Durable solutions for internally displaced people
This learning brief captures key insights from the third phase of the United Nations Joint Action for Building Resilience in Somalia (JRP III), a multi-agency initiative in the Gedo region. Funded by Germany through KfW, the programme has supported vulnerable communities since 2018, initially focusing on integrated service delivery and later expanding to food security and livelihoods. FAO joined UNICEF and WFP in 2022 to adopt a more holistic, multi-sectoral approach, emphasizing convergence to build resilience, especially among internally displaced people (IDPs).
The Gedo region, located in southwestern Somalia along the borders with Kenya and Ethiopia, is the country’s second largest by land area and it plays a strategic role in humanitarian response and agricultural recovery. The town of Dollow, situated at the confluence of the Dawa and Juba rivers, is particularly significant due to its fertile lands, water access for irrigation and livestock, and its position as a major humanitarian hub, supporting communities affected by climate-induced displacement and conflict.
FAO launched a learning initiative to ensure that evidence from JRP III informs future programming and policy, aligning with its broader knowledge management strategy. The learning brief highlights promising practices such as integrated livelihood packages, climate-smart tools, and people-centred approaches that improved stability and self-reliance. These were especially relevant in Somalia’s climate-affected, displacement-prone context, where droughts and floods have disrupted agriculture and forced rural-to-urban migration. Qualitative data and lived experiences gathered through the project offer valuable insights for institutional learning and resource allocation to transform short-term humanitarian efforts into long-term resilience and peacebuilding.
SOME KEY TAKEAWAYS
On agricultural livelihoods: Agriculture provides a pathway to durable solutions for displaced populations, fostering self-reliance, food security, and social cohesion. When designed to be inclusive and climate-smart, agricultural interventions can contribute to long-term stability and peaceful coexistence between IDPs and host communities.
On innovation: Emergency agriculture interventions that integrate land access, training, and scalable technologies—such as floating irrigation and solar pumps—enable landless IDPs to engage in productive farming. These innovations support sustained recovery and resilience in climate-affected and displacement-prone areas.
On coordination: Aligning support across agencies (FAO, WFP, UNICEF) and across sectors (agriculture, nutrition, education) while implementing inclusive and integrated approaches has proven effective in enhancing programme outcomes. The integration of services across agencies, such as FAO’s livelihood support, WFP’s nutrition and UNICEF’s education and health inputs, helped build a more cohesive, communitywide foundation for recovery.
On the HDP nexus: Strategically layering emergency and resilience funding—starting with household stabilization through cash transfers, followed by livelihood support and VSLAs—strengthens long-term recovery. Simultaneous investments in infrastructure and services reinforce these gains, addressing systemic vulnerabilities and enhancing community resilience.
On community engagement: Community engagement through village saving and loans associations and natural resource management/early warning early action committees fosters collaboration, shared learning, and joint problem-solving around livelihoods, water access, and emergency preparedness. These platforms unite returnees, host communities, and IDPs across diverse backgrounds, strengthening social cohesion—a key outcome consistently highlighted across all focus group discussions under JRP III.
On gender: Women’s empowerment can drive transformative change in fragile, displacement-affected settings, enabling women to lead in agriculture, manage finances through VSLAs and contribute meaningfully to household income and decision-making. With access to land, training and climate-smart tools, empowered women shift from dependency to autonomy, building resilience and advancing durable solutions for their communities.
On youth: Engaging youth is key to advancing durable solutions for IDPs. Livelihood interventions that provide vocational training, financial literacy, and climate-smart agricultural skills equip young people to launch microenterprises and contribute to community resilience. Expanding technical training and certification in high-demand trades will unlock youth potential and foster innovation.
On learning: Continuous learning and adaptive programming are essential to ensure programmes remain responsive and effective in dynamic contexts. FGDs, participatory impact assessments, case studies, and AAR enrich programme learning and support real-time programme adaptation. This participatory evidence base should be institutionalized across resilience initiatives.
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