02.10.2026
Africa

Impact Synthesis: Somalia Project

This impact synthesis draws on an outcome evaluation of the project Infrastructures for Peace and Environmental Peacebuilding in Hirshabelle and Galmudug States (2023–2026) to assess how integrating climate and environmental concerns into dialogue and mediation has supported conflict transformation.

Recurrent resource-related conflicts between communities in Somalia are increasingly compounded by climate shocks, with six failed rainy seasons displacing an estimated 680,000 people in 2025 and pushing 6.6 million into food insecurity. This impact synthesis, developed by the Berghof Foundation and adelphi, draws on an outcome evaluation of the project Infrastructures for Peace and Environmental Peacebuilding in Hirshabelle and Galmudug States (2023–2026) to assess how integrating climate and environmental concerns into dialogue and mediation has supported conflict transformation. The report covers:

  • Project context, outlining how climate shocks and environmental degradation are compounding resource-related conflict in Somalia's federal member states, and how the Insider Peacebuilders Network (IPN) underpins the project's approach.
  • Key outcomes, including Sustained Dialogue processes that built trust and informal agreements between divided communities, large-scale community assemblies (Shirarka) that strengthened social cohesion, climate security action plans that grounded local adaptation and mediation efforts, and radio programmes that extended climate-peace dialogue and early-warning messaging to remote audiences.
  • Lessons on integrated programming, covering how framing dialogue around shared environmental concerns opens more inclusive entry points, why moving from dialogue to action requires partnerships and resources beyond the scope of peacebuilding alone, how local ownership and capacity drive impact, and how accessible media can broaden the reach of climate and peace discourse.
  • Recommendations, addressed to practitioners, policymakers and donors, on building inclusive environmental peacebuilding approaches, connecting dialogue with implementation capacity, strengthening locally led action in remote areas, mobilising local and diaspora resources, and securing long-term, coordinated financing.

Learn more about the project "Infrastructures for Peace and Environmental Peacebuilding in Hirshabelle and Galmudug States, Somalia" here. 

Read the full outcome evaluation "Weathering the risk in Somalia: An evaluation and analysis of outcomes" here.