Updated October 2026: this post was first published in October 2019 to announce the government’s endorsement. We have expanded it with a summary of the seven principles.
The Federal Government of Somalia has endorsed and adopted a set of seven programming principles for durable solutions. The principles were first formulated in 2016 and 2017 by ReDSS and its partners, drawing on what agencies had learned from implementing durable solutions projects. In 2018 they were revised jointly with NGOs and UN agencies, in a process coordinated by ReDSS and the UN Resident Coordinator’s Office, so that one harmonised set could guide the growing number of durable solutions programmes in the country. Their value has been practical: they give projects with different donors and partners a common reference for design, which has helped make programmes more coherent with one another.
The principles apply to displacement-affected communities, meaning internally displaced people, refugee returnees and the host communities they live among, and to the government and other actors working with them. They sit within the framework of the National Development Plan for 2017 to 2019, which guided Somalia’s development response to displacement.
Government-led and area-based
The first principle is that interventions are government-led. They help the government take responsibility for durable solutions, lead and coordinate across sectors and all levels of government, and are guided by the National Development Plan and other government frameworks, supporting national, state and local authorities to plan, deliver and monitor services. The second is that interventions are area-based. They focus on all displacement-affected communities in a defined location and tailor the response to that area’s conditions, risks and opportunities, with partners in the same area working through joint analysis, planning, coordination and referral.
Collective, participatory and rights-based
Third, interventions should be collective. No single project has to cover every aspect of durable solutions, but each should contribute to a long-term approach that crosses sectors and involves humanitarian, development, human rights, peacebuilding and state-building actors, working towards outcomes shared with government, civil society, communities, the private sector, researchers and international partners. Fourth, they should be participatory and community-based: communities take an active part in selecting, planning, implementing and monitoring activities, set their own priorities, and are supported to build reconciliation and social cohesion through inclusive processes. Fifth, they should be rights- and needs-based, guided by the needs, rights, interests, resources and capacities of the communities concerned. That includes respecting displaced people’s right to make informed and voluntary choices about which solution to pursue, and aiming for them to enjoy their rights without discrimination linked to displacement.
Inclusive and sustainable
Sixth, interventions should be sensitive to gender, age, disability and marginalisation, paying particular attention to the concerns of women, young people, people with disabilities and marginalised groups, and to the identity-based dynamics that exclude some people from rights, services and opportunities. Seventh, they should be sustainable. That means supporting locally led solutions by government, civil society, the private sector and communities; strengthening government capacity at every level; working through existing government and community structures rather than creating parallel ones; being conflict-sensitive and aiming to contribute to peace and development; and relying on long-term planning, multi-year budgets and flexible, adaptive programming.
Why endorsement matters
Principles agreed among agencies guide how projects are designed. Principles endorsed by government become a shared standard that authorities can hold partners to. Our 2019 solutions analysis update used four of these ideas, area-based planning, sustainable (re)integration, collective outcomes and government engagement, to assess progress in Mogadishu, Kismayo and Baidoa.
Read the endorsed programming principles.
References
Durable Solutions Programming Principles (2019), endorsed by the Federal Government of Somalia. Shared by the Regional Durable Solutions Secretariat. https://www.regionaldss.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Endorsed-DS-Programming-Principles-FINAL.pdf
