Building climate resilience in Somalia by accelerating food systems

Mogadishu, Somalia, 12 August 2026 - Somalia has launched a three-year initiative to strengthen climate resilience across its livestock, land and insurance systems, marking a significant step in a broader regional effort to transform food systems in the face of escalating climate shocks.

The initiative, part of the programme on "Accelerating Food Systems Transformation for Resilience to Climate Change in Africa", is led by the Government of Somalia in partnership with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), the African Union Inter-African Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR) and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD). It will also be implemented in Kenya and Uganda.

Livestock is central to Somalia's economy, contributing nearly half of national GDP and remains the largest source of export earnings. Yet, the country remains vulnerable to climate change and weather variability, necessitating the need for building resilience of livestock-based food systems.

The initiative targets these bottlenecks through integrated action across four areas: livestock value chains, climate/index-based livestock insurance, land tenure security, and climate-land information systems for evidence-based decision-making.

Mr Hameed Nuru, WFP Representative in Somalia, representing Mr. George Conway, United Nations Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General, United Nations Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator (DSRSG/RC/HC). stated that ECA initiative provides a timely opportunity to translate Somalia's food systems ambitions into practical investments and measurable results. It can help strengthen food systems governance, promote climate-smart and nature-based solutions, support sustainable livestock and agricultural value chains, improve decision-support systems, and generate evidence that can be scaled nationally.

Hameed concluded by calling to let the inception workshop be the beginning of a stronger partnership that accelerates Somalia's transition towards resilient, inclusive, and climate-smart food systems, committing the support from WFP, which is a co-lead of the Food Security and Agriculture Sector, bringing a unique combination of field presence, operational delivery, analytical capacity, coordination experience, and partnerships across humanitarian, recovery, and development efforts.

Medhat Elhelepi, Project Coordinator of the initiative at the ECA, pointed to a deeper structural issue, underscoring the urgency of transforming Africa's food systems in response to rising food insecurity, climate shocks and underutilised productive assets.

"Africa's persistent hunger, despite its land, livestock, labour and market endowments, is fundamentally a challenge of converting existing assets into value, jobs, trade and resilience, rather than a lack of resources," he said, adding that practical, country-owned solutions can unlock the full potential of the livestock sector.

Mohamud Abdi Ahmed, IGAD Head of Mission to Somalia stressed that Somalia remains highly exposed to climate variability, including increasingly unpredictable rainfall, prolonged dry spells and recurrent flooding. This makes stronger preparedness, timely climate information and anticipatory action particularly important for vulnerable pastoral and agro-pastoral communities. He suggested that the main question should be how do we move from repeatedly responding to climate shocks to systematically managing risk before those shocks become disasters?

"The assessment before us is not simply about revealing facts and figures on livestock value chains, nor only about underlining the importance of insurance and developing an insurance product. It is about building a more resilient pastoral economy in Somalia through stronger livestock value chains, effective risk transfer mechanisms and sustainable land and natural resource governance.', added Mr. Ahmed.

He concluded by emphasizing IGAD commitment to continue working with ECA, AU-IBAR, the Federal Government of Somalia, and all partners to ensure that the knowledge generated through this initiative translates into policy, investment and practical action serving the best interests of Somali communities.

Mr. Laban MacOpiyo, representing AU-IBAR Director, stressed that the endorsement of government, federal member states, insurance and private-sector leaders, development partners and civil society of the inception reports on Somalia's Livestock Value Chain Assessment and the Index-Based Livestock Takaful Viability Assessment would signal strong national ownership of the reform agenda ahead. "The endorsement marks a shift from fragmented, sector-by-sector efforts to one coordinated national framework, aligning livestock, insurance, land tenure and climate-information work behind a single, government-owned roadmap", as indicated by Laban.

Mr. Farah Ahmed, Director General, Ministry of Public Works, Reconstruction, and Housing, expressed sincere gratitude to ECA, AU-IBAR, and IGAD for their strategic leadership, technical expertise, and partnership. He stressed that securing land tenure is essential for rangeland resilience, livestock productivity and climate adaptation. He further added that secuing land tenure is critical for the promotion of insurance, restoration and sustainable grazing

Mr Guru, Director-General, Ministry of Livestock, Forestry and Range, indicated that ECA initiative recognizes many of these challenges that Somalia's livestock value chain and provides an important opportunity for Somalia to strengthen its capacity to develop climate-resilient livestock value chains, improve land and pasture governance, strengthen livestock insurance mechanisms, and use land and climate information to support evidence-based decision-making. "We should ensure that this initiative goes beyond assessments, workshops and reports. We need to translate knowledge and evidence into practical policy reforms, investment opportunities and implementable programmes.", added Mr. Ali.

In his opening remarks, Mr. Hassan Hosow, Chief Economic Advisor to the President and Executive Director of the National Economic Council, commended ECA, the AUC and IGAD for the important initiative, particularly its emphasis on knowledge production. "At the National Economic Council, our mandate is to generate economic evidence and translate it into policy. The quality of our decisions depends fundamentally on the quality of the evidence available to us. The four areas before us, livestock value chains, index-based livestock insurance, land-tenure security, and climate-land information systems illustrate this very well.", added Mr. Hosow.

The event convened government officials, development partners, pastoralist representatives, private sector actors and researchers, underscoring the multi-stakeholder effort required to deliver lasting change.

About the Project

Accelerating Food Systems Transformation for Resilience to Climate Change in Africa is a UN-funded initiative implemented by ECA in partnership with AU-IBAR, IGAD and the Governments of Kenya, Uganda and Somalia. Running from 2026 to 2028, it supports countries to strengthen livestock-based food systems through integrated interventions in value chains, insurance, land tenure and climate information systems.

About ECA

The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) promotes economic and social development, regional integration and international cooperation for Africa's development.

About AU-IBAR

AU-IBAR is a specialized technical office of the African Union Commission supporting the sustainable development and utilization of animal resources across Africa.

About IGAD

IGAD is a regional economic community comprising Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda, working to advance regional cooperation on food security, climate resilience and economic integration.

About the Ministry of Public Works, Reconstruction and Housing

The Ministry is mandated to is entrusted with the responsibility of planning, managing, constructing, and rehabilitating public buildings and infrastructure across the Federal Republic of Somalia.

Issued by:
Communications Section
Economic Commission for Africa
PO Box 3001
Addis Ababa
Ethiopia
Tel: +251 11 551 5826
E-mail: [email protected]