Aid agencies uncoordinated in Somaliland

International aid agencies lack coordination when dealing with long-term assistance for internally displaced and returnee populations in the self-declared republic of Somaliland, northwestern Somalia, says a report from the United Nations Coordination Unit/Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNCU/OCHA).

"The primary reason is the problem associated with which agency has, or should have, a mandate to assist these communities," said the joint report. Efforts to form a joint committee to sort out this issue had also not materialised, it added.

As a result, the "little assistance" delivered to the region to date had been on an ad hoc basis. This meant that the prospect of as many as 80,000 returnees to Somaliland arriving over the next two years was raising "grave concerns" with regard to increased social and economic pressures on both local authorities and resident populations.

UNCU/OCHA recommended that any further assistance for internally displaced persons (IDPs), particularly those in Dima camp in the Somaliland capital, Hargeysa, should be conducted with the consultation of the IDPs themselves, as complaints regarding the diversion of relief supplies by local authorities had been lodged. It was also necessary to establish a system of monitoring and evaluating the delivery of any relief supplies.

Specific projects recommended in the report included a food-for-work programme in Dima camp to rebuild roads that were destroyed by floods in 1999, as well as generating employment and improving the nutritional status; the rehabilitation of roads on the outskirts of Hargeysa; and a long-term urban planning programme as local authorities lacked both the capacity and funds to rehabilitate returning IDPs and returnees.

"Given the fact that thousands of more returnees are expected over the next two years, it is vital that international agencies assist in the preparation and planning for the upcoming influx," the report stressed.

[Full report]