Aamusnaan Maya Initiative

Over recent decades, Somaliland has experienced unprecedented enduring and frequent droughts due to climate change. To date, there an estimated 150,000 Somalilanders, many of whom are intergenerational pastoralists, living in ten IDP camps around the capital city of Hargeisa and the port city of Berbera.

Our Project

Conceptualized in 2019, the Aamusnaan Maya (meaning ‘no more silence’ in Somali) Initiative (AMI) was initially a research project to identify the drivers of displacement and document the pressing socio-economic needs of displaced Somalilanders in Digaale Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp outside Hargeisa, Somaliland.

In responding to the changing circumstances of the Covid-19 pandemic, the project has now become a joint initiative between SOM-ACT, Transparency Solutions, and TGP to document and analyze the effectiveness of governmental and non-governmental humanitarian programming geared towards displaced Somalilanders.

Our Approach

In light of the Covid-19 pandemic, which reached Somaliland in January 2020, the project has had to shift to the more pressing need to document and analyze how governmental and non-governmental public health responses are experienced by internally displaced Somalilanders in Digaale camp. SOM-ACT and Transparency Solutions, with the support of TGP, are collecting this data through a mixed research approach of questionnaires, key informant interviews, and demographic-based focus groups.

Our Aim

The results are being presented to an invited audience of government and non-government representatives in Somaliland. The project is intended to inform humanitarian policy and Somaliland government IDP programming while also revealing the impact of COVID on communities, including displaced peoples, in Somaliland.