The Recovery and Sustainable Livelihood Programme supports vulnerable communities by providing pro-poor social services towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals and by creating an enabling environment for reconstruction and development. It strives to increase local communities’ income, improve their ability to manage natural resources, and prevent or mitigate the impact of disasters, both natural and man-made. The programme particularly focuses on community support, with an inclusive range of partners at the community level and in the private sector.

In mid-2008, RSL activities have been implemented against a backdrop of a recrudescence of conflict in some areas of Somalia and a concomitant food security and livelihood crisis affecting large parts of the country. This crisis stems from the severe drought affecting some regions, as well as the recent hyperinflation and significant increase in prices of basic commodities (including food). These realities create new displacement and humanitarian needs are on the increase. Supporting livelihoods within a coherent early recovery approach is thus of paramount importance.

The recovery and sustainable livelihood programme has six projects:

•  Area-based Early Recovery for Affected Communities — Building on communities’ coping mechanisms, this initiative addresses their vulnerability to natural hazards and disasters, the livelihood assets and opportunities available to households, and the policies and structures in place for livelihood development and disaster management.

• Employment Generation for Early Recovery Project — This project seeks to create income and jobs for vulnerable groups such as women, youth, and IDPs and their host communities in South Central Somalia.

• Private sector development – supports the emergence of a viable private sector in Somalia by promoting inclusive market development and an inclusive financial sector. In particular, UNDP helps develop microfinance and supports the Somali meat export sector, one of the main sources of employment and export income.

• Watershed management and flood protection – this project helps communities to protect themselves against the threat and effect of floods, and to harvest water for agriculture and livestock.

• Environment and disaster management – this initiative seeks to promote the livelihoods gains of environmental conservation. It also reinforces the UNDP’s work on watershed management and flood protection.

• Protection, Reintegration, and Resettlement of IDPs in Bossaso, Somalia - The project aims to improve human security and living standards and provide durable solutions for reintegration and resettlement of IDPs and returnees in Somalia, with a particular focus on IDPs currently in Bossaso, North-east Somalia.