Diakonia Somalia: Democracy, Human Rights and Resilience 2020-2023
Contribution ID : SE-0-SE-6-13802This website displays open data about Swedish aid, which shows when, to whom and for what purpose Swedish aid is paid out, as well as what results it has produced. This page contains information about one of the contributions financed with Swedish aid.
Diakonia has submitted a proposal to Sida for support to the programme Democracy, Human Rights and Resilience (DHRR) in Somalia for the period 2020-2023. The overall goal of the DHRR is to contribute to democratic state building and disaster resilience in Somalia, with the specific objective to improve democratic participation and governance; improve respect f...
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Diakonia has submitted a proposal to Sida for support to the programme Democracy, Human Rights and Resilience (DHRR) in Somalia for the period 2020-2023. The overall goal of the DHRR is to contribute to democratic state building and disaster resilience in Somalia, with the specific objective to improve democratic participation and governance; improve respect for human rights; and enhance disaster risk management in Puntland and South West State. The expected results are: 1) improved inclusive participation and accountability in 15 districts; 2) increased awareness and respect for human rights in 15 districts; 3) enhanced disaster risk management in 15 districts; and 4) partners have strengthened capacity to contribute to democratic state building and disaster resilience. The programme will be implemented in collaboration with local partner organisations and networks from civil society and public institutions. The total budget is SEK 73,000,000 and Sida is proposed as the only donor. Approximately SEK 40,000,000 of the total budget will be forwarded to Diakonia's partner organisations.
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Result
Summary of key results achieved include: 1. Result 1: Improved inclusive participation and accountability in 15 districts. a) Through training, the capacity of the participating districts was strengthened to deliver quality and gender sensitive services, in the specific areas of resource mobilisation, tax collection, planning and advocacy. Local authorities were engaged and as a result, a sense of ownership and commitment was achieved. District administrations also adopted gender-responsive planning where gender is integrated at the planning stage for most activities. b) District administration officials were also trained in local government management, leadership and conflict resolution. 397 officials were trained, out of whom 26% were women. The training included mainstreaming themes of conflict resolution/peacebuilding, environment and gender equality in a community where there was high rates of conflict due to mostly scarce resources. As a result of this training, district administrators were involved in various conflict resolution efforts with good success rates. For example, in the Iskushuban which erupted with casualties as a result of armed confrontation. With support of the Puntland Ministry of Interior, this district succeeded in bringing to an end the fighting and facilitating the the two warring clans to participate in a peace talk forum to settle their issues. c) Information on decentralization law/policy and process of district council formation was disseminated. This policy will facilitate the establishment of local government, improve good governance and service delivery through participatory, accountable and transparent local governance, while effectively utilising the limited resources available at the central and local governance levels. It will also increase inclusive community participation in local government work leading to improved governance and decision making processes at the local/district level. The policy supports the the rights holders participation in all local government development plans, including district budgets. As a result, the Wadajir Framework, Decentralized Policy, including Law no. 7 and Law no. 10 for South West and Puntland States, respectively, were adopted. d) Local districts were supported to establish and operationalize the office of civil registration. This has helped to harmonise the civil registration programmes of the state which is formally led by the Ministries of Interior. To further boost civil registration, civic education awareness was conducted through media and physically in the targeted districts. The purpose of the awareness drive was to educate citizens in democracy and empower them with local civil registration systems that enable them participate in democratic processes. For example, if you are not registered, you cannot vote. The districts are using a manual system and generate some income as citizens pay 2 dollars for the registration. The development of a civil registration framework has been initiated at state level to support the registration process both at state and district levels. e) Development and review of a district taxation framework in Puntland. Awareness creation was done on the importance of paying taxes in relation to facilitation of better delivery of services, such as district development, security and emergency crisis responses, by local governments. Common sources of tax revenue include business licenses, property related revenue, market duties, livestock and customs. As a result of this intervention, there has been an increase in tax revenue is participating districts. Became district for instance, saw an increase in revenue by 14% in 2020 and 17% in 2021. f) Voter education and voter awareness campaigns represents one of the greatest democratization efforts that this programme has offered to rights holders in the participating districts in Puntland and South West State. This worked better in Puntland where democratization structures, such as the Puntland Transitional Elections Commission, created to manage and lead the Puntland democratic elections, showing the state commitment to start the democratization process and shift from the clan based election model. As a result, on October 25th 2021, after 23 years, Puntland successfully held the first direct council elections in three districts. 48,353 citizens cast their votes in the three districts as follows: 26,285 voted in Qardho district, 49.7% women; 11,837 voted in Eyl district, 46.7% women and 10,231 voted in Uffeyn district, 57% women. After a successful voting day, 26% women were elected as councillors in the three districts. g) Establishment of the Election Situation Room (ESR) and Women's Situation Room (WSR). Diakonia through PUNSAA supported the ESR and the WSR with 17 trained data clerks who received public complaints and reports from the rights holders via hot line numbers that were accessible to all rights holders in the targeted districts. The system is an open source tool designed to support the gathering and analysis of observation data in the context of Puntland as outlined by TPEC. Government officials, including the Ministry of Security, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Women Development and Family Affairs, Police, and the Office of Human Rights Defender, had access to the ESR and WSR rooms to ensure immediate response to all complaints coming in from the polling stations. h) Right holders empowered to hold district authorities to account. Forums were held for duty bearers and right holders to bridge the gap between them and create trust while promoting collaboration. The forums focused on budget management, democratic principles of transparency and accountability, anti corruption, and complaint response process. This was followed by budget tracking by CSOs and citizens committees to follow up on commitments made by the duty bearers - which were specific on local authority budgets and expenditure. 