Recommendations for addressing drought displacement in Somalia

The impacts of climate change, including erratic rainfall patterns, rising temperatures and prolonged dry spells and droughts stress existing vulnerabilities and put an additional strain on livelihoods in Somalia. Building the evidence base on the link between climate change’s slow-onset effects and displacement will help identify solutions to both phenomena. The increased frequency and intensity of drought episodes has aggravated acute structural poverty and triggered cyclical displacement patterns, often to urban and peri-urban areas. Strengthening resilience is vital in areas where people’s coping strategies can be weak.

This paper discusses four main challenges: 

1. Pastoralists and farmers displaced to urban areas;
2. precarious conditions in urban IDP settlements;
3. evictions, a main trigger of secondary displacement; and 
4. host communities' limited absorption capacity.