Somalia Social Protection Policy.

The Somalia Social Protection Policy is a national policy with a multi-sectoral approach. The timeframe is 20 years, including strategies for the five years beginning in 2019, followed by a second phase from 2023 to 2040. The overall purpose of this policy is to strengthen social protection with the aim of reducing poverty and vulnerability, developing human capacity, building resilience, and ensuring equality.
This policy addresses the critical challenge of poverty and vulnerability in the country, where the majority of the population faces daily deprivations and widespread chronic undernutrition. Temporary seasonal safety net will be established with the goal of preventing greater poverty, food insecurity, and malnutrition caused by shocks. Therefore, timely assistance will be provided for populations that vulnerable to seasonal food shortages and droughts, as a preventive measure. Moreover, seasonal mechanisms for shock response will be institutionalized as a component of the national social protection system, providing temporary multi-sectoral support to meet the basic needs of food-insecure households.
Institutional capacities will be strengthened to design, implement, and monitor the coordinated and effective social protection programs. Innovative operational systems will be developed to ensure efficient and effective access for some of the most vulnerable to a transitional safety net and to build a foundation for social protection delivery. To this end, registration and enrolment procedures for a transitional safety net programme will be developed and a social registry will be developed integrated with other databases for social protection programs. The access to social assistance will be provided to improve the standard of living of poor and vulnerable people, including children, the disabled, and the elderly. The foundations for social insurance will be built for the formal sector, in partnership with private sector actors, with a view to developing mechanisms for increasing the participation of the informal sector. The access to employment and income generation opportunities and productive livelihoods will be increased through combination of income support with broader policy measures that assist those households and individuals with labour capacity. To this end, a multi-sectoral strategy will be implemented for improving the productive engagement of those with labour capacity, especially the unemployed, young people, and women, in the labour market. Rural livelihoods will be secured through income transfers, technical assistance, and inputs which enable beneficiaries to invest in their land and livestock and improve livelihood practices. Poor and vulnerable households' and individuals' access to social care services will be expanded with a focus on an accredited capacity building approach for social workers in the housing, health, nutrition, water, sanitation, hygiene, education, child protection, and other key services sectors.
Climate change adaptation and mitigation will be integrated into social protection systems to mitigate vulnerability, better align humanitarian and developmental objectives, and reduce reliance on short-term humanitarian aid. To this end, the resilience of livelihoods to climate variability, particularly droughts and floods, will be increased through strengthened social insurance schemes.