The presence of COOPI in Somalia
At first, COOPI primarily implemented development projects in the country with the aim of improving the living conditions of vulnerable households and helping to build long-term resilience of communities. In recent years, the country has faced multiple natural disasters caused by climate change and an exacerbated and complex multidimensional crisis. To tackle the situation, COOPI has carried out several emergency interventions, especially in response to floods and periods of severe cyclical droughts.
Since 2012, COOPI has also been part of two active consortia in Somalia:
- the SomReP (Somalia Resilience Program) consortium, with which it implements resilience programmes in the Bay and Gedo regions and intervenes in the districts of Baidoa, Dollow and Belet-Hawa;
- the Somalia Cash Consortium, with which it implements cash transfer projects.
COOPI in Somalia today
COOPI implements humanitarian response and resilience building programmes in Somalia with a multisectoral approach. COOPI key areas of intervention in Somalia are Food Security, Livelihoods, Water and Hygiene (WASH) and Health. To respond to the current drought emergency in Somalia, COOPI has immediately implemented emergency programs, while integrating development and resilience projects in the most affected regions. Each intervention integrates one or more cross-cutting areas, namely Protection, Gender, Environment and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), depending on the context. Given the fragile social fabric of the many post-conflict communities COOPI works with, great emphasis is placed on minimising conflicts, by adopting the Do No Harm (DNH) principle, so as to alleviate suffering, preserve people's dignity and save lives.