Somalia

IFAD Asset Request Portlet

Country

Somalia

6

Projects Includes planned, ongoing and closed projects

US$ 181.16 million

Total Project Cost

US$ 31 million

Total IFAD financing

184,750

Households impacted

The Context

Following the collapse of the Government in 1991, much of Somalia suffered a quarter century of conflict.  The Somali Compact agreed in Brussels in September 2013 paves the way for an inflow of help to restore the economy and help the country’s people, estimated to number 12.3 million.

A coastal land of plateaus, plains and highlands in eastern Africa, Somalia is one of the poorest countries in the world. It is hot all year round, with periodic monsoon winds and irregular rainfall.

Suffering frequent droughts and famines, Somalia is among the bottom five of 170 countries listed in the 2012 Human Development Index (HDI value is strikingly low at 0.285).

About 40 per cent of the population lives in extreme poverty: in rural areas, where in 2012 an estimated 62 per cent of people lived, more than half live in extreme poverty. In less unstable regions, such as northern Somaliland and Puntland – rural poverty and food insecurity are less critical.

Elsewhere, insecurity, lack of functional infrastructure and poor access to irrigation have reduced already-low crop yields. Only 1.6 percent of Somalia's total land area is cultivated, and 69 percent is permanent pasture (FAO, 2012).

Before the civil war, bananas and sugarcane represented the major cash crops. Due to lack of inputs, drought, and poor infrastructures, cash crops production and export over the last two decades declined sharply.

In central and southern Somalia, irrigation is restricted to the relatively and continuously diminishing fertile areas around the Shabelle River, where the main crops are maize, rice, sesame, cowpeas, bananas, papayas, lemons, grapefruit and mangoes.

The Strategy

Somalia’s poverty and food security situation remains critical after years of conflict and natural disasters.

IFAD's interventions are aligned with the IFAD Strategy for engagement in countries with fragile situations. The IFAD programmes also contribute to enhanced resilience of communities in the face of increasing vulnerabilities due to famines, droughts and climate-related shocks. The strategic objectives of IFAD interventions in Somalia are to:

  • increase incomes and food security by supporting agriculture and related activities, improving access to water, sanitation and health care, strengthening the natural resource base and building rural financial services;
  • identify and promote pro-poor investment mechanisms in rural areas for dissemination, replication and scaling up; and
  • contribute to the country stabilization and peace building

IFAD's activities strive to improve availability of water for irrigation and livestock, including building of sand dams to enable farming throughout the year.

Improving access to rural finance has helped empower rural women and communities. IFAD helps project beneficiaries participate in the development and strengthening of their own institutions, a strategic priority.

IFAD is also aligning its work in Somalia with the framework developed under the Facility for Refugees, Migrants, Forced Displacement and Rural Stability (FARMS).

IFAD does not work directly in food aid/ relief that are addressing the famine/drought and its immediate effects, but we are investing in livelihood and food security projects, which help build the resilience of communities against famine/ drought and climate shocks.

Country Facts

Somalia is one of the poorest countries in the world, characterized by frequent natural disasters, such as droughts and famines.

Somalia is extremely fragile, ranking at the bottom of the Fund for Peace Index.

About 40 per cent of the population lives in extreme poverty; in rural areas more than half do.

Somalia receives an estimated US$2 billion per year in remittances from diaspora, exceeding official aid.

Since the 1980s, IFAD has invested a total of US$140 million in nine programmes and projects promoting agricultural development in Somalia, benefiting 1,780,000 direct beneficiaries.

Although the GoS is currently in arrears (USD 23.8 million), IFAD has been able to continue supporting the country through grants and resource mobilization. IFAD has scaled up the current portfolio of projects being implemented or designed to over USD 12 million. The current ongoing portfolio is about USD 9 million (IFAD plus co-financing) and a design of about USD 3.7 million. IFAD is aligning with international partners including AICS (Italian Agency for Development Cooperation) and OFID (OPEC Fund for International Development) in raising financing and developing the programme. With the projects under implementation and being designed, IFAD will cover all the sub-regions of Somalia. 

