By the end of 2017, 6.2 million people were in need of humanitarian assistance and over 1 million people internally displaced.
DINA, or Drought Impact and Needs Assessment It was within this context that the Somali Government—with the support of the United Nations (UN), the World Bank and the European Union (EU)—carried out an assessment (DINA, as above) of the impact of the 2017 drought on the lives and livelihoods of Somali people.
With government leadership, 180 sector experts from the Somali Government, the United Nations, the European Union, and the World Bank collected data across 18 sectors, incorporating existing data from the Somalia Humanitarian Needs Overview.
With damages amounting to $1.02 billion, and losses estimated at $2.23 billion, the DINA estimates that the total effect of the most recent drought in Somalia is expected to exceed $3.25 billion.
Total recovery needs are estimated at $1.77 billion.
Agriculture (irrigated and rain-fed crops) and urban development and municipal services are the most affected sectors, representing 28% and 17% of the total needs.
The EU, UN, and World Bank have worked on similar needs analysis and recovery frameworks since 2013, and their support complements both Somalia’s national priorities (through its National Development Plan and National Disaster Management Policy) and the Humanitarian Response Plan.
The RFF allows Somali institutions to build on existing efforts to strengthen their resilience to recurrent disaster.
The government also adopted the Somali National Disaster Management Policy that provides the legislative framework for disaster management within relevant government institutions, and improves disaster risk governance at federal and regional state levels.
Continuing humanitarian assistance and livelihood support to Somalia is vital in 2018, paralleled by development solutions that focus on job creation, access to finance, and support to public service delivery, to ensure that drought never turns to famine again.