Association Projects - Somaliland

1. Summary of Project

1.1 Context. Following the 1988-91 civil war in Somalia between the Somali Government of Siad Barre and the Somali National Movement, much of northern Somalia (originally British Somaliland before Somali independence and now the Republic of Somaliland) remains infested with land mines and booby traps. Most of the land mines lie scattered across pastoral lands, near water holes and along secondary roads, although a considerable number also are present in built-up areas. Land mines are most prevalent in the countryside surrounding two of Somaliland's principal cities (Hargeisa and Burao), but particularly in the agricultural lands west of Burao. The number of mines has been estimated at approximately one million, but a survey has never been carried out, and accidents continue to occur virtually every day in the primary infested areas. The economy of Somaliland depends traditionally upon the grazing and sale of livestock, but the mining of grazing areas has confined the originally nomadic population to the cities and towns. Mines have devastated the economy by killing livestock and disrupting productive rural lives.

1.2 Rationale. This project originated with Somali-Canadian Aid (SomCan Aid), an NGO founded and run by Canadian citizens of Somali origin, as a result of requests from the Somali Relief and Rehabilitation Association (SORRA) in Somaliland which will be a partner with CAMEO and SomCan Aid in this project. This project is the first of a series of projects designed to increase the capacity of Somaliland nationals to conduct land mine action and victim assistance in and around the cities of Hargeisa and Burao. It will be an integral part of the programme to return internally-displaced Somalis to their traditional farming and grazing areas. This first project is essential to enhance community-based mine awareness/avoidance programmes already begun in Somaliland and to begin the mine survey essential to the setting of priorities by the local authorities for mine clearance in the area.

1.3 Project description. This initial project consists of an introductory reconnaissance of Somaliland's mine hazard areas by CAMEO and SORRA. It is the intention of this joint mission to establish the groundwork for the formation of a community support network designed to educate locals in the recognition and avoidance of mines. The project aims to study and facilitate alternative, relevant and substantial solutions designed to increase the capacity of the affected communities to conduct their own mine awareness/avoidance education and effective casualty evacuation in and around Hargeisa and Burao.

1.3.1 The approach of previous "outsider" campaigns were one-sided and largely ineffectual due to an inability to tailor them to take local language literacy levels and cultural barriers into account. A more culturally sensitive and participatory approach will be devised with the cooperation of SomCan Aid and SORRA. For those who must enter minefields daily out of economic and/or alimental necessity, for example, greater emphasis must be placed on safe behaviour around mines, marking of affected areas, and medical education to deal with casualties.

This approach is to ensure the close involvement of the affected in order to ascertain that priorities in mine awareness/avoidance programmes are set by the members of the community themselves; that lessons learned and experiences gained be institutionalized; and that interactive communication be adopted.

2. Objectives of the Project. Initial project objectives are:

- verify and extend the original UNDP mine survey;

- begin mine awareness/avoidance education, including women's literacy to enable an effective instructional cadre based on the informal women's community support network to be formed in each settlement;

- assess the local capacity for mine clearance and make recommendations for long-term development of this capacity;

- verify current public health and victim assistance capacities and formulate long-term development plans; and

- prepare a five-year plan for capacity-building in mine action and victim assistance in the Republic of Somaliland.

3. Work plan and schedule

3.1 Upon approval of this project by CIDA, a CAMEO and SomCan Aid team will proceed to Hargeisa to meet with Republic of Somaliland officials, including President Egal and the National Demining Agency, to identify boundary conditions and formulate ground rules for the implementation of this project. This visit should include an initial visit to the project areas in and around Burao, and should correspond with the Rehabilitation and Resettlement Conference to be held in Hargeisa in October 1998 under the auspices of the Somaliland National Demining Agency (NDA). Approximate time for this visit is six weeks. Once the goals have been agreed to by Somaliland officials, the advance team will return to Canada and the project implementation team will proceed to Somaliland. The advance team will contain three members of CAMEO (Executive Director, Public Health and Victim Assistance Director, and Chief Mine Technologist) and two from SomCan Aid. The project team will consist of four CAMEO specialists (Team Leader, two mine specialists and one health/medical specialist) and a member of SomCan Aid as the mine awareness and education coordinator. Non-Somali team members will have local Somali counterparts to understudy their roles and tasks.

3.2 Main project activities will include:

- setting up a CAMEO base and secure compound in or near Burao and contributing to the Conference in Hargeisa jointly sponsored by the Institute of Practical Research, SORRA, and the Ministry of Rehabilitation and Resettlement of Somaliland (Sep/Oct 98);

- visiting local settlement officials, UN and/or expatriate NGO offices, community projects, and Republic of Somaliland Departments dealing with health, transportation and demining, and finalizing the mine action/victim assistance plan (Sep-Nov 98) for approval by the NDA;

- recruiting and training teams of local Somalis to form the nucleus of the community Mine Emergency Response Teams (MERT) (Nov 98-Mar 99); and

- conducting on-site literacy education for women in the communities' public health, mine awareness and mine victim assistance network (Nov 98-Mar 99).