Country documents

Related Assets

Somalia Country Strategy Note 2022-2023 Type: Country strategy note (CSN)
Region: Near East, North Africa, Europe and Central Asia

Country Experts

Projects and Programmes

Projects Browser

PLANNED Under design after concept note approval

APPROVED Approved by the Executive Board or IFAD President

SIGNED Financing agreements signed

ONGOING Under implementation

CLOSED Completed/closed projects

No matching projects were found
No matching projects were found
No matching projects were found

Related news

Related Assets

IFAD substantially strengthens its investments in Somalia to help small-scale producers cope with climate shocks and food insecurity

February 2023 - NEWS
As Somalia continues to experience a historic drought, pushing millions of Somalians into acute food insecurity, Alvaro Lario, President IFAD announced today during IFAD’s 46th session of the Governing Council that it will substantially strengthen its support to Somalia and resume its direct investments after loan arrears resulted in a three-decade long suspension.

A holiday gift with impact: crowdfunding solar-powered water access in Africa

December 2020 - NEWS
This holiday season, some of the world’s poorest families in Somalia and Malawi look set to access water through innovative solar energy products financed through a crowdfunding project set up by IFAD.

Canada provides cad$50m for unique 5-year integrated resilience program by UN agencies

July 2017 - NEWS
The United Nations’ food and agriculture agencies are embarking on an unprecedented joint programme to work with vulnerable communities in three crisis-prone areas over five years to meet their immediate food needs and boost their resilience, while addressing the root causes of food insecurity.

Related stories and blogs

Related Assets

East Africa is experiencing its worst drought in decades. It’s time to invest in climate adaptation

August 2022 - STORY
East Africa is experiencing one of the worst droughts in decades, with millions facing food insecurity as crops fail, livestock die and water sources dry up. Read how IFAD is building resilience to climate change and what else needs to be done.

How the war in Ukraine is affecting the most vulnerable countries in the world

July 2022 - STORY
Five Country Directors from IFAD’s highest priority countries in its Crisis Response Initiative tell us how the war in Ukraine is impacting rural people on the ground.

How an innovative 'sand' dam is causing a rush for water in Somalia

March 2016 - STORY
In the sub-regions of Maaroodi-Jeex and Awdal, in the arid and semi-arid region of Somaliland, an innovative water management solution is helping small farmers stay in business despite the changing weather patterns.

Related publications

Related Assets

Climate-smart agriculture: A synthesis of experiences and lessons from the NEN region

December 2022
This publication describes Climate-smart agriculture case studies in Egypt, Georgia, Moldova and Somalia.

Rome-based Agencies Resilience Initiative: Strengthening the resilience of livelihoods in protracted crises in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Niger and Somalia

October 2018
Canada is partnering with the United Nations Rome-based agencies (RBAs) – the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Food Programme (WFP) – to further test in the field their joint Conceptual framework for strengthening resilience for food security and nutrition.

New Techniques Help Locate Groundwater

March 2015
In Somalia, much-needed sources of underground water were identified by using advanced geophysical surveys in those same areas where previous trial-and-error drilling had delivered no results.

Investing in rural people in Somalia

March 2015
Somalia’s poverty and food security situation remains critical after years of conflict and natural disasters. Since the 1980s, IFAD has supported nine programmes in the country for a total of US$140 million. There is currently no country strategic opportunities programme for Somalia. However, the strategic objectives of IFAD interventions in Somalia can be summarized as follows: • Increase incomes and food security by supporting agriculture and related activities, improving access to water, sanitation and health care, strengthening the natural resource base and building rural financial services; • Identify and promote pro-poor investment mechanisms in rural areas for dissemination, replication and scaling up; and • Build the capacity of the diaspora and promote the transformation of people in the diaspora into agents of development through remittances – the portion of their earnings that migrants outside the country send home.

IFAD and the League of Arab States

January 2009
Poverty poses a constant threat to economic growth, trade reform, private sector development, knowledge, governance and gender equality. Poverty among the 22 members of the League of Arab States (LAS) is primarily a rural phenomenon. A quarter of the region’s population, or about 80 million people, live below national poverty lines. Between 60 and 70 percent of these poor people live in rural areas. One of the most pressing challenges in the region is the high rate of unemployment, particularly among young people. Official unemployment rates average 13 per cent, and in some countries the jobless rate among young people is twice as high.

Related videos

Related Assets