2. Result 2: Increased awareness and respect for human Rights in 15 districts a) A platform for religious leaders to promote human rights, specifically, the rights of women, youth and children was created, in order to enhance religious leaders efforts in governance and human rights - in line with the Cairo declaration of human rights to mitigate traditional practices and attitudes which infringe on the basis human rights and counter widespread misinterpretation of Islam. b) Media was used to create awareness on Human rights. FM radio stations, TVs and moblie vehicles were used to reach rural and urban communities on human rights knowledge, human rights issues, including SGBV and FGM. c) Capacity improvement training for government justice and security institutions including courts, prosecutors and the police. The judiciary and security institutions are responsible for monitoring and protecting civilians' rights and facilitate accessible justice for all. This training contributed to minimalizing the risk of future human rights violations of citizens by improving the capacity of duty bearers. f) Human rights violations were systematically monitored, investigated, and addressed to reduce levels of abuse and discrimination against rights holders, in particular women. The programme provided Pro-Bono lawyers who supported all reported cases of human rights violations. The police were specifically trained on how to receive and handle incident reports and rapid response to victims of human rights violations. A complaint response mechanism was developed and implemented. A helpline was created as well as complaint box where incidence reports can be dropped anonymously. 3. Result 3: Enhanced disaster risk management in 15 districts a) Reduced vulnerability to climate change and related disasters: Disaster risk management activities were launched. This was as a result of partners being trained in environment and climate change disasters at the start of the resilient component of this programme. In addition, the Ministry of Environment, Agriculture, and Climate Change provided guidance on the current environmental context, including the existing and planned climate change and resilience interventions. This provided a good opportunity for coordination and collaboration between Government and Diakonia on harmonizing,aligning and linking programming. b) Implementation of indigenous and modern coping mechanisms: Very interesting that the focus was on creating awareness back to traditional coping mechanisms. Specifically, discussions were on the indigenous and old knowledge used by the pastoral and agropastoral communities on coping mechanisms, adaptation, and mitigation on reduction and control of the hazards/disasters. Coping mechanisms such as economic diversification, rain farming, wage labour, fishing, livestock mobility to track forage/water resources, diversification of herd composition, and sending children to school, were discussed as durable solutions. c) Innovative water and fodder technique: The focus was on proper efficient fodder management, harvesting and storage techniques. Increase in awareness of local people was achieved in pasture and water management. Recurrent droughts are the most significant disaster for these communities so a lot of focus was given to potential coping mechanisms available, with the aim og mitigating climate change related disasters. 4. Result 4: Partners have strengthened capacity to contribute to democratic state building and disaster resilience a) Operational capacity for implementing partners has improved as a result of training in the areas of financial management, accounting software, procurement, human resource management, as well as risk and asset management. The partners capacity assessment report of 2020 identified these specific gaps in partners operational capacity. As a result of this training, a review by Diakonia of annual financial reports by partners showed improvements in financial reports particularly in the areas of segregation of duties, maintenance of Quick books data, reporting on budgets vs expenditure, consistency of monthly reconciliation cash book, daily recording and proper accrual system. b) For the first time, Diakonia did an assessment of the crosscutting areas of conflict, environment and gender on partners. The focus is to explore gaps and improve how these can be better mainstreamed and addressed by the programme. c) Diakonia staff members have also been trained on Diakonia feminism principles including gender responsive budgeting. This was followed by the introduction of gender responsive budgeting to the partners. d) Diakonia also provided capacity building for TPEC staff at state, regional and district level on democratization, election administration and management, and conflict prevention. This ensured that all staff involved in the pilot one man one vote election process were equipped with required capacity to administer these historic elections.
The key challenges in Somalia that the programme is addressing are inadequate basic services, human rights violations, human insecurity and limited livelihood opportunities. Weak governance is identified as a common root cause. The programme will seek to address the participation and accountability issues – including meaningful participation of women and youth - within the on-going federal states formation and the decentralisation agenda as recommended in the Wadajir National Framework for Local Governance. The programme will promote human rights as a basis for good governance. The programme will also address disaster risk management in a bid to curb the undue suffering caused by Somalia slow-onset hazards, like droughts, that tend to disrupt governance work and exacerbate the risk of conflicts over limited resources. The programme intends to address the challenges by working on achieving a behavioral change at individual level as well as contributing to a societal change. The change that the program aims to achieve is for people in Somalia to live in peace and dignity with access to fundamental rights and freedoms. The change will be accomplished by strengthening civil society with capacity, so civil society can contribute to widen democratic space and promote human rights and gender equality as well as addressing the obstacles regarding reoccurring shocks in Somalia. For effective and sustainable change, there will also be support to district councils, the key duty bearers at district level. The goal of the contribution is to contribute to democratic state building and disaster resilience in Somalia with the objective to improve democratic participation and governance, improve respect for human rights and enhance disaster risk management in Puntland and South West States of Somalia. The contribution is expected to contribute to the following results: Result 1: Improved inclusive participation and accountability in 15 districts; Result 2: Increased awareness and respect for human rights in 15 districts; Result 3: Enhanced disaster risk management in 15 districts; Result 4: Partners have strengthened capacity to contribute to democratic state building and disaster resilience.
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Reports from the Expert Group for Aid Studies and Sida's strategy and corruption reports Sida's annual report (Swedish only)