Consortium Key Messages on Somalia (April 2016)

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1 Background The Somalia NGO Consortium is a membership organization of National and International NGOs working together to create an enabling environment for the efficient and effective delivery of humanitarian, development and peace building assistance to all Somali people. In Somalia, the humanitarian funding pot is ever declining while development funding such as the New Deal and private funding is tremendously increasing. Humanitarian Situation: Long term solutions must be found beyond urgent needs based on immediate and short term responses. There is need to preserve humanitarian space and support humanitarian access efforts; enhance accountability, transparency and risk management to ensure a well-balanced nation that effectively provides for the growth of the citizenry, as well as promoting the efforts of linking development strategies in Somalia. Somalia remains one of the most severe humanitarian crises in the world: There is need to do more to keep Somalia on the International radar (Currently Somalia s Humanitarian Response Plan is only 37% (recheck this figure please) funded). Adequate and timely funding remains critical if humanitarian actors are to effectively respond to the needs of the affected and the most vulnerable. Need to preserve humanitarian space and support humanitarian access efforts; enhance accountability, transparency and risk management. Drought Somalia is currently experiencing the most devastating drought following the one last witnessed in 2011/2012. According to the UN Office of the Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia, an estimated 4.7 million people or 40 per cent of the population are food insecure or in crisis. The extent of those affected by severe food insecurity remains alarmingly high. Some 3.7 million people are acutely food insecure and are in need of humanitarian assistance. This is on top of nearly 950,000 people who are in daily need of life-saving food assistance. That is two out of every five Somalis. Families are struggling to survive. Community water sources such as shallow wells, underground reservoirs (berkads), and water dams have dried up, and families are struggling to secure enough water for their daily needs. Existing boreholes are overstretched, and the price of buying water from local sellers has more than doubled. For most families, this means that water has become unaffordable, forcing many families to accumulate debts that might take years to repay. If the drought continues and the next rainy season fails again, the number of families facing severe food shortages could rise significantly just as community water resources near a breaking point. All stakeholders should ensure; There are established and strengthened linkages between humanitarian, resilience and development programs. Underlying causes, including the creation of conditions for durable solutions for displaced people have been addressed. The Government should address the water issues in some parts of Somalia and review water pricing mechanisms. Humanitarian Access Security and humanitarian access remain major challenges across Somalia. The military offensive launched by the Somalia National Armed Forces/AMISOM has not translated into safe and predictable humanitarian access to populations in need; in many areas it has further undermined access and contributed to the break of supply pipelines. The offensive has restricted farmers from accessing their fields at a crucial planting time. Access to supply routes remains severely limited in the urban towns taken over by AMISOM and the Somali forces, as these routes are controlled by militants who continue to restrict access. Trade flows are largely blocked, making basic goods in markets much harder to come by and much more expensive when available. Areas that have experienced military combat operations face significant governance challenges. Vulnerable populations in these and all other areas of Somalia have the right to humanitarian assistance. 1 P a g e

2 There are inclusive Government-led initiatives that involve all actors that will promote sustainable peace building and development. That the rights of people in Somalia are safeguarded by all parties to the conflict to ensure an enabling environment for aid agencies to operate. Education: Access to education is a right. It requires more and better funding that is timely, predictable, flexible and agile enough to be made available quickly while at the same time adapts to the context and can support a longer term response and recovery. Funding should be based on need as one of the most underfunded sectors, there is a tendency in education to request less funding through pooled mechanisms and as a result, more children are left without access to education. The need to strengthen the capacity of existing systems, structures and organizations, including national governments, NGOs, and the Education Cluster is key in education improvement in Somalia. Investments aimed at risk reduction, conflict sensitivity and preparedness must increase and move beyond access to improving and sustaining learning even in crisis. Education alignment with the wider education aid, architecture, policy and practice to bridge the humanitarian/development divide. Wider structural and political barriers to effective Education in Emergencies provision particularly among refugee and host communities and ensure inter-sectoral programs and interventions remain a priority to address the full-spectrum of needs in crisis contexts. Health: The health sector in Somalia is currently in a fragile state. As of January 2016, approximately ten hospitals have either been closed or have curtailed their services across the country, and basic health posts and clinics are currently struggling to meet primary health needs. Funding to the sector has significantly reduced resulting in minimized services and coverage to areas of need. Inconsistent funding and varying interests in supporting the health sector in Somalia has brought it almost to a definitive halt irrespective of there being an immense need in the sector. As at the end of 2015, there was a 61% drop in funding for healthcare compared to funding allocations made three years before. Only 41% of the overall funding requested for the 2015 Somalia Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) was met; this resulted to significant unmet gaps within the health sector. The Under Five and Maternal Mortality rates in Somalia are amongst the highest in the world; one out of every seven Somali children dies before celebrating their fifth birthday (137 deaths/1,000 live births) with a higher number in southern and central Somalia. The WHO estimates 3.2 million people in need of urgent access to minimum health services in Somalia. Every three hours a Somali mother dies due to pregnancy complications; and every hour, eight Somali children below the age of 5 die. There is immediate response especially in strategy planning around health sector sustainability required to boost and uplift the existing and struggling hospitals. Boosting of the already struggling health posts and clinics is paramount. Advocacy around long term funding that will ensure that there is well replenished hospitals and enabled access to medical care is implemented. Protection Civilians bear the brunt of the protracted armed conflict and insecurity. Efforts to protect civilians are severely restricted particularly in south-central Somalia and the disputed regions in North Somalia Sool and Sanaag. The Federal Government lacks control of some towns and many rural areas in the Southern parts of Somalia. Where the State is present, its capacity and institutions remain weak as demonstrated by attacks against civilians. Recorded atrocities by armed groups including warring factions/militias but also AMISOM and the Somalia National Armed Forces raise serious concerns. Funding gaps currently being experienced have reduced protection, prevention and response programming. This coupled with limited State assistance to the population mean many vulnerable civilians have limited access to protection. A meaningful and financed protection programming that is mainstreamed and 2 P a g e

