In Somalia, much of our advocacy focused on judicial reform. Following persistent advocacy by community groups in Baidoa, the Ministry of Justice in South-West State established a new judicial service commission to improve poor judicial services – a major conflict driver. Also in South-West State, one of Saferworld’s partners, the Isha Human Rights Organization (IHRO), reached an agreement with the same ministry to develop a policy framework for safeguarding prisoners’ rights, which will serve as a guiding principle for government institutions and organisations at all levels. The final evaluation of the Addressing Root Causes (ARC) project, which funded this work, found that the support Saferworld and our project partners provided played a significant role in South-West State’s decision to develop the framework.

We have been working with our national partners Somali Women Development Centre (SWDC) and Somali Women’s Studies Centre (SWSC) to address the barriers that women activists and journalists face in participating in public life in South-West and Jubaland states. We are providing support to women activists so they can prevent and respond to a range of threats, including online abuse and physical violence, and we are enhancing women’s access to psychosocial support, legal aid and genderbased violence (GBV) services.

In Somaliland, we are implementing a project on supporting clan reconciliation and inclusive peacebuilding in the Sool Region, together with our partners Academy for Peace and Development (APD) and Somaliland Non-State Actors Forum (SONSAF), in collaboration with the Ministry of Interior. Our main advocacy objective is to include women and young people in peace committees that traditionally consist of clan and religious leaders only. The committees discuss the active conflicts in their localities and assess the responsive capacity of different community groups as well as their roles and responsibilities in peacebuilding.