On 30, August, a polio and measles immunization campaign that seeks to vaccinate close to 460,000 underfive children against the deadly diseases was launched in Mogadishu. The campaign continued until 3 September. The campaign is being conducted by the Ministry of Health with technical support from the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and other Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) partners. It also provided vitamin A supplements and de-worming tablets to children all amid a COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr Mamunur Malik, WHO Somalia Representative, emphasized to Somali communities that every adult has a responsibility to help Somali children live healthy lives. “I would like to encourage parents, caregivers and all adults in Banadir region and surrounding areas to make the most of this opportunity and visit vaccination sites to ensure every child under age 5 is vaccinated against polio and measles, and that every child receives additional supplements to keep them healthy. As caregivers, we all have an obligation to ensure our children live healthy and productive lives,” said Dr Malik.

According to WHO, 744 children in Banadir have reportedly been infected with measles since the beginning of the year, which accounts for around half the total number of cases in the country. Three cases of poliovirus were also recorded in Banadir region. Measles is a highly contagious respiratory infection that causes high fever and rash; it spreads easily in densely populated areas. It commonly affects children who have not been vaccinated. Children who are malnourished are at greater risk. Complications of measles include severe and prolonged diarrhea, pneumonia, blindness, encephalitis and deaths. “As the COVID-19 response continues, it is critical that immunization drives are sustained at the same time,” says Penelope Campbell, Chief of Health, UNICEF Somalia. “Measles and polio are vaccine-preventable diseases and through this campaign, we can stop the further spread of these outbreaks and save the lives of countless children.”

During the campaign, 407,956 children between 6 months and five years (92 per cent of the target) received measles vaccine while 459,456 (93 per cent of the target) were vaccinated against polio. A total of 224 District Field Assistants supervised more than 3,000 vaccinators in the field in addition to the monitors from the Ministry of Health, WHO and UNICEF. Vaccinators and supervisors were following COVID-19 guidelines during the campaign implementation. The campaign aims to stem the transmission of measles infection and reduce the likelihood of future measles outbreaks in Somalia. Adding polio vaccine to the campaign will also help to bolster protection against polio virus type 1 and 3 among Somali children. A total of 17 positive polio cases were so far reported in the country in 2020. More than 600 teams with skilled community vaccinators, frontline health workers and social mobilizers implemented the campaign.

A Swiss Development Cooperation-funded resilience programme targeting nearly 22,000 people intended to enhance community’s resistance to shocks was launched in Baidoa by South West State authorities and partners. The basic objective of the programme is to minimize the adverse effects of drought on the production of crops and livestock and productivity of land, water and human resources thereby ultimately leading to the drought proofing of the affected areas. The program aims at improving the overall capacity of households to implement effective disaster risk management and positive coping strategies to mitigate the immediate effect of exposure to shock by improving the socio-economic condition of the resource poor and disadvantaged sections of the communities. The programme is implemented by Somali Resilience programme (SomRep) Consortium. Members of SomReP include Action Against Hunger (AAH), Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA), CARE Somalia, Cooperazione Internazionale (COOPI), Danish Refugee Council (DRC), Oxfam Somalia and World Vision Somalia.

South West State Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management, Honorable Abdinaser Abdi Arush, who spoke at the launch of the event in Baidoa stated the need to build community resilience to withstand climatic shocks by fighting poverty which remains to be a key barrier to people’s recovery.

Agencies implementing this programme will empower producers to overcome existing constraints of limited skills and agricultural inputs, unfair trading practices, limited agronomic capacity, transaction cost, and infrastructure barriers such as limited irrigation and water. To boost productivity of existing livelihoods, the programme will increase access to drought-tolerant inputs, veterinary services and improved animal feed. Improved productivity will create new opportunities with enterprises which spring up as a result of valued added to an agricultural product. The programme is expected to generate income from agricultural value chains beyond production, and prepare women and youth with capacities to take up new strategies by equipping them with skills, networks and strategies through savings groups, vocational training, business and life skills training.

Somalia is one of the most complex humanitarian crises in the world. The long-standing insecurity and protracted humanitarian crises have hindered resilience-building efforts, leaving the population highly vulnerable to shocks, particularly women and girls, older people, people with different types of disabilities and single-headed households. The overlap of conflict and climatic disasters has repeatedly displaced hundreds of thousands of people in recent years, with vulnerable groups disproportionately affected.

Loss of employment and the struggle to meet needs during the COVID-19 pandemic - the story of Halima

Halima Hassan Ahmed 43, is a head of household of her family of eight children in Mogadishu. Farming was her only source of income for the past 30 years before she fled Lower Shabelle in 2018 due to recurrent droughts displacing thousands of families. Together with her eight children she lives in Elberde IDP settlement in Mogadishu’s Kahda district in Banadir region. For the past three years, Halima has worked as a casual laborer earning US$3 a day to support her family’s daily basic needs. This stopped in March when the first case of COVID-19 was announced in Mogadishu. Nowhere to go, she resorted to send her children to beg. Movement restrictions imposed by authorities made their situation worse. “I had to remain in the IDP site in the first few months of the pandemic because I could not go to the city to wash clothes for the families living in the town. They feared contracting the virus. This is because IDP settlements are seen COVID-19 hotspots.” She added.

The plight of families, including Halima’s family, was reported to a RAHO NGO and Halima was among 60 selected beneficiaries for food distribution. Her family received a complete food package composed of 25 kg of rice, 25 kg of wheat flour, 10 kg of pasta, 3 liters of vegetable oil and 2.5kg of powder milk.

Between January and August 2020, more than 885,000 people were displaced, largely due to floods and conflict. This is nearly 70 per cent higher than figures recorded for the same period in 2019. According to the UNHCR/NRC-led Protection Return and Monitoring Network (PRMN), more than 627,872 people were newly displaced by floods in 2020. Armed conflict and insecurity have also uprooted an estimated 175,194 people from their homes.

Evictions, sometimes forced with little or no warning, also continues to be reported with an estimated 97,624 displaced persons affected between January and August this year. Of these, some 63,930 people were evicted in Mogadishu alone. This is lower than the figures recorded in the first half of the year due to prevention steps taken by the humanitarian partners. A total of 20,831 evictions were prevented between February and May 2020. Humanitarian partners continue to provide life-saving, livelihood support and to advocate for durable solutions for internally displaced persons. In July, the Shelter Cluster assisted nearly 1,800 persons with standard household kits comprising of plastic sheets, blankets, jerry cans, sleeping mats and kitchen sets. As part of advocacy aimed to mitigate the impact of displacement in the context of COVID-19, the Protection Cluster with the support of partners has developed a moratorium on eviction in April 2020 and shared with Federal Government of Somalia and member states to enforce the moratorium.

Somalia is a home to 2.6 million IDPs living in over 2,300 IDP sites in urban and peri-urban areas. Over 80 per cent of the IDP sites are informal settlements on private land while 74 per cent of them are in urban areas. In addition, close to 3,000 refugees and asylum seekers live in Somalia, mostly from Yemen and Ethiopia.