Poverty in Somalia - The Borgen Project (2024)

Decades of war have left approximately one million landmines in Somalia, explosives that harm or kill whoever contacts them, whether an armed combatant or an innocent child. Thousands of Somalians have died from landmines. The presence of mines also limits communities’ access to land, hindering crop growth and exacerbating hunger.

The Halo Trust, a nonprofit organization founded in 1988, is methodically removing landmines in Somalia. Their work makes the country safer, improving the lives of Somalians.

Improving Agropastoralism

In August 2021, the Halo Trust celebrated the clearance of one million square meters of land in Somalia from landmines. Land clearance positively impacts agropastoralism. Once land is safe from explosives, herders can use it for livestock grazing. They no longer have to worry about losing their cows and donkeys to accidents, which can be worth more than two months’ wages.

Communities also use cleared land to produce frankincense, made from the resin of Boswellia sacra trees and earn income. These trees have been growing in the region for thousands of years and can generate frankincense nearly year-round. Harvesting frankincense offers a way for people in Somalia to earn a reliable income and support their families.

Increasing Safety Through Education

Clearing landmines is painstaking work and takes significant time. Until the Halo Trust can rid Somalia of landmines, it is educating communities on avoiding their risks. Education efforts prioritize children because they are often curious and at high risk for landmine accidents. The Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor, a program researching and monitoring worldwide landmines and munitions, reported that 88% of deaths from landmines in Somalia in 2019 were children.

Employing People in Landmine Communities

Creating jobs in Somalia is critical. The World Bank reported in 2022 that 70% of its citizens are impoverished. In recent years, the country has faced droughts and widespread food insecurity.

The organization employs people from the communities where it works, creating jobs while propelling landmine clearance. Halo Somalia employs nearly 400 men and women from landmine communities in Somalia. These jobs are concentrated along the border between Somalia and Ethiopia, where most of the nation’s landmines are located. Jobs are often scarce in these regions, especially for women. Through this work, locals benefit economically while helping to make their communities safer.

Though much work remains to declare the globe landmine-free, the Halo Trust is progressing and improving lives in Somalia.

– Kelly Carroll
Photo: Flickr

Somalia is plagued with a fragile government, economic pressure and insecurity for its people. However, one of the most significant issues is children’s and women’s treatment in Somalia.

Current Picture

Somalia ranks fourth lowest in the gender equality index with one of the highest maternal and infant mortality rates in the world. The nation has a long history of gender inequality, male dominance, and mistreatment of women and children, which is brought up through generations. The reason why the country continues to see high levels of abuse in women and girls is because of society’s grip on the crisis.

In Somalia, a staggering 98% of girls deal with abuse. Girls between the ages of 9 and 15 experience sexual violence, exploitation and physical abuse. Without any legal framework protecting girls’ rights, about 35% of girls undergo child marriage, which contributes to the alarming number of abuse cases.

Most women and girls deal with genital mutilation, which is named the silent epidemic by Women of Concern Honouree, Ifrah Ahmed. She states, “Parents, communities, religious leaders, [and] elders still think that this is a tradition that should be kept and continued… There is no common understanding and awareness of the issue.” The main reason why there are still cases of this type of abuse is because of generational practice.

Maternal Health

Somalia is also one of the worst countries to become a mother. One out of 12 mothers in Somalia die due to pregnancy complications. A study in 2017 found that many causes of maternal deaths are preventable. According to the study, 25 of the 30 women refused to seek care because they believed that staying away from the doctor keeps them healthy. The lack of education and basing decisions on superstition contribute to the high levels of maternal mortality rate alongside scarce medicine in more rural parts of the country.

Why are women dying preventable deaths? It is because Somali women are denied the right to an education. The 2022 USAID report found that only 35% of women have some years of school. Only 25% of girls attended primary education in formal schools. The lack of education leads to a lack of skills that can help women become independent and prevent deaths.

