Mitigating protection risks associated with evictions in Bossaso through integrated Housing, Land and Property

Objectives

Evictions represent a unique protection challenge in Somalia with far-reaching consequences on physical security, dignity, and livelihood of victims. Bossosa is one of the epicenters of the problem as the region struggles to recover from the residual effects of the 2016-17 drought amid persistent insecurity, cyclic natural disasters, and widespread unlawful evictions. At the national level, Somalia is faced with the daunting prospect of rebuilding the country having been riven by more than two decades of conflict and lawlessness. Important strides are being made to address the issue but ongoing initiatives have been outmatched due to the prevalence of the problem, thus necessitating a more robust, integrated and coordinated program response. In the absence of an effective response to address protection challenges that are being exacerbated by eviction, displaced communities will remain at risk of continuing secondary displacements. Efforts to strengthen protection and contribute to durable solutions to displacement in Bossaso will be incomplete and/or undermined without addressing the issue of eviction concurrently and systematically. The project seeks to contribute towards ensuring that individuals affected by displacement receive support assistance to improve their tenure security situation and address post-eviction complications. This action builds on NRC’s hands on expertise in evictions prevention and response programming in Somalia, and targeting 37,198 individuals in Bossaso, the project seeks to enhance the protection of displaced communities at risk of eviction and to create an enabling environment for sustained recovery and the pursuit of log lasting solutions. This overarching objective will be achieved by implementing a combination of complementary activities aimed at reducing the practice of unlawful evictions, strengthening tenure security among displaced communities at highest risk of eviction, and consolidating the protection of HLP rights. Priority actions include supporting the establishment of dedicated evictions prevention capacities at the municipality of Bossaso, replicating eviction programming best practices at the municipality, helping victims cope with post-eviction stress through cash, and strengthening local dispute resolution capacities and fostering social cohesion in target communities. A parallel objective of the HLP Sub Cluster which this project will seek to advance is consolidating HLP capacity among national organization. A combination of deliverables will contribute toward the mitigation of protection risks exacerbated by evictions through integrated prevention and response initiatives ensuring that displaced communities have increased access to information and specialized services necessary to navigate administrative and procedural obstacles linked to the enjoyment and exercise of HLP rights and supporting local mechanisms to address HLP violations and contribute to social cohesion.