Financing climate adaptation in fragile states: A case of Somalia

This policy brief, produced as part of Supporting Pastoralism and Agriculture in Recurrent and Protracted Crises (SPARC), outlines some of the key actions the Federal Government of Somalia, and development and humanitarian partners financing climate-related activities can take to accelerate climate action.

Somalia is highly vulnerable to climate hazards, including those made worse by climate change. Despite this, the country receives little climate finance. The drought that began in the country in 2021, which continued at the time of writing in May 2023, and the resulting famine have affected the lives of 6.6 million people or more (IPC, 2023). People in the country face extreme challenges: from loss of livelihoods to hunger, misery, illness and death. All of this is difficult to monetise.

The increase in humanitarian appeals – from US$1.09 billion in 2021 to US$2.27 billion in 2022 (OCHA, 2022) – reflects the need for greater financial support to provide critical resources to these vulnerable people.

The Federal Government of Somalia, and development and humanitarian partners recognise that both slow onset climate stresses and rapid-onset climate shocks exacerbate Somalia’s fragile polity, economy and society. Bilateral and multilateral funding has been vital to financing climate-related activities in Somalia, but there are missed opportunities in acquiring funding and using the scarce finance effectively.

This policy brief identifies entry points of action and recommendations that development and humanitarian actors and the Federal Government can adopt to enable and accelerate access to resources. These recommendations, which aim to build government capacity and improve the quality and relevance of climate adaptation, include:

Key Recommendations

Strengthening the role and capacity of Somalia’s National Designated Agency (NDA), the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MoECC), and relevant government ministries is vital. This requires strengthening leadership and advocacy across government entities involved in climate action.
Somalia needs to expand the number and spatial coverage of automated weather stations, groundwater stations and river gages under the Somali Water and Land Information Management system to collect weather data and be able to monitor climate change trends. This can assist Somalia in moving beyond short-term responses to current climate shocks to incorporating adaptation into policies, strategies and projects across all sectors.
A multi-stakeholder coordination group should be established to address climate adaptation which includes all actors in the development sector and the humanitarian sector. Currently these actors – and the government – work in siloes, at a time when effective financial support and resource allocation is needed. Key stakeholders must reach a common understanding of the country’s needs to avoid duplication of efforts, and to combine expertise and knowledge, to access more finance and to improve project implementation.

Authors: Adriana Quevedo, Bahar Ali Kazmi, Faisa Loyaan, Manisha Gulati, Michelle Spearing, Mauricio Vazquez, Nancy Balfour, Sarah Opitz-Stapleton, Yue Cao