3 adequately monitored is therefore needed to minimize civilian harm and hold relevant actors accountable to their conduct. Protection of the safety, dignity and rights of displaced communities is reinforced through response mechanisms that are grounded in a legal framework that upholds the rule of law. These processes are best strengthened during transition and within development processes and serve to mitigate the risk of relapse into conflict and subsequent demand for humanitarian interventions, which come at a high social and economic cost requiring lengthy periods of investment into recovery processes and missed opportunities for Somalia s youth population. Sexual offences and Gender based Violence (SGBV) Gender-based Violence (GBV) remains a serious concern, particularly for women and girls in Somalia. The protective environment remains weak for the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and civilians affected by the clan conflicts, regions where the military offensives by the AMISOM and Somali National Army against the rights violations may be extreme due to the increased insecurity, weak rule of law, lack of humanitarian access, and frequent natural hazards. The protracted conflict has increased the risks of IDPs) and the minorities and the host population. That they closely work with children and women s rights organizations through extensive outreach and continuous community engagement. Promotion of consistent communications through development of harmonized and validation of GBV messages, IEC/BCC materials and advocacy notes as well as capacity building of national and GBV sub cluster actors on the use of messages and materials Durable solutions for displacement affected communities 1 More than 1.1 million Somalis are currently internally displaced and a further 1 million have sought refuge in neighboring countries. Although most have been displaced for several years or even decades, few have access to durable solution such as returns, resettlements or (re)integration support.. The continued instability in South Central Somalia and lack of access to basic services and livelihood opportunities particularly in rural areas also limits the type of durable solutions that are feasible in line with a rights and needs based approach and will require an increased discussion around (re) integration and resettlement. Direct engagement of displacement affected communities to ensure their ownership and support, in order to make these solutions lasting, locally relevant and feasible Creation of durable solutions with a multi-sectoral, rights and needs based programming approach as well as strong coordination and leadership from the Government and the RC/HC office to bring together humanitarian and development actors. The inclusion of displacement populations and durable solutions in the National Development Plan is key for getting Political will and longer term investment from development actors are critical to find durable solutions for displacement affected communities in Somalia and the displaced populations out of Somalia that fled for safety reasons, for instance in Kenya and Yemen Remittances A high percentage of Somalis rely on money sent from relatives and friends overseas to meet their basic needs, making these remittances a key lifeline that must be protected, particularly in light of the high levels of need in the country and few alternative livelihood opportunities. Every year, Somalia receives approximately $1.3 billion in remittances money sent from the Somali diaspora to loved ones back home. Remittances account for between 25 and 1 Displacement affected communities include IDPs, refugees, returnees and host communities needs and aspirations. 3 P a g e

