From Crisis to Sustainability: Building Resilient and Inclusive Food Systems in Somalia

The second dialogue took place between Mr. Abdihakim Ainte, Director, Climate Change and Food Security, Office of Somali Prime Minister and Kostas Karantininis, Professor SLU and director of the SASi-SPi program. 

Mr. Ainte presented the report From Crisis to Sustainability: Building Resilient and Inclusive Food Systems in Somalia. The report shows the progress in the Somali food systems and the integration and adaptation to the national plan that started in 2021. The perspective has been changing from food security to food systems. In 2021 Somalia faced great food insecurity and humanitarian crisis. The first step was to understand the landscape and how the two-layer government could take a whole of government approach.

- The task we had in front of us was how to harmonize and build a national pathway for food systems. We identified the gaps, challenges and we conducted a countrywide consultation and then we agreed on a roadmap “Building food pathway systems for Somalia”, said Mr Ainte.

National pathway

The report describes the steps taken in Somalia since 2021 in building a national pathway for the food systems. One of the things done was to establish a high-level political council called Council on Food, Nutrition, Food Security and Climate Change that has membership of over 10+ ministries, and their core job is to provide policy directions and ensure coherent coordination both the national and sub-national governments.

After the presentation Professor Karantininis highlighted the work done and the methodology of the SASi-SPi program, applying the food system approach and providing policy intervention options and their trade-offs between sustainability pilars and food system stakeholders. In light of this approach, he asked Mr Ainte to outline the Somalian strategy to deal with the double hurdle of food insecurity and lack of food system infrastructure and how the country can progress from a present humanitarian crisis and at the same time create long term solutions.

- The dilemma we face, among other things, is how do you balance an urgent versus long term development crisis. To handle cyclical climate shocks that exposes and risk millions of vulnerable Somalis while not losing sight of the long term thinking and development. And this is exactly what the National Transformational Plan (NTP) aims to address: building and investing in resilient infrastructure and ensure you put the right guardrails to avoid –and minimize – the risk of total collapse. On one hand we have 4-5 million people that are on the extreme side of the food insecurity and dependent on food handouts, on the other hand a big ambition plan like the National Transformational Plan with a fifteen-year vision on investing in the food and agricultural systems. How do you balance so that you ensure the transition of your people out of the humanitarian dependence, said Mr Ainte.

Humantarian needs

He said that the humanitarian situation in Somalia for the last 30 years has resulted in difficulties with foreign investments in the country, all money has been marked for the humanitarian needs, mostly in food, with very few long-lasting effects.

Professor Karantininis asked if there were any thoughts of how to integrate the stakeholders contributing to the Somalian economy from the private sector and from the diaspora abroad who send remittances and make investments. He also asked why for example European pension funds should invest in the food sector in Somalia? What are the guarantees for return on investments?

Mr Ainte answered that the private sector in Somalia is vibrant, the country is strategically situated with natural resources and a young population. He believes that Somalia has all the futuristic characteristics that a country should have and will be at the front of the market with a bit of patience.