Somali Cash Consortium (SCC)

Somalia is facing a severe humanitarian situation. Years of conflict, recurring droughts and floods, large-scale displacement, and poverty continue to affect millions of people. These crises disrupt livelihoods and make it harder for families to recover.

Even in difficult conditions, markets in Somalia often continue to function. Mobile money is widely used, and many traders can adapt quickly during crises. Because of this, cash assistance is often an effective and preferred way to support families, giving people more choice in meeting their most urgent needs.

The Somali Cash Consortium (SCC) was created to make cash assistance more coordinated, consistent, and effective. By bringing together international and national organisations under one framework, SCC helps reduce duplication, strengthen accountability, and improve coverage, especially in hard-to-reach and conflict-affected areas.

Through shared systems, common tools, and collective learning, SCC ensures that assistance reaches vulnerable households on time, supports local markets, and contributes to longer-term resilience and recovery.

The Somali Cash Consortium (SCC) supports people across the country with multi-purpose cash assistance (MPCA). Led by Concern Worldwide, SCC brings together international and national organisations and works with Somali partners to strengthen long-term skills and leadership within local NGOs.

SCC connects with global networks that help organisations improve how they deliver cash assistance. These links support shared learning and better coordination.

Since 2019, SCC has supported national coordination on cash assistance and contributed to research and guidance that helps improve how programmes are designed and delivered.

SCC collaborates with other cash partners, donors, and organisations to strengthen coordination and encourage meaningful local participation. SCC also works with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) through area-based coordination, operational meetings, and mapping exercises to help align partners and reach communities most in need.

SCC contributes to system-wide efforts to improve humanitarian coordination and quality, especially on accountability, targeting, and how different systems work together. SCC members also support coordination at regional and district levels and contribute to national discussions that help shape cash policy and strategy.

SCC comprises of international and national organisations working together to deliver cash assistance and strengthen coordination.

Through its emergency response work, SCC provides multi-purpose cash assistance (MPCA): cash that people can use flexibly to meet their most urgent needs. Support is unconditional and delivered in a shock-responsive way, helping crisis-affected and newly displaced households across Somalia.

This support helps people meet their most urgent needs, such as food, water, healthcare, and essential household items, during emergencies such as drought, floods, displacement, and conflict.

SCC prioritises communities identified through national humanitarian planning and cash coordination processes. This includes hard-to-reach areas, underserved displacement sites, and locations facing severe food insecurity or protection risks.

To help make sure support reaches the people who need it most, SCC uses rapid assessments and clear eligibility criteria. Cash is delivered through secure mobile money systems, alongside checks to help prevent errors and reduce the risk of fraud.

SCC also works to strengthen Somali-led response capacity. Through joint programming, training, and ongoing mentoring, SCC supports Somali organisations to deliver cash assistance safely and effectively, including in challenging environments.

SAGAL (Social Transfers to Vulnerable Somali People)

• Supports vulnerable households including displaced people, returnees, women, youth, older people, and people with disabilities through regular cash assistance.
• Operates across multiple regions to help families meet basic needs and improve their resilience.
• Strengthens government systems for social protection, including registration, coordination, and planning.
• Promotes maternal and child health, youth livelihoods, and inclusive access to services.
• Contributes to the long‑term development of a fair and reliable national safety net.

Child Sensitive Social Protection (CSSP) 

• Provides predictable cash transfers to pregnant and lactating women and caregivers of infants affected by drought and rising food prices.
• Helps families meet basic needs while improving access to maternal, child health, nutrition, and protection services.
• Strengthens government systems for registration, grievance handling, and data management.
• Targets the most vulnerable groups, including female headed households and marginalized communities.
• Supports healthier, more resilient families through linked cash support and service referrals.

Climate-resilient social protection programme (SAGAL 2)

• Helps communities adapt to climate shocks and reduce inequalities through improved social protection and basic services.
• Provides long term cash transfers for pregnant and lactating women and supports youth with vocational training and job opportunities.
• Strengthens maternal and child health services, including clinics, referral pathways, and outreach.
• Supports community led climate resilience efforts, including disaster risk reduction and early warning systems.
• Works with government institutions to build stronger, more coordinated national social protection systems.

1. Targeting and Registration

Using data‑driven vulnerability scoring instead of community selection has made targeting fairer and more consistent. This shift reduced bias and community complaints while helping the programme reliably reach groups often missed in traditional approaches, such as female‑headed households, people with disabilities, and newly arrived IDPs.

2. Shock‑Responsive and Anticipatory Cash

Providing cash early, based on drought or flood warning signs, proved far more effective than waiting until needs escalate. Families who received early support were better able to maintain food consumption, avoid harmful debt, and keep access to essential services, compared with those assisted later.

3. Coordination, Harmonisation and Deduplication

Better coordination between agencies greatly improved coverage and reduced overlaps in assistance. Shared planning and cross‑agency data checks helped ensure households were not registered more than once, filling gaps in underserved areas and strengthening fairness across programmes.

4. Data‑Driven Decision Making

Regular monitoring and assessments helped shape more responsive programming. Evidence on rising prices, household debt, and spending patterns showed the need to adjust transfer values and targeting criteria. This continuous learning approach ensured support remained relevant and effective.

5. Value and Limits of the Consortium Model

The consortium approach brings major benefits, such as harmonised tools, consistent standards, and stronger negotiating power with financial service providers. However, managing many agencies and donors can slow decision‑making, and differing requirements sometimes make full harmonisation difficult.

6. Protection, Inclusion and Accountability

Effective cash programming requires strong protection and inclusion measures. By prioritising vulnerable groups and strengthening feedback systems, such as hotlines and community helpdesks, the programme improved transparency, trust, and safe access to assistance for those most at risk.

This study looks at how humanitarian organisations in Somalia can share information more safely and consistently, so support can be better coordinated. It highlights efforts to use common registration questions and to exchange data securely when needed. The study also notes ongoing challenges, such as different levels of digital capacity, unclear decision-making arrangements, and the need for stronger safeguards when handling sensitive personal data. Overall, it concludes that better coordination is possible, but it depends on clear governance, trust between organisations, and the right resources.

This study explores how people can be connected more easily to the right services when they have multiple needs. It finds that referral systems are often fragmented, especially outside major towns. The report highlights practical steps that can help, such as up-to-date service mapping, shared referral tools, stronger coordination, and training for staff so people can get support more quickly and with fewer barriers.

This study examines how cash assistance can better reach people living in areas affected by conflict, limited access, and weak infrastructure, particularly in southcentral Somalia. Although cash programmes have expanded nationally, hard-to-reach communities remain underserved due to insecurity, limited information, and challenges like diversion and double registration. The report recommends a more systematic, risk aware approach that uses existing data and local knowledge to identify high need areas, understand local dynamics, and strengthen targeting. It also calls for deeper community engagement, partnerships with local and faith-based actors, closer work with financial service providers, and stronger monitoring and feedback systems. These steps would make cash assistance safer, more accountable, and more effective for vulnerable households in difficult to access locations.