For many years, Somalia has relied heavily on humanitarian aid to address urgent crises, including droughts, floods, conflict, malnutrition, and displacement. While lifesaving support remains essential, there is growing recognition that the future lies in transforming aid into sustainable solutions—building systems and capacities so communities can better withstand shocks rather than simply respond to them. This transition is critical for ensuring that humanitarian assistance not only saves lives today but also strengthens Somali communities for tomorrow.
In 2024, approximately 6.9 million people in Somalia were in need of humanitarian assistance. The 2025 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan seeks US $1.42 billion to assist around 4.6 million people of the approximately 5.9 million in need. Meanwhile, up to 4.4 million people are projected to face acute food insecurity by the end of 2025, and around 1.85 million children are likely to suffer from acute malnutrition. At the same time, immunisation coverage has improved significantly, with around 70 percent of children now fully vaccinated, reflecting progress in the health sector despite ongoing challenges. Yet, reductions in humanitarian funding have impacted essential services, with more than 300,000 people losing access to safe water in some regions due to cuts in water, sanitation, and hygiene programs. These facts illustrate both the magnitude of need and the potential for progress when systems are strengthened.
Relief alone, however, is not enough. While emergency aid saves lives, it does not always build the capacity to prevent or withstand future shocks. Somalia faces recurrent climate crises, displacement, conflict, and persistent food insecurity, and a purely relief-focused approach leaves communities vulnerable. By investing in sustainable solutions such as resilient health systems, diversified livelihoods, community assets, and early-warning capacities, Somali communities can move from reactive crisis response to proactive resilience. This shift not only reduces dependency on external support but also strengthens local ownership and ensures that gains endure even when funding dips. Furthermore, strategic investment in sustainable initiatives tends to yield greater long-term impact than repeated short-term emergency inputs, while also aligning with national and global development agendas.
Sustainable solutions in Somalia encompass multiple dimensions. Strengthening health systems is critical, including training local health workers, empowering community-health volunteers, and expanding primary care networks so that essential services continue beyond emergency periods. Vaccination programs, which have successfully reached 70 percent of children, can serve as a foundation for broader maternal, child, and adolescent health initiatives. Similarly, scaling up water, sanitation, and hygiene services through local management reduces disease burden and ensures long-term benefits.
Nutrition and food security are also central to sustainable development. Supporting small-scale agriculture, livestock management, and value chains allows communities to rely less on emergency food aid and more on their own productive capacities. Concurrently, disaster risk reduction and climate adaptation programs—including early-warning systems, community savings groups, and drought or flood mitigation measures—help minimize the impact of recurrent shocks. By preparing in advance, communities are better able to maintain stability and avoid falling into severe crises when disasters strike.
Local capacity and community ownership remain fundamental to lasting change. Empowering regional disaster agencies, district health offices, and community committees ensures that interventions are managed locally and maintained over time. Engaging women, youth, and community leaders further strengthens resilience and builds a sense of ownership, fostering solutions that are culturally appropriate and sustainable. Integrated programming, linking health, nutrition, water and livelihoods interventions, magnifies impact and creates reinforcing effects across sectors. Designing programs with long-term sustainability in mind—from co-financing arrangements to monitoring and adaptive management—helps ensure that benefits endure beyond the immediate emergency.
Transforming humanitarian assistance into sustainable solutions is not without challenges. Funding shortfalls remain significant, and the fragile context of conflict and displacement complicates long-term implementation. Local institutions sometimes lack sufficient staffing, logistics, or financial stability to sustain interventions without external support. Somalia’s high exposure to climate and weather shocks demands that resilience systems be robust and adaptive. Coordinating across multiple sectors and stakeholders is complex but essential for ensuring integrated and sustainable results.
For organizations operating in Somalia, the strategic focus should be on balancing emergency support with initiatives that build local capacity and ownership. Programmes should include clear transition strategies that gradually shift responsibility to local actors, while monitoring progress to ensure communities are better prepared for future crises. Partnerships with local institutions, multi-sectoral integration, and the use of data to target vulnerable areas can amplify impact. Advocating for flexible, long-term funding allows organizations to sustain these initiatives, recognizing that resilience-building is a long-term investment rather than a short-term intervention.
Somalia stands at a pivotal moment. Humanitarian aid remains vital for saving lives, but the path forward lies in transforming that aid into sustainable solutions—systems, capacities, and community ownership that reduce vulnerability and increase resilience. By investing not only in crisis response but also in long-term change, organizations can help Somali communities build stronger futures where they depend less on episodic aid and more on resilient systems of their own. The time is now for that transition—from relief to resilience, from assistance to autonomy.
Sources
- United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) – Humanitarian Needs Overview 2024, Somalia
- United Nations Somalia – Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan (HNRP) 2025
- United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) – Somalia Annual Report 2024
- World Health Organization (WHO) – Somalia Immunisation Coverage Data, 2025
- Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) – Somalia Food Security and Livelihoods Reports, 2025
- Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) – WASH and Water Access Reports, 2025
- Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) – Somalia Acute Food Insecurity Analysis, 2025
