# Baxnaano: Somalia's national cash safety net

> How Baxnaano, Somalia's national safety net, works: who gets it, how much, how it is paid by mobile money, who funds it, and the 2025 youth jobs extension.

Source page: https://calankii.com/en/economy/baxnaano-safety-net/
Last checked: 2026-11-12
Publisher: Calankii (https://calankii.com)

## What it is

Baxnaano is the name of Somalia's **national safety net**, run by the federal **Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs** with support from the World Bank and the Somalia Multi-Partner Fund ([World Bank, December 2025](https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2025/12/10/turning-hope-into-action-investing-in-resilience-through-somalia-s-national-safety-net)).

It began in **2019** under the Shock Responsive Safety Net for Human Capital Project. It was designed as a **state-led** safety net system, run by the Somali government ([World Bank results brief, October 2022](https://www.worldbank.org/en/results/2022/10/10/developing-a-state-led-social-safety-net-system-to-boost-human-capital-and-build-resilience-in-somalia-the-baxnaano-prog)).

## How much families get

- **Regular support:** **$20 a month** per household, for a three-year cycle, linked to child nutrition ([World Bank, 2022](https://www.worldbank.org/en/results/2022/10/10/developing-a-state-led-social-safety-net-system-to-boost-human-capital-and-build-resilience-in-somalia-the-baxnaano-prog)).
- **Emergency support:** up to **$60 a month** for up to six months during droughts, floods or locust attacks (same source; [World Bank, December 2025](https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2025/12/10/turning-hope-into-action-investing-in-resilience-through-somalia-s-national-safety-net)).

## How it is paid

Payments go by **mobile money**. Women were **100 percent** of direct recipients of regular payments and 72 percent of recipients of the locust emergency payments ([World Bank, 2022](https://www.worldbank.org/en/results/2022/10/10/developing-a-state-led-social-safety-net-system-to-boost-human-capital-and-build-resilience-in-somalia-the-baxnaano-prog)). See [Mobile money in Somalia](/en/economy/mobile-money/).

## How many people it reaches

- In its first two years, about **200,000 households** (over 1 million people) received regular payments, in 880 villages across 21 districts. About **100,000 households** got emergency payments after the desert locust outbreak ([World Bank, 2022](https://www.worldbank.org/en/results/2022/10/10/developing-a-state-led-social-safety-net-system-to-boost-human-capital-and-build-resilience-in-somalia-the-baxnaano-prog)).
- By December 2025 the World Bank said Baxnaano had supported **more than four million Somalis** ([World Bank, December 2025](https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2025/12/10/turning-hope-into-action-investing-in-resilience-through-somalia-s-national-safety-net)).

## Who pays for it

Early funding came from World Bank grants: $65 million in 2019, $40 million in 2020 for the locust response, and $185 million more in 2021 ([World Bank, 2022](https://www.worldbank.org/en/results/2022/10/10/developing-a-state-led-social-safety-net-system-to-boost-human-capital-and-build-resilience-in-somalia-the-baxnaano-prog)).

On 28 October 2025 the World Bank approved **BOOST-You**, a **$112 million** project ($100 million from IDA, $10 million from the Somalia Multi-Partner Fund and $2 million from the Global Shield Financing Facility). It will give regular and emergency cash to about **123,000 households (about 738,000 people)**, add cash linked to health and schooling, and aims to create **28,000 jobs for young people by 2029**, 16,800 of them for women ([World Bank, 28 October 2025](https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2025/10/28/over-738000-somalis-to-benefit-from-world-bank-supported-initiative-for-jobs-social-protection-and-climate-resilience)).

## One register for all programmes

The government is building a **Unified Social Registry** with a common registration form, so that one record of each household can be used by every support programme ([World Bank, 2022](https://www.worldbank.org/en/results/2022/10/10/developing-a-state-led-social-safety-net-system-to-boost-human-capital-and-build-resilience-in-somalia-the-baxnaano-prog)).

## Pressures in 2025 and 2026

Federal spending on social benefits fell 88 percent in 2025 as outside funding dropped ([Central Bank of Somalia, Annual Report 2025](https://centralbank.gov.so/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Annual-Report_2025.pdf)). See [Aid to Somalia](/en/economy/aid-and-humanitarian-funding/).

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