Prospects of Food Security in Somalia Under Looming Climatic Changes

Somalia has been in ruins, in terms of physical and institutional structure, for the better part of the past 30 years. The physical destruction, however, might have concealed a subtle but more precarious form of societal decay: environmental degradation and with that a near total dependency on foreign aid for almost every aspect of livelihood including food security and other necessities.

Somalia is a frontline country for climate change because of its geographic location. It is a country where conflict and instability meet with natural disasters caused by a rapidly changing climate.

The food security issue cannot be addressed in isolation from the institutional capacity to enhance food production resilience, fending off food price volatility in global markets because of climate shocks and/or other natural disasters.

Land degradation, exacerbated by climate change and population pressure, is a significant driver of food insecurity. Major causes of environmental degradation in Somalia include, but are not limited to, deforestation, soil erosion and erratic weather, which eventually lead to poor farm harvests and livestock mortalities. For countries impacted by extreme weather events because of climate change, when the agriculture and livestock production system get damaged, or annihilated in some cases, it takes a long time to regenerate and recover

Food security exists when all people at all times have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food which meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.

This definition recognizes the importance of looking beyond hunger towards the goals of ensuring access to safe, nutritious and sufficient food for all people, all year round. The quantity and quality of food are closely related in order to meet satisfactory food security conditions.

During the past few decades, dietary preferences have shifted globally towards animal-derived products as incomes have increased and urbanization expanded. Being able to eat a healthy, nutritious diet is now recognized as a basic human right. Yet, according to the latest available estimates, approximately three billion people cannot afford a healthy well-balanced diet. That is around four in every 10 people in the world. Also, as gloomy as it may sound, it may not be entirely surprising to assume that the food security situation in Somalia is at the lower end of that scale.

For this reason, this report examines several factors related to the quantity (food availability, accessibility) and quality of diets consumed at the household level.

Read the Full Report here; https://heritageinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Food-security-and-climate-change-1-1.pdf