Strengthening the Pillars of Nexus Somalia is one of the most food insecure countries in the horn of Africa. Conflict, insecurity and climatic shocks continue to aggravate vulnerabilities and trigger population displacements across Somalia . And Somalia is on the verge of 4th consecutive failed rainfall season and is at the risk of a potentially extreme drought situation by April 2022 . According to Humanitarian Needs Overview(HNO) 2022  approximately 7.7 million people in Somalia will need humanitarian assistance and protection in 2022 due to recurrent climatic shocks particularly (drought and floods, disease outbreaks including COVID-19 and increasing poverty) and conflict in various parts of the country. To reduce the risks of conflict and disasters through improving the impact of triple nexus programing, NEXUSplatform discussed and realized the need to conduct following initiatives/ studies.
1. Community-led early warning system guide forNEXUS platform
2. Peace building strategy for NEXUS platform
3. NEXUS platform’s HDP triple nexus in practice
The establishment of Community-led Early Warning Systems is the need of the hour. Besides that, an effective peace building strategy is required in orderto ensure that development efforts do not go in vain due to recurrent conflicts. Early Warning Systems (EWS) fall under the umbrella of Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and it includes hazard monitoring system, forecasting and prediction of disasters, communication and preparedness activities, systems and processes that are meant to equipthe people, communities, businesses, and government entities to react timely in order to reduce disaster risks in advance. However, there has been a paradigm shift in EWS which follows a ‘bottom-up’ approach and is ‘people-centered’ that came to be knownas Community-based Early Warning Systems. This approach deals with all the systems and processes of EWS and is inclusive of the community. Keeping in view the current situation in Somalia, a Community-led Early Warning System is inevitable. The persistent droughts and flash floods along with other disasters have been affecting thecommunity unprecedently. NEXUS platform aims to develop the CEWS guide for providing all the platform member organizations a roadmap to successfully implement the programmes onCommunity-led Early Warning systems in Somalia and Somaliland. This proposed initiativewill not only benefit the Somali People but it will also further strengthen strategic pillars of Nexus platform.
Regarding the peace building strategy and the GlobalPeace Index (GPI) ranking 2020, Somalia stands at 158 out of 163 counties . There is a dire need of advocacy for peace building at government level and at local level. Along with it, Social cohesion and protection mainstreaming efforts can play a vital role in peace building. Under the third strategic Pillar of Nexus- “Thought leadership and Advocacy” the platform is committed to creating Social Cohesion and Women Empowerment and it intends to formulate its Peace building strategy to develop a ‘peace–culture’ by devising innovative strategies for dealing with conflict and violence.
All the Nexus platform members endorse the HDP- Triple Nexus Approach for an inclusive response as it has been adopted by Nexus member organizations to implement integrated programming. Furthermore, under the DRA fund project, four NEXUS member organizations piloted the use of triple nexus programming in Somalia. In order to measure the extent to which this approach has been adopted and to analyze its practical implications, an assessment on integrated programming is required for each Nexus member organization to highlight their current standing regarding theintegrated programming. It will also lead to knowledge sharing and dissemination of best practices, besides highlighting the gaps in the implementation of HDP- Triple Nexus Approach. The study findings will also guide in the required steps towards effectively integrating the triple nexus approach in the future programmes.
Role of Nexus Platform: Strengthening the Strategic Pillars
Since its inception, the Nexus platform has been committed to serve the people of Somalia/Somaliland through a locally-led approach. In line, the platform has been undertaking researches to strengthen its strategic pillars so that the capacity of local partner organizations can be enhanced in order to deliver an integrated locally-led change. Under the delimited budget, the Nexus platform has conducted the following studies and assessment.
• In July 2021, Nexus conducted organizational capacity assessments (OCA) for all platform member organizations
• Nexus platform has  recently developed a “Community- driven Development Guide” to Support the Design and Implementation of CDD Projects in Somalia/Somaliland
• A Women Leadership Tool (2021) has been formulated by the Nexus platform through rigorous research
• Localization Research Study conducted in 2021
• Total 04 Research Papers are developed and signed off by all the Nexus platform members (1- Nexus Platforms Example Implementation Plan, 2- Nexus Platforms Governance and Fund Structure, 3- Nexus Platforms Learning Paper A Somali consortium putting nexus programming into action, 4- Nexus Platforms Perspective on Change
• Participatory Action Research on Humanitarian Aid Dependency and the Impacts of Climate Change in Somalia was also conducted by Nexus in July, 2021
• In September 2021, Nexus platform carried out Gender Assessment
Proposed Initiatives by Nexus Platform
The NEXUS platform has been working on its strategic pillars for a better performance as mentioned above. The Nexus platform is currently striving to link the immediate relief with longer-term resilience and peacebuilding efforts. NEXUS platform is contributing in an integrated earlyaction, emergency response and community- based development initiatives to particularly play its role in peacebuilding in Somalia/ Somaliland. To further enhance the performance of Nexus platform members and to better serve the disaster-stricken people, Nexus platform is proposing the following initiatives/ research studies for the period of three months.