Strengthening Drought Resilience in the Somali Region

Pastoralists, whose livlihoods largely depend on livestock production, occupy most of the drylands of the Horn of Africa. The Somali Regional State (SRS) has an estimated population of about 4.5 million (mostly pastoralists), 85% of which live in rural areas. Small scale irrigated agriculture along river basins and rain-fed agriculture play a modest role as complementary income and nutrition sources. Advancing natural resources degradation, as a result of growing human and livestock pressure and the weakening of traditional natural resources management systems, has exposed these areas to increased vulnerability to both natural and manmade disasters. The drylands are affected by recurrent drought crisis, that of 2011 having been the worst in 60 years. As a result, grazing resources have been severely degraded,  becoming less productive and encroached by invasive unpalatable weed species. The absence of efficient early warning systems, poor infrastructure, limited access to markets as well as basic animal and human health services, have further exacerbated the decline or collapse of resilience mechanisms to drought and other shocks. In line with a regional commitment to end drought emergencies and build resilience under the auspices of the Intergovernmental Authority for Development, the Ethiopian Government has developed a Country Programming Paper and issued a new Disaster Risk Management Strategy. This Project targets 457’086, 277’560 and 109’718 people in respectively the Siti, Jigjiga and Gode zones of the SRS.

Target communities and responsible institutions in target districts (woredas) of the Somali Region implement drought resilience measures addressing the concerns of pastoralists and agro-pastoralists.

“Micro” level: Pastoral and agro pastoral communities in selected districts of Siti, Fafan and Gode zones.

“Meso” level: Key staff and Development Agents of the Bureau of Livestock, Crop and Rural Development.

“Macro” level: Government staff of the Ministry of Agriculture, natural resources and livestock sectors.

1. Context specific, conflict- and gender-sensitive natural resource rehabilitation and management approaches and technologies are identified and documented for upscaling, based on participatory pilots and analyses with pastoral and agro-pastoral communities in the target districts (woredas).
2. Context specific, conflict and gender sensitive interventions to improve pastoralist and agro-pastoralist livelihoods through productive use of natural resources are identified and documented for upscaling.
3. Targeted institutional actors are knowledgeable and capacitated to improve their service delivery in   approaches increasing drought resilience to improve their service delivery.

Erwartete Resultate:  

• Situation-adapted measures to rehabilitate degraded NR are developed in a participatory approach.
• Communities manage NRs according to conflict- and gender- sensitive agreements on NR use and user rights.
• Livelihood improvement measures are prioritized in a participatory manner.
• Community/clan-based organizations engage in livelihood improvement measures and households have diversified income sources.
• Training materials on drought resilience increasing measures are made available to relevant stakholders.
• Proven drought resilience strengthening measures are integrated into the Gode Polythecnic’s training schemes.

Resultate von früheren Phasen:  

There are no previous phases. However, experiences from an ongoing GIZ project in Afar reveal that (1) the steering and coordination structure of  natural resources (NR) management and drought resilience projects are evolving, and that (2) management, monitoring and technical capacities of regional partner institutions is very weak. This situation may slow down the implementation of the Project. During the Opening Phase, in addition to defining the geographic focus, assessments and analysis were conducted about land use systems, resource-based conflicts, livelihood profiles, institutional arrangements, gender, governance, risks and opportunities.

Ethiopian Ministry of Water Resources (MoWR), Somali Region Bureau of Water Resources (BoWR), Somali Region Pastoral and Agro-Pastoral Research Institute (SoRPARI).

The Project will complement the Sustainable Land Management Programme for Food Insecure and Pastoral Areas of the Ministry of Agriculture, whose development SDC is actively supporting. The experiences of other actors such as Save the Children will be used, and collaborative work relations forged. There will be considerable synergies and mutual reinforcement with the Capacity Development for Strengthening Drought Resilience Programme of the German Development Cooperation (GDC) in Afar.

Phase 1 01.02.2014 - 31.03.2020   (Completed)