3.3 Project duration of the initial project will be six months (Oct 98-Mar 99 inclusive), but the total project period is recommended to continue for five years to cover all the priority towns and agriculture/viviculture sectors in use in the Republic of Somaliland. These series of projects form an integral part of the overall CAMEO Project Proposal for Somaliland found at Annex B of this document, which if funded by CIDA in its entirety would take four years to complete (1999-2002 inclusive).

4. Target population and participants

4.1 Primary recipients will be the rural poor who live far from any medical facilities and particularly women and children who forage for food and wood or till their fields. Children herding livestock will be particularly targeted. Participants will be CAMEO and SomCan Aid specialists, village officials, rural women community leaders, and local personnel recommended by SORRA and/or the NDA.

5. Methodology and approach

5.1 The joint team of CAMEO and SomCan Aid personnel will work with local SORRA personnel and community leaders to educate these leaders in mine awareness and assist with their implementation plan. At the same time, CAMEO mine specialists will assess the capacity of mine survey and clearance volunteers and upgrade their training as required to form a Mine Emergency Response Team (MERT). A mine victim evacuation network will be initiated and trauma kits will be placed in key network centres and women trained in their use as well as educated in literacy skills for mine awareness purposes also. Maximum flexibility will be maintained so that should one aspect of the project have to be delayed, the personnel working in that area can be shifted to other parts of the project.

6. Expected results and sustainability of the impact

6.1 Expected results include a decrease in mine and UXO accidents in target areas and a decrease in fatalities in those areas which have received trauma kits and medical/literacy education. The formation and operation of the MERT is a concrete indicator.

6.2 This project is complete in itself for the target area selected; however, this area is only a small portion of the total target area in Somaliland, and four more projects annually will be needed to provide effective coverage of the wider target area. Benefits left behind include the MERT with its equipment, the trauma kits, and the continuing capacity for mine awareness/avoidance training in the target area.

6.3 The capacity of the Somalis to absorb the benefits from this project is high because much of the education is "hands-on". The local community health network in the target area will be able to take over effectively as soon as taught, using equipment and materials provided. SORRA partners will be trained in project management and in administration and logistics.

7. Project Risks

7.1 Low risk sectors - technical, managerial, environmental, financial (on-time and on-budget), and social risks are all low and need no special attention.

7.2 Medium risk sectors include: logistics (special attention paid to safe delivery and storage of supplies and equipment); political (CAMEO will have special procedures to deal with unexpected power shifts, as well as territorial flexibility); and gender (CAMEO will be careful to train and utilize women in Islam-acceptable roles).

7.3 High risk areas include the security of people and goods and in living and working in a very disease-prone and mined country. All project personnel will require full immunization and will adopt a highly secure life style whilst employed on the project.

8. Coordination

8.1 This project will be coordinated with the Government of Somaliland including the NDA, the cities of Hargeisa, Burao and Berbera, the SORRA, and other NGOs working in the medical sector (there are no expatriate NGOs currently working in demining in Somaliland).

9. Executing agency and originality of the project

9.1 CAMEO is a land mine practitioner NGO charity whose primary mission is to conduct mine action and victim assistance in war-torn societies. It is composed of former Canadian Military Engineers personnel who have extensive hands-on experience in UN mine action on the ground and extensive overseas administration and logistics experience (Cambodia, Kuwait, Afghanistan, Mozambique, Angola, and the former Yugoslavia, for example). CAMEO's Executive Director carried out a CIDA landmines study in Mozambique in 1996, and knows CIDA's particular needs. CAMEO was recently sponsored by a consortium of Canadian churches and the United Steelworkers of America to go to southern Sudan to conduct work similar to that being proposed in this project.

9.2 Canadian visibility in Somaliland will be very high. CAMEO will be the only expatriate mine-specialist NGO there working in mine action at the current time, and SomCan Aid will have direct communication with the President of Somaliland. SomCan Aid is a voluntary not-for-profit NGO formed in Toronto by a group of concerned Canadians of Somali origin with extensive knowledge and experience in the land mine situation of Somaliland. SomCan Aid's primary focus has been to draw the attention of the Canadian public and government as well as the international community to the nature, dimensions and consequences of land mine problems in Somaliland and how best those problems can be addressed.

9.3 Although not original, this project is highly innovative, vital and catalytic for Somaliland because no other practitioner demining NGOs are working there. The manner in which skills and knowledge are transferred will depend on the skills and knowledge existing when CAMEO and SomCan Aid arrive on site.

10. Monitoring, follow-up and reports

10.1 Monitoring of this project will be on a continuing basis by the Team Leader in Somaliland, with communications to CAMEO HQ being arranged through the Government of Somaliland. Evaluation of activities will be done at project mid-point and end-point, because the project duration is of only six months (1 October 1998 to 31 March 1999).

10.2 Reports will be at mid-point and end-point in concert with the evaluation of project activities.