Needs and responses

The Somali diaspora

Refugees fleeing Somalia after 1988 added to the Somali migrant workers already living in the Gulf and Western Europe. In addition to the refugees who fled to Yemen, Djibouti, and Libya, there are now established communities of Somalis living in North America and Europe. In Europe, although the Scandinavian countries were the favoured destination for Somalis in the 1988-94 period, by the end of the decade the UK had vastly outstripped all other countries, accounting for 53 per cent of all Somali applicants to Europe in 1999: some 7,000 individuals. By the fourth quarter of 2002 Somalia was the third-largest country of origin for asylum seekers to the UK. The presence in the UK of established Somali communities going back to the nineteenth century is an important factor in explaining migration patterns. Today there are Somali communities in most of the UK's major cities. In Cardiff the organisation Support Somaliland aims to link the Somaliland community in Wales to their homeland. It has established links with the Academy for Peace and Development in Hargeisa. Other organisations, such as the Takawal Somali women's group based in East London, also aim to promote community development in both London and Somaliland.

E-mail and telecommunications have enabled Somalis to stay in touch with their relatives at home or in the diaspora. The Somaliland Forum is an internet-based organisation with a few hundred members dispersed across North America, Europe, and the Middle East. The growing Hawilad system of fax and e-mail companies for the transmission of remittance has been an important factor in the economic revival of Somalia in the last decade. It has been calculated that an average $200-500 million is transferred to Somalia through the Hawilad system (Perous de Monclos 2000). The diaspora has therefore played an important role in the economic regeneration of Somalia.

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Vulnerable groups

Women

Women have been especially marked out for vendettas and reprisals in the wake of Barre's fall. In particular, women from opposed clans have suffered from organised rape, which has been used as an instrument of warfare. They have also markedly suffered from the effects of food shortages brought on by warfare, drought, and flooding. Violation of women is a means of disrupting clan genealogies and ensuring that sons are born to the victors in the conflict. Rape was reportedly widespread in the initial conflict between the Darod and Hawiye after Barre's fall. Women of minority clans have also been subject to targeted rape. The Bravanese on the coast south of Mogadishu were especially subject to rape as a means of clearing the town of its original inhabitants. Rape is a brutal method of enacting clan warfare, and also signals a wider breakdown in traditional means of protection and support for women. Sustained periods of conflict have meant that women have assumed economic roles and experienced a degree of independence which were unknown before the conflict. A tendency towards 'closing ranks' to outsiders amongst clans during the conflict has meant that many women have been isolated and unable to draw upon traditional clan alliances. Even for women who have secured refuge in Kenya the camps have been poorly monitored and the sexual assault and mistreatment of women is believed to be widespread ( IRBC 1994 ).

One of the more positive developments throughout the period of reconstruction in Somalia has been the prominent role of women's organisations in promoting democratic rights for women and other persecuted groups.

Children

As a result of warfare, internal displacement, drought, and flooding, in 2002 Somalia had the world's eighth-highest infant mortality rate. In 1999 there was a 19 per cent malnutrition rate amongst displaced children under the age of 5 (USCR 1999). In the same year UNICEF estimated two in five children were malnourished in those southern areas with high concentrations of uprooted families. Educational opportunities for Somali children are also very poor. Many do attend Koranic schools, but often not all subjects are taught. Continued conflict, population displacement, and the reduction in the number of qualified teachers have disrupted education.

Save the Children (UK) has responded to the situation of Somali children by organising several relief programmes in Somalia since 1991. These include emergency supplementary feeding programmes and mother and child health care for malnourished children in different regions of the country. Long-term programme work is focused on food security, health, child protection, education, water, and sanitation.

In the diaspora there are many separated or unaccompanied Somali children who have been smuggled out of Somalia by their parents. According to the UN Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (2003), before 11 September 2001 there were up to 250 children per month being sent out of Mogadishu alone. Parents are anxious to improve the life of their children by sending them overseas. A serious consequence is that international traffickers with criminal backgrounds often exploit children. Separated children are particularly vulnerable to sexual exploitation and may disappear from official view and protection by the receiving state. Separated children are often essential for the remittances that they relay to family members who remain at home.

