Kampala, Uganda — Somalia’s National Economic Advisor, Dr. Abdinur Ali Mohamed, led a high-level delegation to the sixth East Africa Climate Finance Directors’ Meeting in Uganda, where he presented the country’s latest progress in mobilizing and managing climate finance. The discussions highlighted Somalia’s growing institutional capacity and its ambition to access greater international funding for climate resilience.

Somalia has built a foundational architecture for climate finance, anchored by the newly established National Climate Fund, which is designed to channel and monitor climate-related investments. The country has already accessed about $170 million through six approved Green Climate Fund projects, including the $95 million “Ugbaad” agriculture resilience program. Another initiative—the multi-country “Hardest-to-Reach” project—extends Somalia’s participation in region-wide climate action, while an accelerated $100 million investment pipeline is being prepared to expand future projects.

Somalia’s Green Climate Fund Country Programme prioritizes areas such as drought and flood management along the Jubba River, coastal protection in Hobyo and Kismayo, renewable energy for off-grid communities, and urban ecosystem adaptation. These efforts are backed by readiness programs that strengthened national institutions, developed a resource mobilization strategy, and laid out transparent procedures for project approval.

Despite significant progress, Somalia and other East African nations remain underfunded compared to their vast adaptation needs. Analysts estimate that the country has so far secured only a fraction of the required financing to address recurring droughts, floods, and land degradation. Limited direct access to global climate funds, institutional capacity gaps, and security challenges continue to constrain implementation.

The Uganda meeting underscored regional consensus on bridging the climate finance gap through blended finance, carbon markets, and green bonds. For Somalia, transforming its robust policy groundwork into sustained financial inflows will be key to protecting its people, ecosystems, and economy from the accelerating impacts of climate change.