Early Lifesaving Response to Elnino induced flooding in Beledweyne (ELREF) ltpgtltspan style="font-size: 14px"gtSomalia is a disaster-affected country and is highly exposed to severe flooding and droughts in repeated cycles. Every year, Somalia faces the impact of floods in riverine areas and droughts in the plains of the arid areas. Severe floods cover most parts of the farming lands in the riverine towns and rural areas. The intense floods surpass the ability of communities to cope, leading to deaths and the destruction of key infrastructure, livelihoods and homes, creating widespread humanitarian needs with longer-term development consequences. The natural disasters exacerbating poverty continue to drive Somali rural agro- pastoral communities away from their homes and into overcrowded camps in the towns and cities. The humanitarian needs in Somalia continue to be high, with the highest record this year of about 8.25 million people in urgent need of immediate life-saving humanitarian and protection assistance. About 3.8 million people have been displaced from their homes due to insecurity, conflict, forced evictions, drought and floods. lt/spangtltspan style="font-size: 14px"gtAccording to FEWSNET, Gu (April to June) rains brought relief and was beneficial for cropping activities however in some parts of Somalia, it caused riverine flooding. lt/spangtlt/pgtltpgtltspan style="font-size: 14px"gtltbrgtlt/spangtlt/pgtltpgtltspan style="font-size: 14px"gtIn Beledweyn and the revirine areaslt/spangtltspan style="font-size: 14px"gt, tlt/spangtltspan style="font-size: 14px"gthe Gu seasonal floods lt/spangtltspan style="font-size: 14px"gtaffected over 468,000 people with about 30 dead, displaced at least 247,000 from their homes, damaged infrastructure and inundating thousands of hectares of land across Somalia. From October, an anticipated El Nino coupled with an expected positive Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD), is expected to result in an above-average rainfall for the upcoming Deyr rains of October- December. According to the latest predictions from the World Meteorological Organization, there is a 95 percent probability of El Nino persisting in Somalia. El Nino will cause flooding, loss of lives, livelihoods and property, population displacement and destruction of infrastructure and crops. This would result in an increase in acute food insecurity and disease outbreak. FAO reports show that the impact is likely to be greatest in riverine livelihoods along lt/spangtltspan style="font-size: 14px"gtJuba and Shabelle river.  lt/spangtBeledweyneltspan style="font-size: 14px"gt in Hiran region, is one of the lt/spangtriverineltspan style="font-size: 14px"gt areas that lt/spangtexperienceltspan style="font-size: 14px"gt destructive floods during the rainy season in Somalia or lt/spangtEthiopianltspan style="font-size: 14px"gt lt/spangthighlandsltspan style="font-size: 14px"gt ( the source of river Shabelle).lt/spangtlt/pgtltpgtltspan style="font-size: 14px"gtltbrgtlt/spangtlt/pgtltdiv style="" class=""gtltp class="" style=""gtIt is under this anticipation that IRW proposed project to implement El Nino mitigation response in Beledweyne town, Hiran region in Hirshabelle. The project will target 1430 households or 8,580 beneficiaries (2516 men, 3,030 women, 1152 boys, and 1880girls) with unconditional cash transfers. The unconditional cash will be part of the immediate life-saving response to vulnerable people that will be affected by El Nino induced flooding.  The UCT will be for 4 months at $ 70 / per HH based on CWG rate for the sites. The  project will target 6 villages in Beledweyn covering IDPs ( 70%) and host community (30%). The project will be implemented in Lefow, Shinile, Bacad, Wadajir, Dharkeynta, Nimcaan.  lt/pgtltp class="" style=""gtThe project is funded by SHF under RA 5 as an anticipatory response to the impeding El- Nino.  The allocation targets riverine communities living along rivers Shabelle and Jubba and covers FSL, Health, Shelter/ NFI, WASH and protection sectors. IRW  project activities provide UCT under FSL sector in Beldeweyn. IRW FSl component will work closely and coordinate with the cluster  members and other agencies implementing SHF project activities in Shelter/ NFI, Health, WASH and Protection to ensure comprehensive areas based approach of the emergency assistances.lt/pgtlt/divgt