Issue No. 523

 
Attention to long-term climate change in Somalia is in danger of being overshadowed by short- term responses to humanitarian crisis caused by the ongoing drought and other climate-related shocks. The tension between delivering long-term solutions to climate adaptation and the immediate need to save lives is significant. 
 
International development generally focuses on specific areas rather than cross-cutting issues, like climate change. Recent discussions in the humanitarian space have shifted towards building resilience, often short-term shock responsiveness and safety nets. However, the long-term impacts of climate change require a more focused approach to longer-term adaptation and community resilience. On a more positive note, although climate change is not receiving enough attention, the international community is beginning to recognise the importance of a longer-term approach to climate adaptation. 
 
There is complex philosophical debate around how to balance the urgent need to save lives with the need to fund long-term climate adaptation. While it is undeniably crucial to address immediate needs, such as extended periods of drought in Somalia, parallel efforts to build adaptation strategies can save more lives in the future. This is a difficult concept to sell to international donors and governments focused on immediate political objectives. The international community needs to break this siloed perspective and begin thinking more holistically about ecosystems when implementing their political interventions. Instead of digging boreholes randomly across Somalia to provide drought relief, there should be extended environmental management aimed at building and protecting water catchments. This would improve the effectiveness and sustainability of international support.
 
Similarly, in peacebuilding and stabilization programming, climate projections should be linked with adaptation strategies to create more sustainable agreements, especially related to land and resource management. To date, this is rarely done. While there remains a lack of integration, however, there are some signs of progress. Since 2020, the human rights community has been increasingly discussing climate security, and the Peace Building Fund has begun work on climate action. Moreover, the UN is now attempting to bring humanitarian, peacebuilding, and development funders together to create sustainable short, medium, and long-term approaches.
 
Still, evidence is lacking on practical approaches that work for climate-sensitive programming in conflict and other fragile settings. Much more research is needed to identify climate-sensitive humanitarian, peacebuilding and conflict prevention approaches that can operate successfully in complex environments to deliver traditional outcomes and simultaneously improve community adaptation to climate change. Donors are still trying to determine what works in water and food security that can also foster climate resilience and adaptive capacity in communities. As climate change becomes more integrated into programming in conflict and other fragile settings, it would be beneficial for donors to expand this community of practice and utilise it as a learning environment to identify solutions that can also be scaled up country-wide. 
 
Climate financing mechanisms are expected to provide significant funding for Somalia in the future, though at the moment they simply aren’t doing enough. But sadly, even increased funding can feed into siloed approaches, with humanitarian practitioners expecting that climate will be funded by climate-specific financing mechanisms only. Especially in fragile states, climate financing mechanisms are bogged down in red tape, and organisations are often unable to implement adaptation and mitigation projects because of weak governance structures or high levels of operational risks posed by armed conflict and other insecurity. It is therefore also essential to consider how established humanitarian and peacebuilding financing can be leveraged to provide relief to climate-affected populations, promote climate action, and de-risk climate financing in the long-term.

By the Somali Wire team