ILO Programme in Somalia

The International Labour Organization (ILO) contributes to peace and stability in Somalia. Through working with Government and social partners, the Somalia programme promotes rights at work, generates gainful employment opportunities, enhances social protection and strengthens dialogue on work related issues.

The programmes implemented in Somaliland, Puntland and south central Somalia focus on : -

• Strengthening local governments and decentralised service delivery - Supporting the development of policy, legal and institutional frameworks and capacity and local government for decentralised public works investment and service delivery.
• Improving livelihoods through Employment Intensive Infrastructure Investment programmes (EIIP) - Through the dual output of improved national infrastructure and creation of employment opportunities during implementation and subsequent maintenance of the created infrastructure assets. This include, for example, the repair and rehabilitation of urban and rural infrastructure such as roads, water, markets, irrigation schemes and environmental works deliberately executed by Labour-Based Methods (LBM) and hence creating massive immediate, cost effective, employment. As well as injecting cash into local economies through wages, EIIP assists in reintroducing the work ethic, reinvigorates the community, and provides a very visible and tangible peace dividend.
• Promoting Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) – SMEs enhance peoples’ skills and organisational capacity for employment opportunities, particularly through self-employment, and expansion of enterprises and enhanced income earning of families. The promotion of SMEs has become a conduit, granting life skills to the youth, who in turn acquire a renewed sense of purpose to either achieve peace or consolidate the peace they have thus far constructed for themselves.
• Access to financial services - ILO assists to develop creative systems for facilitating access to a broad range of financial services for different segments of the population, building on the existing informal arrangement such as the remittance based (Hawala Companies) and Mudaraba (trustee financing) and Musharaka (equity participation).