Between drought and identity: climate variability, cultural change and constrained resilience in Somalia

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.