4 45 percent of Somalia s economy and exceed the amount it receives in humanitarian aid, development aid and foreign direct investment combined 2. Dialogue is enhanced to address stringent regulatory frameworks that have led foreign banks to close the accounts of Somali money transfer operators. Immediate measures are put place to ensure remittances continue to flow to Somalia, while long-term, sustainable solutions are developed in close collaboration with Somali authorities. Bureaucratic Impediments and the enabling environment NGOs are increasingly facing bureaucratic impediments that hinder effective program delivery. The NGO community acknowledges that governments cannot function without taxation, registration and policy, however the basis for many of these requests are unfounded, duplicated within states by different regions, and are contributing to reducing the humanitarian space in which we operate. Additionally, restrictions on recruitment processes, contracting and tendering continue to hinder aid agencies from accessing and assisting people in need by delaying program implementation. UN OCHA, the RC/HC and the HCT have been collaborating with the Somalia NGO Consortium on addressing these concerns and some promising steps have been made in tackling these issues by the Federal Government. However more needs to be done and local authorities and national governments must streamline and clarify administrative systems that cause unnecessary delays, sometimes bringing humanitarian programs to a halt. That they support the capacity of the Somalia authorities to draw up a realistic, clear and appropriate framework for engagement with NGOs, and ensure there is adequate consultation with INGOs during the process in order to ensure alignment with humanitarian principles 3. That the Somali local authorities and National Government should streamline and clarify administrative systems in order to avoid unnecessary delays, duplication and unwarranted interference, all of which can sometimes bring humanitarian programs to a halt; and hold the Somali government accountable for any restrictions. Donors should also play a central role in holding the Somali governments accountable and supporting authorities through critical capacity building. Peace and Security Peace and security strategy is prioritized hence creating a sustainable and secure environment for Somali women, men and youth, with an unwavering commitment to do no harm. This means adopting comprehensive Somali-led strategies to build conditions for sustainable peace, including all-inclusive political dialogue; supporting good governance at the local, Federal Member State, and federal levels; addressing inequalities; building the resilience of the Somali people through proactive and sustainable livelihood support; and increasing the capacity of local people to learn, adapt, cope and recover from stresses and shocks. Any military strategy is integrated into such a system for meaningful long-term results and peace to be achieved for all Humanitarian Action and Development Linkages Messages The role of humanitarian and development actors should remain complimentary. The first call of humanitarian actors is to save lives and provide basic services in a neutral and impartial manner. This must remain uncompromised. However, the responsibility of development actors and the International community to facilitate the restoration of social contracts, stability, safety and security, functional political processes and economic growth is vital and must be sustained in Somalia; Humanitarian actors provide basic needs and build capacities that facilitate displaced communities to cope with future emergencies. They build resilience at community levels while development interventions aim to build resilience at political levels. Both levels are critical. 2 HANGING BY A THREAD, The ongoing threat to Somalia s remittance lifeline (JOINT AGENCY BRIEFING NOTE- Oxfam, ADESO and Global Center on Cooperative Security) ( ) 3 Somalia UK NGO briefing, February P a g e

5 Resilience building by humanitarian actors affirms greater commitment from donors, to ensure that this acts as pre-curser to a solid foundation required for stabilization processes to take off. A solid policy environment for humanitarian agencies is in place for ease of operation. NGO policies need to be informed by objectivity and the needs of the end-users, that is, the displaced populations who are most vulnerable and require urgent assistance. Conducive policies and an enabling legal environment that facilitates humanitarian interventions as partners in long-term development processes should remain a top priority, in line with the government of Somalia s commitment of saving lives. National Development plan In October 2015, the Federal Government of Somalia launched the National Development Plan. The plan will be implemented from 2017 to 2019 after the implementation of the New Deal Compact, which will end in The purpose of the Somalia National Development Plan ( ) is to provide guidance to the national authorities, the International partners and other stakeholders (private sector, civil societies and citizens at large) to Somalia in shaping a medium term strategic framework to build upon achievements of the past few years, further strengthen the (emerging) state structures, create a favorable environment for private and non-government sector development, and importantly - bring the benefits of the development efforts to its citizens. Partners and organizations engage more actively with the development plan process to influence outcomes that will provide a favorable atmosphere for NGOs and all partners to work in an independent and proficient environment while promoting the efforts of the National development plan in Somalia El Niño and la Niña El Niño is already upon us, but it will be a rolling disaster that will continue over the coming months. Investments made now and in the future will also have an enormous return in human and financial terms ahead of the possible La Niña, which historical patterns show sometimes follows an El Niño and has an even greater overall humanitarian impact Disaster risk reduction and preparedness activities should continue beyond the El Niño period. The region is prone to seasonal floods and recurrent drought even outside El Niño years. Development funding should be programmed for early recovery as a strong El Niño is historically often followed by a La Niña Need for strong political leadership at the National and Regional level to increase International visibility and funding. Investments in longer-term risk and vulnerability reduction should be increased in countries like Somalia most at risk of being affected by El Niño. Development funding should be programmed and diversified to include early recovery and humanitarian interventions. Investments in longer-term risk and vulnerability reduction should be increased in countries like Somalia most at risk of being affected by El Niño. 5 P a g e