of access to basic services in hard hit areas left many people in a dire situation that requires various attention and support to build resilience. According to the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) Somalia Gender Based Violence (GBViE) Brief January to March 2022 – it is believed this situation has deteriorated since then.

Lack of access to adequate specialized services for Gender-based violence (GBV) and child protection (CP) mitigation and response in emergencies will lead to loss of lives of women and girls in the long term and exclude them as equitable stakeholders in Somaliland development. Affected women and girls may are more vulnerable to forced marriage including child marriage and exchange of sex for food and/or livelihood.

The inadequate access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene facilities has heightened the risk of disease outbreaks, especially in internally displaced person (IDP) camps. So far Health Cluster partners have reported an increase in suspected cases of Acute Watery Diarrhoea (AWD) and Cholera in several districts.

With the support of UNICEF, the Women Action for Advocacy and Progress Organization (WAAPO) implemented an integrated emergency response program (SBC, WASH, CP/GBV) for drought-affected communities, including Lascanod conflict-affected areas. The program ran for six months (March to August 2023) and covered four regions: Sool (including Lascanod), Sanag, Togdheer, and Marodijeex. The community engagement component which the SBC Program financed aimed to get a “Reduction in death and illness through the promotion of healthy behaviour and demand for lifesaving services: Using the social & behaviour change approach.” The object was to strengthen protection, social and behavioural change, and accountability to the affected population, encourage positive social norms and behaviours and to protect the most vulnerable women, girls and children who have been severely affected by drought and conflict.

UNICEF Somalia fully funded the implementation of the Integrated Humanitarian Program Document (HPD) to provide multifaceted assistance to emergency-affected populations in Sool and Sanaag regions throughout the project. Moreover, the UNICEF SBC section provided technical guidance and capacity-building support related to SBC approaches and tools to WAAPO-SBC field staff.

WAAPO frontline workers conducted community empowerment workshops, home visits, creative community outreach, health education sessions, and school-based campaigns to promote positive social norms, prevent violence, address gender equality and discrimination, and mobilize communities about the social and economic impacts of gender inequity while promoting awareness related to their health and wellbeing.

The frontline team conducted various outreach activities to raise awareness and educate the community on health hazards during the drought, thereby promoting health behaviours and essential health services. Efforts were also made to enhance accountability to the affected population through training and establishment of feedback mechanisms. In addition, the UNICEF team conducted joint site visits and monitoring to provide feedback, lessons learned, and areas of improvement to WAAPO and community-based frontline workers.

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