1. Gender and Human Rights
2. Governance
3. Rural Development
4. Youth
5. Conflict sensitivity, prevention, and management
Governance:
Since the collapse of the central government in Somalia, the governance system of the country has deteriorated particularly the low of order, peace, justice and judiciary system.
SOSDO through its different programs and activities contributes the ongoing governance reform programs in the country and promotes the good governance, transparency, integrity, corruption-free, and accountability values among public, private and civil institutions and entities.
SOSDO supports the peacebuilding, elections, conflict resolution and democracy initiatives in a way that enhances sustainable stability and development in the country and ensures the equality, justice, human development and rights protection.
Gender and human Rights:
In SOSDO we believe the ability of each Somali – regardless her/his gender- has the ability to contribute rebuilding the country and shape its future as well as her/his right to practice all her/his rights and freedom without any fear or discrimination.
SOSDO showcases and encourages the ability of women -when they are given a chance and involved in the decision-making process- to bring improvement and development to the country`s economy, livelihood and political stability.
Since it is evident that women and girls have less privilege to access to the key services and support, we put them at the center of our activities and ensure they have significant share in our interventions. Similarly, we encourage and support our partners to ensure women beneficiaries are prioritized in their activities and beneficiaries’ selection criteria.
As we empower and sensitize the people to understand the concepts of human rights -including theirs, we support the relevant public institutions to undertake the required reforms to ensure the provision of fair and transparent order of law which all -regardless their status- have equal rights and responsibilities.
SOSDO supports the most vulnerable groups (particularly the women, infants and IDPs) to access their rights.
Rural Development:
Rural people represent more than half (54.5%) of the population in Somalia according to the world bank 2019 data . However, they are most affected by civil war, instability, conflict as well as the recurrent shocks (i.e., droughts, floods, storms, locust etc.) which all deteriorated their livelihood, income sources and food security and nutrition status. These challenges also made the rural – as well as the urban- communities more susceptible and vulnerable to the recurrent shocks and crises. This is because the rural people are considered the food basket as they are involved in the agriculture (including livestock) activities – the key contributor to the GDP, export and hard currency income -except the remittance.
Therefore, SOSDO believes the development of rural communities (including coastal communities) is fundamental and key to the stability, resilience, and development of the country and entire region of HoA. Hence, SOSDO -with our partners- implements certain initiatives to uplift the livelihoods of the rural communities. We innovate programs that enable rural people save their assets during the cruises and restore it- for those who lost- after the shocks/crises. These enable them to be self-sufficient in the following period, recover and build their resilience to the expected shocks.
As majority -if not all- of the rural communities depend on agriculture, we prioritize the environmental and agriculture related interventions. These include – but not only limited- provision of agriculture inputs (seeds, fertilizers, organic pesticides, tools, machineries etc.), animal feeds, veterinary services, fishing tools and cold chains (for coastal communities) as well environmental conservation, land, resource, and water management. We also put in place tools that enhance preparedness of the communities and responders which ensure immediate response and disaster management practices to reduce the impact of shocks and crises. Working with our partners, we champion and advocate the access of the rural communities to the social services especially health, education, and justice – a services that rural communities do not access.
Youth Empowerment:
Somali population is considered one of the youngest globally as youth represent seventy percent of the Somali population . However, the potential of the Somali youth remains largely unexploited in workplaces, businesses and decision-making process.
In SOSDO – similar to rural and women- we prioritize and promote empowering of the youth and putting them at the center of our activities and interventions. Our tailored programs for the youth build their capacity, develop their skills and talents, provide employment and income opportunities, and enhance their entrepreneurship to unlock the existed opportunities for them.
With our programs and in partner with our partners, we ensure that the youth are utilized to the constructive recovery, peacebuilding, stability, and development of the country.