Nutrition-sensitive livestock interventions in complex and overlapping threats affected communities of Somali Regional State This project is an emergency livelihood support to pastoral and agro-pastoral communities affected by complex and overlapping threats in selected woredas of the Somali Region. The project aims at linking the emergency interventions with an overall strategy for sustainable recovery programs in drought/flood/locust/COVID – 19 affected areas. The project contributes to improved food security and resilience building of pastoral and agro-pastoral communities to complex stresses through integrated livestock interventions. The project envisages that the community will be able to protect the livelihood losses due to complex threats and re-bounce from the stress without going to a disaster. Therefore, the project will provide livelihoods and life-saving support to pastoral and agro-pastoral communities affected by the current complex and overlapping threats (drought, flood, desert locust, COVID 19) in the Somali Region. Support will focus on providing animal feed, animal health services, and emergency fodder seed support. This is believed to reduce the need for the forced sale of household assets, help maintain household food security, reduce under-nutrition, and protect life.

Accordingly, a total of 10,000 households owning 120,000 sheep and goats in two woredas namely  Adadle (5,500 HHs) and Qelafo  (4,500HHs) of Shebelle  Zone, Somali region will be addressed. The proposed activities include the following: 

	A total of 2,700 households in the two targeted woredas (Adadle 1,500 HHs owning 7,500 animals) and (Qelafo 1,200 HHs owning 6,000 animals) of Shebelle zone with 13,500 core breeding animals (Shoats) will benefit from a daily supplementary feed provision to each animal for duration of 90 days. 
	A total of 120,000 livestock belonging to 10,000 HHs will receive animal health services based on a voucher system
	A total of 2,000 HHs in the two woredas (1,000 HHs in Adadle) and (1,000 HHs in Qelafo) will benefit from fodder seed provision. This will help the community in building resilience capacity to future shocks.

These interventions are planned in line with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s – Livestock Relief Interventions in Pastoralists Areas of Ethiopia and the Livestock Emergencies Guidelines and Standards (LEGS).

Therefore, supporting livelihoods to strengthen households’ resilience to recurrent shocks is found to be important to focus on recovery and protection of livelihood and rebuilding agriculturally based resilience of communities to withstand recurrent shocks. The activities under this proposal such as (animal feed, animal health, and fodder seed interventions), are aimed to contribute to the DRM ATF strategy. 

The project is based on the previous experience of VSF-Suisse in the area and on-going interventions. Therefore, there will be participatory monitoring and evaluation mechanisms targeting towards better accountability to the community and enhanced learning. Gender and protection will be mainstreamed and monitored in the project.

Also, in households led by ill, elderly people, labour availability may be very low and, in these cases, the project will consult the community to set criteria to identify the bed-ridden and those who have mobility issues. Mechanisms of voluntary community labour will be put in place so that other community members may deliver livestock supplementary feed to such households. 

In regards to trainings and workshops as part of the project activities, VSF-Suisse will implement strict actions to protect trainees and training facilitators from COVID-19 transmission and a wider spread of the virus within communities and these actions to be implemented are included in the 'Other Info' section of the proposal.