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Civil society

The development of grassroots initiatives in Somalia has been amongst the most positive developments since the collapse of the state in 1991. The absence of a centralised state has not resulted in a descent into anarchy in Somalia. Although the goal of a central state is kept alive by some Somali warlords and the UN, this no longer matches the political reality on the ground. The distinctive feature of developments since the final withdrawal of the UN in 1995 has been an enlarged role for the organs of civil society These include a wide and variable range of categories from elders, faction leaders, clerics, women's groups, and local non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

The Guurti meetings of clan elders have emerged as a source of political stability and conflict resolution ( Brons 2001: 287 ). The Shiekh and Borama conferences in Somaliland in 1992 and 1993, the basis of state-formation, involved a large spectrum of different groups including minority clans, women, and religious leaders ( Farah and Lewis 1993 ). In Puntland, the Garowe Constitutional Conference in 1998 paved the way for state formation and mediation between clan elders and the leaders of the political factions.

After the demise of the centralised state and the weakening of the clan-based militias that followed, traditional forms of clan authority have re-emerged as the basis for the developing political administrations in Somalia. This in turn has generated disputes over the boundaries of the different regional authorities, as has been the case in relation to Somaliland and Puntland. In the south of the country, where the conflict over territorial rights as a result of land expropriation remains a key political issue, the role of bottom-up political developments has also been curtailed. During the period of UN interventions ( see Section 5.1.3 ), efforts by the UN Operation in Somalia (UNOSOM) to sponsor District Councils were short-lived and largely unsuccessful, as they lacked the local support which have made clan-based initiatives more enduring.

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International community

In practice, the UN has begun to work with and not against the grain of the new political developments in Somalia, through its UN Development Programme (UNDP) for Returning Refugees and IDPs, in collaboration with the UNHCR and the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD). The UNDP programme of 'quick impact' projects, covering areas such as sanitation and health, aims to aid the reintegration of refugees. UNDP is active in both Somaliland and Puntland in the areas of demobilisation, disarmament, and reintegration.

The World Bank in collaboration with UNDP has funded experts to participate in the Resource Mobilisation Reconciliation Committee of the Somali national reconciliation process. The UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) has also conducted workshops for Somali women representatives at the Eldoret Conference. UNIFEM is active in the different regions of Somalia, carrying out training sessions on human rights and international conventions. The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNPF) are also active in various projects in the different regions of Somalia.

The Trust Fund for Peace-building in Somalia receives financial contributions from UN Member States. The Somali Aid Coordination Body (SACB), which was set up in 1993, consists of the main multilateral and bilateral donors, UN agencies, and NGO consortia. After the departure of the UN Operations in Somalia (UNOSOM), eight UN organisations have maintained their humanitarian and rehabilitation roles in Somalia. The SACB provides one important means for the UN to keep in contact with the international donor community. The UN Consolidated Inter-Agency Appeal also promotes a series of projects designed to assist vulnerable households and communities in Somalia.

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International NGOs

Amnesty International http://www.amnesty.org/

CARE International in Somalia http://www.careinternational.org.uk/cares_work/where/somalia/

CARE: Somalia http://careusa.org/careswork/countryprofiles/somalia.asp

Christian Aid http://www.christian-aid.org.uk

Global IDP Project Database http://www.idpproject.org/about_the_database.htm

Human Rights Watch http://www.hrw.org

Oxfam: Somalia http://www.oxfam.org.uk/atwork/where/africa/somaliland.htm

Save the Children Fund (UK) http://www.scfuk.org.uk

Somali Red Crescent Society http://www.ifrc.org/address/so.asp

International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies: Somalia http://www.ifrc.org/where/country/cn6.asp?countryid=157

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