Updated October 2026: this post was first published in April 2019 to share the report. We have expanded it with a summary drawn from the results presentation.
Decisions about displacement in Mogadishu are usually made without hearing directly from the people they affect, displaced or not. The Common Social Accountability Platform (CSAP), developed by Africa’s Voices Foundation and launched with ReDSS and the Banadir Regional Administration, with funding from Danida, DFID and ECHO, set out to change that. Its first iteration was a four-part interactive radio series on displacement and durable solutions: debate shows driven by text messages that listeners sent in, designed to widen dialogue between citizens and authorities and to gather evidence on public opinion for durable solutions programmes.
How the pilot worked
Over four weeks, the shows aired on five Mogadishu stations: Risaala, Mustaqbal, Star FM, Kulmiye and Dalsan. Listeners responded through a free SMS shortcode, and 3,267 people sent 14,391 messages. Participants then received short demographic surveys. Just over half (51.2 percent) were displaced, 31 percent lived in camps, and 41.9 percent had been displaced within the past year. Around 40 percent were women, and most participants were under 30. Each week posed one question: what are the best solutions to support displaced people in Mogadishu; should displaced people be integrated into the community; do displaced people face discrimination; and what is the best way to solve the eviction crisis.
What people said
Asked about solutions, the most common answer was crowdfunding, raised more often by people under 25, by women and by participants in the eastern districts (36.4 percent, against 22.2 percent elsewhere). The difference between recently displaced and host community participants on this point was not statistically significant. On integration, many of those who said yes pointed to a shared Somali identity and to religious values of mutual help. Others saw displaced people as “other communities”, or associated them with poor health, perceptions the report suggests need careful handling. Participants linked the lack of contact between hosts and displaced people to distance, distrust and discrimination.
On evictions, sympathy for those affected was strong, especially among women. The most frequent idea, from about 200 people, was that better governance was needed to stop evictions; about 64 said displaced people should return to their areas of origin. Other proposals included buying land and building houses, committees to monitor evictions, and pressure on private landlords. Many participants rejected a separate stream of assistance through camps and NGOs and called for integrated services instead, a view younger people were significantly more likely to hold.
What the findings suggest for programming
The report draws out several implications. Social cohesion work can build on shared identity, and can be targeted geographically: building on greater sympathy in the eastern districts while prioritising northern districts such as Daynile and Kaxda, where sympathy was lower but the displaced caseload higher. Women and young people, who were more likely to express sympathy, are natural allies. Shared spaces where hosts and displaced people interact could counter distrust. Committees that include hosts, displaced people, women and young people could support transparent aid management and early warning of evictions, under government leadership and transparency policies. Aid actors, facing low trust, need to revisit their own accountability systems.
How participants rated the consultation
They did: 78 percent of participants said the consultation made them feel included in decision-making, and 93 percent said it should be repeated. The same radio approach was later taken up in Baidoa and Bossaso, as described in our FMR article on urban displacement in Somalia.
Read the full report and the summary presentation.
References
Africa’s Voices Foundation, ReDSS and Banadir Regional Administration (2019). Common Social Accountability Platform: results and findings from citizen-led discussions on displacement and durable solutions in Mogadishu. Summary presentation. https://www.regionaldss.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/CSAP-FINAL-PRESENTATION-2019.pdf
