Addressing protection risks associated with evictions in Somalia through integrated HLP initiatives

Objectives

Somalia is faced with the daunting prospect of rebuilding the country having been riven by more than two decades of conflict and lawlessness. Persistent insecurity, cyclic natural disasters, and widespread unlawful evictions continue to engender forced displacements, thus compounding an already dire humanitarian situation across the country. Evictions represent a unique protection challenge in Somalia with far-reaching consequences on physical security, dignity, and livelihood of victims. 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. This project seeks to reduce the practice of unlawful evictions and to protect communities at risk from forced displacements, while at the same time supporting durable solutions efforts. This overarching objectives will be achieved through a broad range of prevention and response initiatives and community based processes that are anchored on three core outputs: Protection risks exacerbated by evictions are mitigated through integrated prevention and response initiatives 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 local capacity supported to address HLP violations and contribute to social cohesion. A total of 34,186 individuals in 10 districts across 5 regions are expected to benefit from different project services and multi-sectoral assistance packages. Specific priorities shall include diversifying eviction prevention and response through proactive engagements with land owners, regional administrations and local municipalities strengthening coordination with the BRA and district authorities to address evictions in Mogadishu expanding access to tenure security documents helping victims of eviction cope with post-incident complications strengthening the operational capacity of the HLP Sub Cluster and upgrade of the current eviction information management system in order to enhance reliability and data availability. A parallel objective of the HLP Sub Cluster which this project will seek to advance is consolidating HLP capacity among national organization.