Somaliland-2014-16

1.) POLITICAL SETTLEMENT IN SOMALILAND: a gendered perspective; This 18 months’ research project aims to develop a gender-aware analysis of the political settlement in Somaliland, before exploring ways in which policy and interventions could contribute to more effective and equitable development and increased stability as well as increasing women's political participation. Objectives: 1: To analyse how gender identities (masculinities and femininities) are perceived and influence socio-political participation and violence against women and girls in contemporary Somali society; and how this has affected the evolution of a stable, inclusive post-conflict political settlement in Somaliland. 2: To identify the structural and institutional barriers to women's increased socio-political participation and to reduced levels of violence against women and girls, and thereby to identify ways in which development interventions can be more effective in enhancing the inclusiveness and stability of the political settlement in Somaliland. Main activities: • Key Stakeholder Workshop (in Hargeisa; at project inception) • Key Stakeholder Workshop (in Hargeisa; at project conclusion) • Research Workshops • Six Focus Groups (18 meetings in total) • Research Training Workshop (in Hargeisa; training for research team over 1 week) • Project report design and editing (in Somaliland) • Report translation into Somali • Printing report (in Somaliland) The project is led by the London policy team. The principal investigator is Dr Michael Walls at UCL, and the co-investigator is Malou Schuller, Progressio Policy & Advocacy Officer (governance). Start date: 18 May 2015 End date: 17 November 2016 Partner: University College London Donor: ESRC Start date 18/05/2015 End date 17/11/2016 2.) AMPLIFYING CIVIL SOCIETY VOICE ON GENDER BASED VIOLENCE in Somaliland; This 2-year project aims to strengthen Somaliland CSOs individually and as a coalition, producing evidence based advocacy which leads to fundamental changes in the attitudes of state and traditional leaders, who become both active and supportive of efforts to end gender based violence in Somaliland. Main activities include: • capacity building of up to 24 individuals representing 12 CSOs and networks with regional representation. Capacity building will focus on increasing CSOs’ knowledge, technical skills and confidence in two areas: Evidence gathering through research and analysis – data collection methods and tools, analysis and report development. Advocacy and communications – identifying policy gaps, policy development, advocacy strategies and tools, and coalition building. • data collection on GBV in the two largest regions of the country, incorporating 10 urban districts and 4 villages of rural communities. • raise public awareness of the issues emerging from the research by using different media channels to support advocacy objectives • undertake an advocacy campaign calling for: o Parliament to table a discussion on the new rape act, o Parliament to approve the codification of customary law (to end the system of dual laws that results in statutory law being overridden by traditional law), o Implementation of the provisions on GBV in the Gender Policy Start date: 1 December 2015 End date: 30 November 2017 Partner organization: WORDA Donor: Amplify Change 3.) Integrated Prevention, Treatment, Care and Support Services (IPTCS) for HIV and AIDS: The general objective of the project is to contain and reduce the HIV epidemic in Somaliland. The target beneficiaries include people living with HIV and AIDS, people who are willing to donate their blood, people who visit the IPTCS centres for HIV counselling and testing, IPTCS staff, and the general population who participated in World AIDS Day and other activities. The activities include anti-retroviral therapy and treatment of opportunistic infections, treatment of sexually transmitted diseases, counselling and testing, blood safety, universal precautions, support for people living with HIV in terms of psychosocial aspects and awareness raising, laboratory services, prevention of mother to child transmission, improving the health infrastructure in all the sites, and staff training in areas of support, prevention, care and treatment. Start date: January 2012 End date: December 2015 (extended for another 6 months). Partner organisations: Ministry of Health; Hargeisa, Gabiley and Erigavo Hospitals; Maternal and Child Health Centres: Talowadag Coalition against HIV and AIDS; Somaliland National AIDS Commission (SOLNAC) Locations: Maroodijeex, Awdal, Sahil, Togdheer and Sanaag Regions, Somaliland Funded by the Global Fund and UNICEF