Women have limited access to the justice system, which leads to more unresolved cases of gender-based violence, and the government continues to leave legislation on the drawing board. For example, the Somaliland Sexual Offences Law of 2018, which proposed prohibiting sexual harassment, remains to be implemented. The government does not prioritize women’s rights, even with women in the Parliament.

Organizations Improving Women’s Treatment in Somalia

Save the Children has urged the government of Somalia to prioritize the protection of women and children in response to the country’s ratification of many U.N. Human Rights Conventions, which led to the country committing to advance the rights of women and girls.

Somali Women Empowerment Organization (SWEO) is an organization that aims to unite and promote women’s abilities and roles in Somali society. The Somali Women Empowerment Organization is a nonprofit organization established in 2010 that focuses on training girls and young women in Somalia on how to get involved in politics through seminars. The goal is to inspire the next generation of women to fight for a shift in women’s rights.

U.N. Women is another organization that advocates for women’s rights, and its involvement in Somalia has it working extensively with the government and civil society to create programs, laws, and policies for women’s well-being. A crucial program U.N. Women are working towards is the Sustainable Development Goals, which advocates for girls and young women to aspire to participate in the fight for women’s rights. The program also helps create economic and social development, which is crucial when tackling gender inequality issues in the government.

– Sebastian Llerena
Photo: Flickr

The cycle of poverty in Somalia has become an exceedingly difficult situation to escape and continues to affect future generations. Children make up nearly half of its entire population and 73% of children under 14 live in poverty. This becomes even harder to escape because of the lack of resources for children, such as education, sanitation, clean water, nutrition and even shelter.

Internally Displaced Persons Camps

Many children are forced to live in IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) camps, where poverty in Somalia is the most extreme. Nearly 80% of children in these areas are forced to live deprived of at least one necessary resource, such as education, sanitation or water. According to UNICEF, “water and sanitation conditions can also have a deep impact on health and productivity, and thus in income generation opportunities and future poverty status.” In these camps, less than half of the children can’t even drink water from pipes and must rely on finding other sources of water, which they are unlikely to treat before consuming.

Shelter is also an issue in IDP camps, where half of the population lives with tin roofs, wood or dirt floors and walls made of plastic sheets. Multidimensional poverty in Somalia affects nearly 90% of these citizens, where the extreme need for education and access to water, sanitation and electricity hinders growth or progress.

This area is also highly susceptible to natural disasters, including droughts, which decimate crops, livestock and water sources. People must leave their homes in search of lifesaving resources but are being pushed into famine by the widespread food scarcity. Droughts between 2015 and 2017 left 20% of the population vulnerable to food insecurity. According to a 2019 Somalia Poverty and Vulnerability Assessment, the poverty level hovered at 69% and 74% in areas of displaced citizens.

Improvements

Solutions toward ending poverty in Somalia exist and are being implemented by the Somalian government. The first solution is reallocating resource budgets to increase health and education funding. With support from UNICEF, the government is putting social protection systems in place to address inaccessibility. Social sectors that benefit children received 8% of Somalia’s budget in 2019 and increased the education budget from 2 to 5%. They also doubled the health budget from 1 to 2%. While this is far below the national average, UNICEF and international finance institutions are working to increase Somalia’s ability to spend money on these essential social sectors that provide a necessary future for its citizens.

Another solution is the Social Protection Program, which was enacted in 2019. According to the World Bank, “social protection can address poverty and inequality across the country by providing poor and vulnerable households with support and access to socioeconomic opportunities.” Putting in place national social safety nets provides critical assistance to those who need it most. This Social Protection Program spurned a government-led safety net called Baxnaano, which allows the government to protect human capital and support fulfilling basic needs. Two-hundred thousand poor households, about 1.2 million people, have benefitted from nutrient-linked cash transfers, which allow them to supplement their diets with foods that have not been affected by extreme climate conditions.

