05-04-2023 | di COOPI

In Somalia, the "Crisis Modifier" works

To alleviate the ongoing drought in Somalia, the SomRep Consortium, of which COOPI – Cooperazione Internazionale is a member, is successfully using the "Crisis modifier", a tool that allows families to access 3 months' funding, cope with the immediate needs following a disaster (such as a missed rainfall) and remain in their homes.

Proof of this is the intervention implemented by COOPI in Baidoa, one of the districts most affected by the drought and whose access to food is hampered by poor agricultural production. Here COOPI, as part of the Consortium project 'Consolidating Resilience in Somalia, Phase 5', financed by the Swiss Cooperation, has helped to reduce by 36% the number of families that have adopted extreme coping mechanisms in recent months, such as selling their livelihood assets or displacement.

The SomRep Consortium itself, in the first quarter of 2022, was able to deploy its Crisis Modifier reaching 20,213 people through cash assistance, water point rehabilitation and emergency water transportation, thus protecting resilience gains and covering 33% of the most vulnerable households.

Today, due to the continuing crisis, despite significant gains through the efforts of aid workers, the coping capacities of the population are slowly eroding: after experiencing five consecutive rainy season failures, the prediction remains that the situation will deteriorate further during the Deyr season of 2022. The ability to respond on a larger scale and meet the needs that have emerged from the prolonged drought is therefore becoming limited due to funding constraints.

COOPI, in collaboration with the Somali Resilience Program consortium (SomRep) of which it is a member, composed of 8 international NGOs, is launching an appeal to continue response and recovery activities in the current locations, but also to reach out to the most affected areas, such as the districts of Baidoa, and Bakool, in the Bay region.

The crowdfunding campaign is called "Who is my neighbour?" and revolves around a very topical theme: today the world is much smaller and because of this we are better (as well as immediately) connected to our fellow human beings around the world. In this sense, it becomes crucial to assess the very perspective of distance in a new light: a person who is far away from the world is in fact my neighbour, my next-door neighbour, and his or her well-being also becomes central to my concerns.

On the campaign website, it is possible to support a family of five for as little as 9 euro by providing water, flour, oil and pulses.