2022 Achievements: Somalia

2022 Achievements | Supporting Evidence-Based Education Response to the Drought in Somalia

A devastating protracted dry spell has struck Somalia, leading to a system-wide Level 3 activation in August 2022. The climate crisis poses an annual risk to destabilise education: 1.7 million school-aged children were internally displaced in Somalia in 2022, in large parts due to the unprecedented drought. As of December 2022, approximately 4.84 million (including almost 500,000 children with disabilities) displaced and non-displaced children aged 5 to 17 years across 74 districts in Somalia lacked access to protective quality education, due to the high cost of education and the lack of available services. The drought led to the loss of livelihoods, high cost of education, reduced incomes, and resilience, exacerbating an already vulnerable situation.

The inability to cover daily expenses leads families to adopt negative coping mechanisms, such as cutting essential expenditures, including direct education related costs and withdrawing children from school to generate revenue for the household, exposing children to a wide range of protection concerns. Education service provision in IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) sites was already insufficient, and the children of displaced households still are the most affected: only 21% of newly displaced school-aged children have access to primary education services. In 2022, Somalia Education Cluster’s 52 partners reached a total 520 000 children with the provision of Education services.

The Global Education Cluster leveraged its partnership and contributions from Education Cannot Wait (ECW) to bolster its support to the Somalia Education Cluster (SEC). This includes support to the SEC to facilitate the renewal of the ECW Multi Year Resilience Programme. The GEC also supported a First Emergency Response (FER) application process to respond to the drought related EiE crisis. US$5 million were allocated to support the implementation of the Somalia Humanitarian Response Plan / Drought Response Plan. Through the FER window, Education Cluster partners were able to expand access to safe education through the reduction of barriers for (re)enrolment of drought and displacement affected children and provide safe, inclusive, and quality learning affected by drought and displacement, including integrated education-child protection programming. Finally, ECW funds supported coordination and data collection and analysis to inform evidence-based programming. The Somalia Education Cluster also received capacity strengthening support from the GEC through participation of the Information Manager in the Global Core Coordination Training and the in-country deployment of 3 Rapid Response Team members (one information management officer, two coordinators) for a total of 20 weeks in 2022. The GEC also supported sub-national level coordination with a 3-day training delivered to 12 partners and Education stakeholders. Capacity strengthening support will continue in 2023 to support the Cluster team coordinate a strong evidence-based response.