Shelter and Non-Food Items

Shelter and Non-Food Items (SNFI) operations play a major role in humanitarian and early recovery operations in Somalia, working at scale to support people affected by disasters, conflicts, and complex crises across the different phases of prevention, preparedness, emergencies, and transition on the path to recovery and durable solutions. IOM is an operational agency working in close coordination with the Somalia Shelter and Non-Food Items Cluster and its partners.   

SNFI’s overall objectives are (1) to be people-centred and context driven to ensure assistance provided meets the needs of affected population, and (2) support sectoral learning through identification and sharing best practices in close coordination with partners and communities.  

Shelter/NFI activities include:    

• In-kind assistance to affected families in distress to support non-food-item needs through IOM’s direct implementation. 

• Overseeing the Common Pipeline program, on behalf of the Somalia SNFI Cluster, to provide quality emergency shelter materials to the Cluster’s partners in procuring, pre-positioning, and distributing supplies to aid the most vulnerable populations.

• Emergency, Transitional and Permanent Shelter support through owner driven approaches using cash and in-kind assistance, and building on environment friendly local design concepts with an aim to minimize environmental impact and withstand hazards. 

• Tailoring shelter assistance to the needs and changing realities through shelter repairs and upgrades to improve living conditions.

• Leading the Emergency Shelter TWG of the Somalia Shelter Cluster (with UNHCR as co-lead), and co-leading the Sustainable Solutions TWG also with UNHCR — to foster time-effective and high-quality interventions for shelter responses catering to the growing needs of the affected populations, and to ensure that learnings and findings are effectively disseminated to support Cluster partners in their efforts.

Covering Basic Needs with Multi-Purpose Cash Assistance (MPCA) 

The SNFI unit provides assistance to affected households through the Multi-Purpose Cash Assistance (MPCA) modality, as it is designed to give beneficiaries the flexibility to meet their basic needs according to their own priorities. By its nature, MPCA assistance offers beneficiaries a maximum degree of choice, flexibility, and dignity, emphasizing a sense of independence in how beneficiaries choose to utilize the support provided.