FAO Somalia Drought Action Plan 2019

FAO seeks USD 144 million to assist more than 6 million rural Somalis affected by the drought. This includes 2 million people to receive direct food security and livelihood support, while delivering emergency veterinary care to 32.7 million livestock belonging to around 4.3 million people. This Action Plan builds on priorities set within the 2019 HRP, adjusting FAO’s activities and targets to address the growing needs in areas worst impacted by the drought.

The Plan has three overarching priorities.

1. Increase food access and protect rural livelihoods, through cash‑for‑work and emergency livelihood packages for farmers, pastoralists and coastal communities, integrating unconditional cash transfers wherever possible (cash+).
2. Protect livestock assets, through supplementary animal feeding, water trucking, supply of water bladders and countrywide supportive treatment, followed by vaccination against contagious caprine pleuropneumonia (CCPP).
3. Mitigate new shocks, including by providing regional stocks of veterinary supplies, river embankment repair, and strengthening local preparedness against food-chain threats (e.g. fall armyworm).

The prioritized activities are time‑bound to seasonal calendars and are therefore extremely urgent. Cash assistance must be scaled up rapidly to save lives, especially in remote rural areas. Seeds and other farm inputs must reach poor farmers in the north by July 2019: if they miss the Karan planting window, their next main cereal harvest would be pushed to November 2020. Assistance to pastoralists is also time critical.

The combination of veterinary services, feed and water supply is needed immediately to keep livestock alive and producing milk, meat and income for poor households relying on their animals to survive.