| Name of Project | Emergency Water and Livelihood Support Programme (EWLSP 034) |
| Donor | United States Agency for International Development (USAID/OFDA) |
| Number of Beneficiaries | 181,355 People |
| Budget | US$ 1,685,000 |
| Region | Bay and Bakol Regions of South Central Somalia |
About the Project...
South-Central Somalia has been under a protracted state of conflict for over 18 years now. This situation has led to lack of a central governing authority and the result is that communities have been left to find their own means of tackling societal issues.
With the lack of a central government, issues like drought, flooding, internal displacement of persons, poor infrastructure among other hardships continue to afflict communities in Somalia. Over the years, livelihoods of both resident and internally displaced persons/communities have been adversely affected as a result of these protracted wars, drought and flooding especially in 2007 and 2008.
Since 2006, ADRA has been implementing an emergency intervention in Bay and Bakol Regions of South Central Somalia aimed at providing emergency relief and strengthen the resilience of communities to enhance economic recovery. The intervention—Emergency Water and Livelihood Support Programme (EWLSP) is currently in its fourth phase of implementation and it seeks to support vulnerable communities as well as those hosting IDPs with emergency livelihood support by assisting the target communities to enhance capacity so as to cope with ongoing crisis and prevent the total loss of livelihood assets.
The humanitarian crisis in Somalia has been taking on a different dimension with regards to how many people are faced by the catastrophe. The crisis is now widespread to not only 1.2 million rural people like was the case previously but now about two thirds of those in crisis (around 2 million people) are urban, rural poor or internally displaced persons (IDPs). Subsequently, the crisis has been worsening due to a combination of three main factors: insecurity, drought and hyperinflation causing sky-rocketing food prices.
In Bakol and Bay regions of South Central Somalia, about 38% of the population is facing acute food/livelihood crisis and humanitarian emergency.
EWLSP is divided into two sectors: Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) and Agriculture & Food Security. The main objective of the WASH sector is to increase access to clean and safe water, sanitation and hygiene and this is achieved through a number of activities including construction/rehabilitation of water points such as boreholes, underground tanks (berkads), water catchments, shallow wells, dams and water pans. To support communities get these facilities back into use, ADRA rehabilitates these through a multi-faceted strategy that involves dealing with host communities.
During infrastructure development, ADRA engages the host communities in a participatory relationship that establishes and strengthens community partnerships and institutions. The strengthening involves establishment of WASH committees that are responsible in the overall implementation and maintenance of works. These committees are trained to increase capacities to carry out the management of the rehabilitated water points. The establishment of the WASH committees takes care of various stakeholders that includes host communities, and disadvantaged groups such as women and nomads/pastoralists. By involving the main stakeholders in the management of the rehabilitated water points, this ensures the security of the infrastructure and ADRA staff involved in the project.
The Agriculture and Food Security Sector’s main objective is to ensure diversified agricultural-based livelihoods for economic empowerment and this is achieved by capacity building initiatives, cash for work schemes and providing support for group engagement in Income Generating Activities (IGAs).