Finally, the “Education Cannot Wait” program is a crucial solution to helping Somalia escape the cycle of poverty. This program sees quality education for children and adults as the key to improving life for future generations. Almost half of the children in Somalia do not attend school due to having to help work at home, lack of teachers, illnesses and general lack of resources. With this program, however, families are given school supplies in addition to supplementary foods and safe drinking water. Partners in this program also provide incentives for teachers to give children a more significant opportunity for enrollment and rehabilitate classrooms. Eighteen thousand children have had access to education since 2019.

Looking Forward

Education is one key opportunity for enhancing accessibility to other necessary resources, but it is not the only way poverty in Somalia can be lessened. Assistance from organizations like UNICEF is helping Somalia take charge of the cycle of poverty by allowing citizens to receive essential, lifesaving resources as simple as clean water to help elevate them and educate them about how to better their futures. Future generations do not have to be swept up in this cycle as long as people are being educated and passing the information along to their children, as they control the future of their country.

– Jennifer Arias
Photo: Unsplash

Following the aftermath of civil war and prolonged conflict, Somalia is now one of the most impoverished nations in the world. This is largely due to the collapse of the Somali Democratic Republic in 1991, an event that divided the country. War waged, killing thousands of native Somalis. Conflict flipped the lives of the Somali people upside down in what seemed like an instant. Many had to flee their homes in order to survive. Today, the poverty rate in Somalia is 73%, leaving most of what is left of the nation poor and struggling to survive.

A Divided Country

The lack of an active central government is a leading cause of poverty. The fractured condition that Somalia is in renders it impossible for it to put policies in place. Moreover, the region of Somaliland declares itself as an independent country. Somaliland has been fortunate enough to experience more stability than the rest of the country. It has even been able to rebuild much of its infrastructure since 1991. Although internationally recognized as a part of Somalia, the government of Somaliland refuses to attend “peace talks aimed at unifying” the nation. Somaliland acts as an example of how the division in the nation’s government increases the nation’s poverty as a whole.

Mortality Rate and Poverty

The mortality rate in Somalia is high because of this poverty. About 70% of the Somali population is 30-years-old or younger. The life expectancy rate is roughly 57 years. This low life expectancy is due to a variety of poverty-related causes, such as poor infrastructure, lack of formal access to health care and sanitation issues. The havoc that civil war unleashed on the country has resulted in poor infrastructure. Because infrastructure is so poor, access to electricity, clean water and other basic utilities varies from household to household with most lacking one or more.

Somalis must pay for everything by either bartering, working or selling what they have. This process takes a severe toll on their mental and physical health. The lack of health insurance makes treating these resulting health issues nearly impossible for Somalis since most cannot afford private health care. This cycle continues and builds upon itself, furthering the state of poverty that Somalia is already facing. Furthermore, there are few jobs available for young Somalis as the nation has remained in shambles from the violence over the past 20 years. The result is 67% of the youth in Somalia do not have jobs or a way to pay for their basic needs.

The Future of Poverty in Somalia

As long as the nation remains divided and people must resort to violence for basic needs such as food and water, the problem of poverty in Somalia will persist. Successful nations that understand how to help must invest more time and money into aiding the people of Somalia. Save the Children Somalia is a successful NGO that works to end child poverty in Somalia by raising money and using it to directly impact the children living within this impoverished nation.

The organization provides health, nutrition, water, sanitation, hygiene, education and food security services to impoverished Somalis. It also communicates with the Somali government to implement better strategies in these areas. By the end of 2017, Save the Children had reached 2,814,381 people, 1,717,809 were Somali children. The organization has different branches for child protection, education and children’s rights.

War and conflict have taken Somalia from a home to a land of poverty and struggle. Since the Civil War, Somalia has been trying to pick up the pieces of a life that once was. With the help of nonprofit organizations and efforts, there is hope that one day Somalia can overcome poverty and rise again as a strong nation for its people.

– Alexis Page
Photo: Flickr

Mogadishu is the capital of Somalia, located in the eastern coast of Africa. This country continues to be challenged with natural disasters along with a lack of political stability and security, which all adds up to the extreme poverty that already affects the country.

