Summary: The drought response operation was initiated by IFRC in January 2011 as part of a scaled up Somalia Annual Country Plan 2011 to respond to the drought situation in Somaliland and Puntland. The funds secured in early January 2011 enabled International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent (IFRC) and Somali Red Crescent Society (SRCS) to kick start the operation in April 2011. However, the general food security situation in Somalia deteriorated in July 2011 which led the United Nations to declare famine in Southern Somalia. The increased hardship in Southern and Central Somalia coupled with increased insecurity forced many people to move Northward seeking refuge in Puntland and Somaliland. The severe drought situation and acute shortage of food and water prompted the IFRC/SRCS to launch an Emergency Appeal on 23 September 2011.
By the end of April 2013, most of the objectives and activities of the Emergency Appeal had been achieved. This include procurement and distribution of Non-Food Items(NFIs), procurement of medical supplies, procurement of vehicles for the mobile health clinics, water sources rehabilitation, fuel subsidy to run boreholes, food rations for boarding schools and orphanages to keep children in school, livelihoods support to fishing communities and strengthening the National Society response capacity.
IFRC Somalia Country Representation commissioned a final external evaluation which was undertaken in the month of May 2013. Recommendations from the exercise include; the need to develop a national water programme strategy and guidelines; water management capacity building of SRCS staff, development of a participatory NFI distribution strategy, community resilience interventions including primary health care interventions and development of a national health programme including mobile clinics.
The main lessons learned /recommendations from the external evaluation;
Water Strategy: There is a need for IFRC/SRCS to develop a national water programme strategy and guidelines with a clear linkage to enhancing community resilience.
HR for water resources: The skills and knowledge of the SRCS staff in the area of water management and inputs would need to be strengthened.
Non-Food Items distribution and targeting: An appropriate NFI composition/ distribution strategy needs to be developed by IFRC/SRCS in order to maximize the appropriate targeting of needy communities with timely and necessary items that are more accurately suitable to the local culture, lifestyle and climatic requirements based on beneficiary consultations.
Livelihoods support to vulnerable communities: SRCS / IFRC should conduct a detailed vulnerability / needs-assessment of coastal Internally Displaced Person communities and develop sustainable strategies for enhancing the resilience of these groups with the aim to improve their livelihoods.
Large scale / multi-year funding, long term investment in building community resilience: The SRCS/ IFRC and Partner National Societies (PNSs) should develop a large-scale multi-year plan focused on addressing national primary health care coverage and drought related disaster risk reduction /and building resilience for vulnerable communities.
Mobile Health Clinics operation: SRCS/IFRC should de-link the mobile health clinics operation funding from the emergency response funding. Using the lessons learned from this operation,
SRCS/IFRC should explore the possibilities for developing the mobile health clinics operation into a national programme until the time the government is fully competent to take the role of the National Health Service.