Somalia has faced decades of complex emergencies driven by climate shocks, conflict, disease, and political instability. Since 2016, eight consecutive agricultural seasons have been marked by droughts and floods, compounded by locust invasions and pest outbreaks, severely threatening rural livelihoods. Food insecurity remains cyclical and acute, with IPC Phase 3 and above affecting millions. In 2022, an estimated 7.1 million people faced crisis-level food insecurity, and 1.4 million children were projected to suffer acute malnutrition. Poverty is widespread, with 67 percent of Somalis classified as multi-dimensionally poor, particularly among nomadic (82 percent) and rural (74 percent) populations. 

This good practice factsheet captures FAO’s experience piloting the Long-Term Cash and Livelihoods (LTCL) approach in rural Somalia from 2019 to 2022. The initiative aimed to improve and sustain food security while exploring the feasibility of integrating the model into government-led social safety net programmes, ensuring lessons learned could inform nationally owned systems for greater sustainability and long-term impact.  

Agriculture and livestock underpin Somalia’s economy, making climate shocks devastating for household coping capacities. While humanitarian assistance has improved food security after shocks, isolated responses underscore the need for sustainable, resilience-focused approaches. LTCL combined unconditional cash transfers with learning sessions on nutrition, agriculture, and resource management, enabling households to meet immediate needs while investing in long-term strategies. Notably, during the severe 2021 drought, midline evaluations revealed LTCL’s role in mitigating negative impacts on recipient households, demonstrating its potential as a scalable, adaptive model for resilience-building.

KEY LEARNING

• Combining long-term cash transfers with agricultural inputs and VSLA participation helped households move beyond short-term coping mechanisms. Beneficiaries invested in productive activities – such as renting land and purchasing livestock – leading to asset building, income diversification and improved food security.

• Stable and sustained financial support is critical to maintaining gains. Irregular or short-term assistance risks reversing progress and pushing households back into negative coping strategies. Long-term planning requires reliable and sufficient resources.

• The LTCL intervention implemented by FAO in Somalia successfully laid the foundation for transitioning from emergency assistance to resilience and self-reliance. By addressing chronic food insecurity and supporting livelihood recovery, the programme contributed to breaking cycles of poverty and reducing long-term humanitarian dependence.

• Localized, conflict-sensitive approaches enhance impact. In fragile contexts like Somalia, embedding LTCL within a conflict-sensitive humanitarian– development–peace framework strengthens its long-term effectiveness. Leveraging community-based models such as VSLAs and aligning with local systems ensures sustainability and promotes social cohesion.

• Government ownership should remain the goal. A robust impact evaluation of the LTCL intervention was essential to demonstrate its impact across multiple sectors. The evidence generated, along with operational lessons learned from its delivery, has informed the FAO Country Office in Somalia’s continued collaboration with MoLSA to develop a Productive Safety Net Model that promotes the adoption of the LTCL approach within current and future government-led social protection programmes.