Climate & Peace Dispatch With Abdirahim Husu (Somalia - Ministry of Planning, Investment and Economic Development)

Download the full Interview here.

The interview outlines how climate change and insecurity in Somalia reinforce one another, creating a cycle that undermines livelihoods, fuels displacement, and strains local stability. Recurrent droughts, floods, and environmental degradation intensify competition over water, pasture, and productive land, especially in areas where institutions remain fragile and services limited. These pressures heighten tensions and weaken community resilience, while insecurity in turn disrupts mobility, markets, and natural resource governance, deepening vulnerability.

Somalia’s National Transformation Plan responds to these intertwined risks by embedding climate resilience across national planning and coordination structures. MoPIED works to align climate action with development priorities, strengthen cross‑government collaboration, and integrate climate considerations into sectors such as agriculture, water management, infrastructure, and disaster preparedness. Resilience‑based approaches — including climate‑smart agriculture, improved water systems, disaster readiness, and sustainable natural resource governance — are increasingly shaping how institutions address climate‑security pressures.

The interview highlights persistent challenges: fragmented data systems, uneven institutional capacity, and limited integration between environment, development, and security actors. Somalia’s climate governance architecture is still young, and coordination between federal and member‑state institutions remains a work in progress. Access to climate finance is improving but still insufficient to reach the most vulnerable communities.