After the destruction caused by decades of conflict, a new federal government came to power in Mogadishu according to the guidelines established by the Provisional Constitution in 2012.

The emergence of the new ruling party under this new framework has enabled the country to get international assistance in resolving its ongoing economic and political issues. International relations were further augmented after a peaceful transition of power occurred in 2017 that made the National partnership for Somalia successful, assuring longer-term support from international organizations toward alleviating big issues.

The top 10 facts about poverty in Mogadishu presented in the article below portray the different aspects of the challenges facing the capital such as its historical context, ongoing efforts and the hurdles that the citizens need to overcome to achieve better future of the city.

Top 10 Facts About Poverty in Mogadishu

1. In 2017, Somalia’s GDP decreased to 1.8 percent from 2.4 percent in 2016 despite the new deals of international support. The decrease was mainly caused by the severe drought that occurred in 2017.
2. Mogadishu is considered to be one of the fastest urbanizing cities in the world, which is mainly attributed to its improving security, economic potential andurban displacement. The Somalia Economic Update (SEU) showed that 70 percent of Somalia’s aforementioned GDP is urban-based.
3. Somalia did make efforts to stop the recent famine that occurred in 2017 from being widespread, however, the drought still resulted in large-scale food insecurity that affected more than six million people.
4. Given that agriculture is one of the main sectors anchoring the economy of the nation, the fact that the agricultural sector had experienced a near collapse from a widespread shortage of water and pasture along with an increase in livestock mortality, had an insurmountableeffect on the overall country’s economy.
5. The emergence of a new federal government in Mogadishu resulted in the establishment of a fiscal policy that has significantly improved sectors like domestic revenue that grew by 26.5 percent, from $112.7 million in 2016 to $142.6 million in 2017. This increase was driven by trade taxes.
6. There are around 5,000 young boys living on the streets of Somalia’s capital, a trend that seems to have been increasing over the years mainly due to their parents being too poor to provide for them.
7. The government does claim its responsibility to look after and create ways to ensurethe welfare of the children in the streets. However, there is a lack of funds and a lack of action from the international organizations that made previous promises, according to the government.
8. One of the main effects of the country’s history of conflict and political insecurity affecting the country’s economy is the destruction of much of the statistical infrastructure and important data. This has created a huge challenge in strategic planning due to the lack of reliable economic and development data.
9. Following the identification of the data issue in 2012, between October and November 2014, 20 trained Somali enumerators collected data from 1,500 households, putting together a statistically representative sample that encapsulates both residential neighborhoods and camps that house internally displaced people in Mogadishu.
10. In order to augment this door-to-door data collection, a high-frequency survey initiative has been launched that aims to bridge the gap of accessibility through the use of a dynamic questionnaire loaded on a smartphone that can collect data on expenditure, price and perception within 60 minutes of interviewing a household.

For many experts in Somalia, the capital’s economic prospects and potential to be a leader of the new economy is a given since it resides by the longest coastline on mainland Africa with a prospering private sector, a population dominated by a young labor force and untapped natural wealth.

In addition, there is a huge trend in theSomalian diaspora community of returning to Somalia with the much-needed economic force for growth and development. Therefore, producing sustainable solutions for the issues of poverty in Mogadishu and the nation as a whole described above is a worthwhile investment with potentially big returns.

– Bilen Kassie
Photo: Flickr

Located in one of the most poverty-stricken regions in the world, Somalia is one of the poorest countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Poverty in Somalia has been an enormous issue for more than a century but has recently been slightly alleviated due to increased foreign aid and government stability. Here are ten key facts about poverty in Somalia.

