The Durable Solutions Landscape Assessment (DSLA) for Somalia is a report that addresses elements of a conducive environment for durable solutions. The study aimed to enhance the awareness of the durable solutions landscape in Somalia among durable solutions actors led by the government and to inform and enable more strategic decisions to be made through the National Durable Solutions Strategy (and recently the National Solutions Pathways Plan) coordination mechanism.
The research was conducted in 2024 in partnership with the Department of Poverty Reduction and Durable Solutions (as it then was, now replaced by the National Centre for Rural Development and Durable Solutions). It focused on four key areas of analysis relevant to promoting solutions in Somalia. It looked at the policy and legal landscape, availability, and use of data on displacement-affected communities and areas of displacement, institutions and actors, and financial resources for solutions.
Key Insights from the Report
Policy landscape
The report found that Somalia has robust policies that govern solutions to displacement, including but not limited to the National Durable Solutions Strategy and the Somalia National Policy on Refugee-Returnees and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPS). These policies were also found to be coherent with the national development plan (recently replaced by the National Transformation Plan), international human rights standards specifically covering the protection of and solutions for IDPS, and the Sustainable Development Goals.
While considerable progress has been made in developing the solutions policy landscape in Somalia, there are also areas of improvement. A few areas include: more significant and more meaningful participation of displacement affected communities in the development, implementation and review of these policies for greater accountability, concrete targets with clear means of verification to monitor and evaluate impact, greater linkages to sectoral policies such as health, education, housing, livelihoods and disaster management, more focus on enhancing the agency of displacement-affected communities to make choices that meet their choice of sustainable integration, and prioritisation of prevention as a solutions from the start strategy. The greater goal of the durable solutions policy framework must be to ensure the mainstreaming of durable solutions at all strategic sectoral and budget levels, rather than a separate policy area isolated from sectors that are relevant to promote physical, material, and legal safety for IDPs.
Actor mapping
A key finding of the DSLA report is that while more actors have been involved in the different sectors that enhance access to sustainable integration, there are still gaps in forging and sustaining a coherent approach. The report finds that there are multiple government ministries, departments and agencies that are relevant to supporting IDPS to realise sustainable integration. This finding demonstrates the necessity of a whole-of-government approach and bolsters the need for greater mainstreaming of durable solutions into the sectoral policies in Somalia.
The need for greater coherence was also observed among the United Nations agencies and non-governmental organisations supporting the Government of Somalia to achieve their mandate to promote solutions to displacement. Moreover, just like in the findings on the policy landscape, the report found that IDP representatives and local actors are insufficiently engaged in these key coordination and deliberative actions aimed at implementing the solutions agenda in Somalia. Therefore, a recommendation is to create and sustain an inclusive and deliberative forum that meets regularly to forge, implement, and review a common framework of action for solutions in Somalia. This forum should support actors to better sequence, layer, and integrate their interventions necessary to support IDPs to achieve sustainable integration.
Data on Displacement Affected Communities
There are many data sources on internal displacement and displacement-affected communities, including the recent Durable Solutions Progress Survey (DSP). Before the DSP, no one survey provided government-owned household data for a majority of locations that host IDPS. Many agencies rely on their own data that is aligned to their mandate, which increases data fragmentation and an incoherent approach to addressing needs. While the government is leading the process of data generation at the neighbourhood level, the same should be integrated into other sectoral data collection processes done by line ministries in sectors relevant to durable solutions, such as public works, health, education, and housing.
Multi-purpose area data findings
Durable solutions actors need to understand what systems and structures are available that can promote solutions in the areas where they work. This is important because integration becomes sustainable where interventions work through and with available systems and infrastructure rather than duplicating them. The DSLA found that there are data sources on potential locations for solutions. However, these data sources are fragmented, much like the data on displacement-affected communities. This means that there is no joined-up government-driven approach to area-based data collection and analysis across the HDP nexus in Somalia at present. Key actions to take to remedy this situation include ensuring local leadership over data collection and analysis to ensure that IDPs and IDP settlements are included in the local development plan and all relevant sectoral planning, reinforce the Governance and capacity of local authorities to develop and implement local and sectoral development plans, mainstream displacement, and manage corresponding budgets, and empower and ensure the participation of displacement-affected communities in the data collection and analysis on location and ensure that the main findings inform Community Action Plans when relevant.
Resource mapping
The durable solutions agenda in Somalia has been reasonably well-resourced compared to other contexts. There is strong donor support through an invigorated Donor Durable Solutions Working Group and the financial commitments made through solutions consortia and durable solutions projects in Somalia. This support is crucial to maintaining momentum on the solutions agenda. Still, it needs to be linked to development financing that includes linkages to national, state, and local public finance management systems. Given that IDP status is not an instructive indicator of socio-economic intervention and that they remain citizens of their country with rights like non-displaced citizens, donors in the solutions space need to consider how IDPs can be included in development-oriented programmes with clear indicators that measure the level of access to socio-economic rights as compared to non-displaced populations. This will invariably support the long-term solutions outcomes that may not be sustained merely through solutions projects.
Contribution to understanding durable solutions in Somalia
The report contributes to understanding durable solutions by discussing the relevant thematic issues that contribute to a conducive environment for solutions in Somalia. For a solutions agenda to thrive, there needs to be a policy framework that provides a common framework for action to support the coordination of all interventions relevant to solutions and ensure coherence. The solutions agenda will also need an inclusive and deliberative coordination forum where all actors, especially displacement-affected communities, participate in formulating, implementing, and reviewing interventions to promote access to sustainable integration for IDPS. Reliable data on displacement-affected community needs and the resources available in the locations of potential integration can power effective coordination. This data needs to be comprehensive, available, accessible, and easily useable to inform operational and policy decision choices. Finally, durable solutions cannot be achieved without access to a broad-based resource network. Solutions financing requires leveraging multiple financing sources to ensure outcomes’ sustainability.
