Roughly half of all Somali households rely on remittances to cover basic needs such as food, water and basic health care. According to Somali money transfer operators (MTOs), remittances have already declined substantially since the onset of COVID-19 due to economic pressures on members of the Somali diaspora. This is a global phenomenon, with the World Bank projecting that remittances will drop 20% in 2020 due to the COVID-19 crisis, and Somali communities will feel this acutely, with communities that are already vulnerable, who rely so centrally to remittance flows, and who are already facing many barriers to their delivery.

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