article · Cogent Arts and Humanities
Recurrent drought and rainfall variability are altering cultural identity, social structures, and coping strategies across drought-affected Somali communities. Qualitative interviews with thirty-five community members and practitioners reveal four primary dynamics: the disruption of pastoral identity, shifts in household roles and authority, widespread reliance on informal networks and traditional practices, and the gradual exhaustion of these coping mechanisms under continuous environmental strain. While actions such as mobility, livelihood diversification, indigenous forecasting, and faith-based assistance help individuals survive immediate crises, they often fail to support long-term recovery or structural change. The ability to benefit from community support networks is heavily shaped by gender, age, social standing, and access to resources. Overall, resilience practices are culturally embedded and deeply differentiated, but are becoming increasingly constrained under prolonged and extensive climate shocks.
Climate shocks do more than destroy livelihoods; they reshape fundamental cultural identities and traditional social support systems. Understanding how communities adapt, and recognising the limits of these coping strategies, helps policymakers, humanitarian agencies, and development organisations design targeted interventions. Ensuring support reaches vulnerable groups requires acknowledging how age, gender, and social status dictate access to resources during crises.
This qualitative research does not directly deliver a commercial product, sitting at the level of foundational social and policy insight. However, it indicates an operational need for accessible climate services that integrate local ecological knowledge with institutional systems. Such frameworks could inform development organisations and public agencies designing climate information platforms, infrastructure programmes, or equitable livelihood support services for pastoralist and agro-pastoralist regions.
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This qualitative study examines how recurrent drought and rainfall variability reshape cultural identity, social organization, and resilience practices among drought-affected Somali communities. Data were generated through semi-structured interviews and key informant interviews with 35 purposively selected participants, including elders, pastoralists and agro-pastoralists, women, youth, religious leaders, local officials, and humanitarian practitioners. Thematic analysis identified four interrelated processes: disruption and renegotiation of pastoral identity; reconfiguration of authority, household roles, and intergenerational relations; reliance on mobility, livelihood diversification, informal exchange, indigenous forecasting, and faith-based support; and progressive exhaustion of these responses under repeated and spatially extensive shocks. Interpreted through absorptive, adaptive, and transformative resilience capacities, the findings show that many observed practices secure immediate survival but do not necessarily enable recovery or structural transformation. Access to assets, credible climate information, infrastructure, institutional support, gender, generation, and social position condition who can benefit from community networks. The study’s contribution is therefore not the general claim that Somali communities are resilient, but an account of resilience as culturally meaningful, socially differentiated, and increasingly constrained. Policy should connect local ecological knowledge with accessible climate services, accountable institutions, climate-resilient infrastructure, and equitable livelihood support.
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DOI: 10.1080/23311983.2026.2717951
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