The impediments and key challenges in Somalia's humanitarian emergency response (original) (raw)
Related papers
Stabilisation and humanitarian access in a collapsed state: the Somali case
Disasters, 2010
Somalia today is the site of three major threats: the world's worst humanitarian crisis; the longestrunning instance of complete state collapse; and a robust jihadist movement with links to Al-Qa'ida. External state-building, counter-terrorism and humanitarian policies responding to these threats have worked at cross-purposes. State-building efforts that insist humanitarian relief be channelled through the nascent state in order to build its legitimacy and capacity undermine humanitarian neutrality when the state is a party to a civil war. Counter-terrorism policies that seek to ensure that no aid benefits terrorist groups have the net effect of criminalising relief operations in countries where poor security precludes effective accountability. This paper argues that tensions between stabilisation and humanitarian goals in contemporary Somalia reflect a long history of politicisation of humanitarian operations in the country.
Counter-Insurgency Operations of the African Union and Mitigation of Humanitarian Crisis in Somalia
Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences
The protracted armed conflict in Somalia has engendered an unprecedented humanitarian crisis; one that makes it a leading storehouse of the worst humanitarian conditions in the world. The intervention of the African Union (AU) through its third Peace Support Operation- the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM)- was aimed at supporting the Transitional Federal Institutions in the stabilisation of the country, advancing dialogue and reconciliation as well as facilitating the provision of humanitarian support. The achievement of the humanitarian component of the mission’s mandate is largely contingent on the first two mandates. Essentially, this study interrogated the interface between the implementation of the humanitarian component of AMISOM mandate and the control of the worsening conditions of Somali internally displaced persons and refugees. Anchoring analysis within the classical approach to national security, the study found that the restoration of relative stability in the ...
Accessing the inaccessible: Assembling Humanitarian Access in Somalia
BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE: NAVIGATING WAR, POLITICS AND EXPLODING NEEDS THROUGH PRINCIPLED HUMANITARIAN ACTION. Humanitarian Congress: Research Papers., 2024
Somalia has historically been the theater of a set of complex challenges, including decades of political instability that is currently intertwined with instances of terrorism and extremism, the dire effects of climate and environmental change, and significant trends of mass displacement. The country has therefore provided a prominent ground for the emergence of humanitarian challenges and the test of humanitarian approaches and responses. Key among them, humanitarian access continues to represent a puzzle for the humanitarian community working in and on Somalia. For instance, the country has often been described as "hard-to-reach" (IFRC 2018), meaning that its communities "are not receiving essential humanitarian assistance because humanitarian actors (local, national or international) are not adequately present or able to provide adequate assistance to the places where they are located" (IFRC 2018, 1). State fragmentation, violent political contestation, infrastructural gaps and donors' neglect have all contributed to hampering governmental and non-governmental organizations' efforts to provide assistance to people in need in Somalia. Over the years, the humanitarian community has done its best to overcome existing challenges, through the implementation of creative and sometimes daring practical solutions to ensure humanitarian access. While recognizing the importance of experimenting pragmatic solutions to meet pressing needs, we argue that part of the challenges also arises from a tendency to often take as a given and reify Somalia's inaccessibility to humanitarians. Humanitarian access has been defined by OCHA (2010, 1), the United Nations (UN) agency in charge of coordinating humanitarian affairs, as "humanitarian actors' ability to reach populations affected by crisis, as well as an affected population's ability to access humanitarian assistance and services" and, therefore, as a "a fundamental prerequisite to effective humanitarian action." Such a definition is often treated as absolute and rarely challenged. furthering the crystallization of certain places as inaccessible or "hard-to-reach". In the conversations we had with humanitarian practitioners in Somalia, that gave rise to this work, we often observed a tendency to recognize access as dynamic and fluidin the words of one interviewee, as "in a constant state of flux" (FAO). However, this same fluidity was moreoften-than-not attributed only to contextual and external factors, and rarely we observed selfawareness and critical reflexivity on the role of logics and criteria that humanitarians themselves attribute to access in constructing a place as (in)accessible. With this work we aim to call into question the criteria informing the conceptualizationand crystallization-of "hard-to-reach" areas, as well as their effects on the daily practice of accessing. We claim that access, or rather inaccessibility, does not exist in a vacuum; rather, it depends on the underpinning logics and criteria that are attached to access itself, and on the mosaicand interactionof human and non-human entities that are involved in gaining access to a certain place. We hope, in this way, to open new creative spaces for humanitarians to rethink what access means. This map shows the places that are in IPC [Integrated Food Security Phase Classification] 1-2 all the way to 5. The green is minimal IPC 1, yellow IPC 2, usually we provide humanitarian intervention from IPC 3 and above. (...) Then we start the process of selecting the people that we provide assistance to. So we use data from this map to inform programme design and location of programmes and activity.
2022
It has been a constant feature in peacekeeping missions that military forces are accused of violating the rights of those vulnerable, particularly children and women. This notion has blighted the significance of the debate on whether these forces working jointly with humanitarian agencies could create synergies for protecting children from the risks of abuse by belligerents. While the rising demand for joint military-humanitarian initiatives on the African continent is starting to be visible, cases of children abuse remain on the rise in countries experiencing armed conflict such as Somalia. What are the opportunities and challenges facing the potential for joint initiatives between military forces and humanitarian agencies? Using the case of the Eastern Africa Standby Force (EASF), this article will particularly uncover the main driving forces constraining military forces from effectively protecting children's rights in Somalia. In conclusion, the article points to the need to improve the civil-military relationship by building sustainable partnerships as a prerequisite for protecting the rights of children in fragile states.
UK Aid, 2015
The United Kingdom (UK) Department for International Development’s (DFID) has conducted an initial programmatic evaluation of the Somalia 2013 – 2017 Humanitarian Programme. The scope of this Evaluation is from the establishment of DFID’s Business Case to December 2014. While originally conceived as a “Real time Evaluation” in the Terms of Reference, the Evaluation went beyond this scope in the data collected, its analysis, and how these pinpoint issues for both short-term and long-term programming. The Evaluation’s objective is review how DFID has designed and established the Programme and how partners have worked together (and with DFID) to develop designs and activities. This is important given that many partners have come together specifically as part of DFID’s multi-year funding approach, specifically the Strengthening Nutrition Security in South Central Somalia (SNS), Building Resilient Communities in Somalia (BRCiS) consortium, and the United Nations Joint Resilience Strategy that includes FAO, UNICEF and WFP. These and related activities, especially regarding partnership, knowledge sharing, flexibility and adaptability, and other organisational dynamics have a direct influence on how partners work individually and collectively toward results.