10 Facts About Poverty in Somalia

1. Severe droughts and extreme weather make life for people living in poverty in Somalia even more difficult. Historically, food security in the country has been an issue due to limited rainfall and extreme drought. In 2017, nearly six million people in the country were considered acutely food insecure. Around a quarter of a million people have been displaced due to the most recent drought.
2. Somalia is one of the least developed countries in Africa. Somalia lags behind the rest of Africa when it comes to the availability of basic infrastructure. Only around half of the country’s population has access to fresh drinking water and this number is significantly lower in rural areas.
3. Poor people who live in rural areas of the country are relatively left behind when it comes to education compared to urban areas. The literacy rate in rural areas drops around 10 percent compared to urban areas. Less access to education in rural areas means a more challenging path out of poverty for poor people.
4. Four out of five children in Somalia are lacking at least one basic necessity. Around 85 percent of youth in Somalia do not have access to at least one dimension. The more common of which is lack of access to clean drinking water. Another dimension that a substantial amount of children lack is access to information.
5. Children in Somalia are likely not attending school. Experts believe education is fundamental in giving children a path to escaping poverty. Without education, it is near impossible for children to improve their future. Currently, only half of the country’s youth are receiving and education. This number increases dramatically in rural areas.
6. The country’s per capita income is around $400. This number is one of the lowest in the region and is a huge reason for poverty in Somalia. Lacking infrastructure in the country affects the number of good jobs and means that most people work on agricultural land.
7. Somalia’s parliament recently adopted the National Development Plan. The NDP aims to build up the county’s infrastructure and begin to reduce the amount of poverty in Somalia. It also aims to make the country more secure and oust remaining terrorist cells.
8. Donor grants doubled in 2017 compared to 2016. In 2016, the country received nearly $55.3 million in grants while in 2017 that number grew to over $103.6 million.
9. About 73 percent of the country lives on less than $2 a day. The percentage of people living on less than $1 a day is around 24 percent, but this number increases to 53 percent in rural areas.
10. Somalia is one of the worst countries in the world to be a woman. Not only does the country have a terribly high child mortality rate, Somalian women also have limited access to maternal health resources and education.

Although Somalia is still one of the poorest countries in the world, progress is being made to help change the status quo. Increased government stability is leading to improved infrastructure and security. The government is already pushing initiatives that will help mitigate some of these facts about poverty in Somalia. This coupled with an increase in foreign aid dollars flowing into Somalia should bring a brighter future for the struggling country.

– Thomas Fernandez
Photo: Flickr

Twenty years of conflict have led toconditions of abject poverty in Somalia, with the destruction of infrastructure, economy and institutions.

In 1991, the government collapsed, leaving the country fragmented. Even with the establishment of a new government, conflict continues in Southern Somalia, leaving the country in the midst of poverty, famine and recurring violence.

Due to independent governing bodies, two areas, Somaliland and Puntland, experience more stability with regard to socioeconomic conditions.

Somalia is one of the poorest countries in the world, with the 2012Human Development Indexputting it among the five least-developed of 170 countries. The poverty rate is currently 73 percent. Seventy percent of the population in Somalia is under the age of 30 and the life expectancy is as low as 55 percent. Unemployment among youth is widespread, as 67 percent of youth are unemployed.

Development is low due to the challenges posed by Somalia’s humanitarian situation and the high level of insecurity, which is another factor contributing to poverty in Somalia. The region is home to more than one million refugees, many of whom are living in conditions of abject poverty. Food prices went up by 300 percent, making it hard for most of the population to buy food. Food insecurity has affected more than two million people. One in eight children under the age of five suffers from malnutrition. Only 42 percent of children go to school. Livestock management is the main source of livelihood.

Poverty in Somalia and Child Mortality

In Somalia, 857,000 people require assistance. In 2014, Somalia was at the bottom of global health rankings in terms of maternal health, child mortality, education and women’s income and political status.

Poverty in Somalia is rooted in civil conflict and limited resources, natural disasters and lack of an active central government. The conflict has emerged between clans for the two basic resources: food and water. The situation has come to political power; whoever is able to claim leadership of a clan can have a share of the limited resources and political power.

Poverty in Somalia has intensified and there exists no easy answer to ending the spiral of conflict and insecurity, which are the roots of the poverty.

– Aishwarya Bansal

Photo: Flickr