Somalia Appeal
Humanitarian Action for Children
UNICEF’s Humanitarian Action for Children appeal helps support the agency’s work as it provides conflict- and disaster-affected children with access to water, sanitation, nutrition, education, health and protection services. Return to main appeal page.
Somalia snapshot
Appeal highlights
- In addition to climatic shocks, people in Somalia continue to experience conflict, disease outbreaks and poverty. In 2024, humanitarian assistance is required for 8.3 million people, including 5.1 million children.
- The nutritional status of 1.5 million children under age 5 remains concerning, with acute wasting projected until July 2024. About 8 million people face water shortages, which have caused a spike in cholera cases.
- As part of its commitment to address emerging and ongoing humanitarian needs, UNICEF will channel efforts towards emergency preparedness, bolster its field presence, foster localization and ensure accountability to the affected population. UNICEF’s programme will strengthen the integration of gender equality, protection from sexual exploitation and abuse and prevention of and response to gender-based violence in emergencies.
- UNICEF prioritizes strengthening resilience building, providing integrated services in hard-to-reach areas, enhancing response monitoring and fortifying its leadership role in cluster coordination.
- UNICEF is appealing for $222.2 million to support 3.2 million people, including 2 million children, with integrated health, WASH, education and child protection interventions.
Key planned targets
1.5 million children and women accessing primary health care
330,630 children with severe wasting admitted for treatment
300,000 children accessing formal or non-formal education, including early learning
3.2 million people reached with critical WASH supplies
Funding requirements for 2024
Country needs and strategy
Humanitarian needs
Due to ongoing conflict, instability, drought, floods and disease outbreaks, 8.3 million Somalis, including 4.1 million girls and women and 1.2 million people with disabilities, urgently need humanitarian assistance. The displacement of 3.8 million individuals has further intensified the existing humanitarian crisis.
Although the 2023 Gu (April, May and June) rains and humanitarian aid have provided some relief, significant food insecurity in Somalia is projected to persist. An estimated 4.3 million people could be experiencing crisis level (IPC Phase 3) food insecurity or worse, and more than a million people might be at an emergency level (IPC Phase 4) through 2023. From August 2023 to July 2024, around 1.5 million children under age 5, roughly equivalent to 40 per cent of Somalia's under-five child population, are projected to experience acute wasting . This includes about 330,630 severe cases.
The IGAD Climate Prediction and Applications Centre predicts above-average rainfall in October, especially in the Shabelle and Juba rivers, due to a forecast El Niño and positive Indian Ocean Dipole, potentially causing floods that may affect around 1.8 million individuals.
In Somalia, such factors as clan conflicts, political instability, military operations against Al-Shabaab and the withdrawal of the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia contribute to heightened insecurity and instability. The increased insecurity might amplify difficulties with humanitarian access while heightening the risk of grave violations against children. Al-Shabaab is also anticipated to intensify targeted attacks. This could result in civilian displacements and further deteriorate the humanitarian situation. Of the 1,487,000 newly displaced people in 2023, 592,000 were displaced due to violence and insecurity.
Somali children suffer most from the country's ongoing drought, floods, instability and conflict. Recruitment by armed groups, physical violence, sexual abuse and abduction are the prevailing risks to children. In 2022, 2,783 grave violations were officially recorded, impacting 2,282 children (79 per cent boys). According to the Education Cluster, there are 4.8 million out-of-school children aged 5–17 years in 2023. School attendance rates for newly displaced children are as low as 21 per cent, compared with 39 per cent for children who are not displaced. Children with disabilities face additional educational barriers, including a lack of awareness, specialized teachers, supportive classroom assistance and suitable infrastructure.
Approximately half of Somalis face a shortage of sustainable and safe water for drinking and other household needs, which has increased acute watery diarrhoea/cholera cases. In 2023, 29 drought-affected districts reported 13,000 cholera cases and 31 fatalities.
UNICEF’s strategy
UNICEF works with the Government, civil society organizations, United Nations agencies and the private sector at the federal and subnational levels to ensure risk-informed essential social service provision. A key partner in coordination of the humanitarian response in Somalia, UNICEF leads the Nutrition Cluster in partnership with the World Food Programme, the WASH Cluster with Polish Humanitarian Action and the Child Protection Area of Responsibility and the Education Cluster with Save the Children International. To enhance decentralized service delivery, UNICEF has three field offices and five remote hubs.
Understanding marginalized groups' social, political and economic dynamics, and supporting them to overcome key obstacles, remains a key commitment. UNICEF will continue to expand its programmatic engagement with local organizations in 2024. In addition, UNICEF will focus on improving the quality of its humanitarian programming, mainstreaming protection from sexual exploitation and abuseand prioritizing vulnerable population groups, including people with disabilities. A systematic gender lens will be applied to all analyses and in programme design. UNICEF will continue supporting conflict-sensitive service delivery in priority hard-to-reach areas. The humanitarian response will bolster climate change resilience in communities and systems through programmes promoting local solutions and community capacity-building.
UNICEF launched its Data Readiness for Improved Preparedness initiative in 2022 to increase humanitarian risk and response monitoring. UNICEF will transition towards GeoSight, an advanced geospatial information system, in 2024. The platform enhances data readiness for improved risk and humanitarian response monitoring, including for post-distribution aid diversion. Moreover, UNICEF has put into action a mitigation work plan for such diversion, which is composed of six pillars devised to boost risk identification and facilitate the deployment of mitigation measures.
UNICEF plans to continue delivering health, nutrition and WASH interventions against a backdrop of strained public services. Programmes include nutritional support for children, pregnant women and lactating mothers; improving water and sanitation access; and providing humanitarian cash transfers. UNICEF plans to strengthen such child protection interventions as case management, psychosocial support, gender-based violence response and reintegration support for children released from or fleeing armed groups. A sustained focus will be on providing education in emergencies, creating opportunities for children to access education (including establishing safe learning spaces), providing teaching and learning materials and employing cash-based interventions.
UNICEF aims to make U-Report a standard platform for community engagement in Somalia. UNICEF adheres to its accountability to affected populations principles by involving people in decision-making and providing information and a safe avenue for complaints and by using people's feedback in programme designs. The dissemination of key messages for social and behaviour change will continue in 2024.
Programme targets
Find out more about UNICEF's work
Highlights
Humanitarian Action is at the core of UNICEF’s mandate to realize the rights of every child. This edition of Humanitarian Action for Children – UNICEF’s annual humanitarian fundraising appeal – describes the ongoing crises affecting children in Somalia; the strategies that we are using to respond to these situations; and the donor support that is essential in this response.