Sowing the Seeds of Sovereignty: A One Health Case Study of Food, Relationships, and Resilience in Somalia

Abstract

In Somalia, food insecurity has been shaped by recurrent droughts and climate change, violent conflict, and political instability. For over 35 years, these drivers have undermined local food system autonomy, disrupted economic sovereignty, and entrenched dependence on international assistance and humanitarian food aid. Food aid addresses immediate survival, but it often fails to support long-term sovereignty. As evidenced in Somalia, it can actively worsen structural food insecurity by financing armed groups and destroying local agricultural economies. By narrating the story of an intervention implemented and related by two co-authors, this case explores how seed sharing of Moringa oleifera has enabled Somali communities to rebuild control over food systems and decrease dependency on internationally sourced food aid. We specifically ask how seed sharing can function as a relational, political, community-led practice to adapt to climate and environmental change and establish food sovereignty in complex and aid-dependent conflict zones? This case contributes to emerging research on famine in Somalia by illustrating how community-led adaptation strategies operate through social and political relationships, rather than technical inputs alone. It argues that food insecurity in this context is not simply a function of environmental scarcity, but of how access to resources is structured and mediated.