The Somali Joint Needs Assessment

Overview Over the last decade, humanitarian aid donors have placed increasing importance on providing support to post-conflict situations, including recovery and peacebuilding. A large part of this assistance is a result of international reconstruction conferences, where donors make pledges based on assessments of post-conflict recovery needs. These post-conflict needs assessments (PCNAs) are used to develop, negotiate and finance recovery strategies. They are jointly carried out by the United Nations and the World Bank, sometimes in conjunction with other key donor agencies. The Somalia PCNA is called the Somali Joint Needs Assessment (JNA). The JNA The Somali JNA is currently well underway and is expected to provide an assessment of rehabilitation and transitional recovery needs, as well as a five-year reconstruction and development plan. It is coordinated jointly by the UN, the World Bank (supported by donors) and the Somali authorities. Objective The objective of the JNA is to help Somalia begin to achieve sustained reconstruction and development and deepen the peace process. Teams of Somali and international technical experts are working on developing strategies to meet these goals. The result of this assessment will be a Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) which will provide an instrument for mobilising, distributing and coordinating international recovery assistance following a donors’ conference planned (but not yet confirmed) for late 2006 in Rome. Rationale Civil war and persistent fragmented conflicts in Somalia over the past two decades (both before and after the collapse of the Siyad Barre regime) have devastated public and private institutions and assets, and caused Somalia to fall behind in its socio-economic Millennium Development Goal targets. Consequently, Somalia is now one of the poorest countries in the world: ranked 161 out of 163 countries in 2001, according to the UNDP’s human development index. GDP per capita is estimated to have fallen from US $280 in 1989 to $226 in 2002. Poverty has increased to the point where 43 percent of the population survives on less than $1 a day, and 73 percent lives on less than $2 a day. Meeting basic humanitarian needs poses huge challenges. Access to humanitarian and development assistance has been severely restricted by the lack of security in much of south and central Somalia. In 2004, only about 60 percent of the humanitarian relief programme was funded. The international donor community is reluctant to finance a large-scale RDP due to lack confidence in the local authorities and peace process. Cluster Approach During the JNA planning process, a series of consultations were held with the Somali authorities, UN Agencies, the World Bank, donors, NGOs, research groups and the private sector. These discussions, held in different locations in Somalia, identified common priority areas aimed at ensuring local ownership of the JNA vision. The assessment phase has been organised around priority clusters and cross-cutting issues. 1. Governance, safety and the rule of law 2. Macro-economic policy framework and data development 3. Infrastructure 4. Social services and protection of vulnerable groups 5. Productive sectors and environment 6. Livelihoods and solutions for the displaced In addition to these six priority clusters, there are three cross-cutting issues: 1. Peace building, reconciliation and conflict prevention 2. Capacity building and institutional development (public and private), plus anti corruption initiatives 3. Gender and human rights The assessment phase started in the spring of 2005. The assessment and cluster reports have been collated and are currently being analysed. The analysis stage will be complete in July 2006, and the donors’ conference, scheduled for Rome, is expected to take place before the end of the year. Administration The JNA is managed on a day-to-day basis by the JNA Coordination Secretariat led by two Senior Technical Coordinators - David Bassiouni for the United Nations and Lloyd McKay for the World Bank. They are supported by Coordination Officer Louise Cottar and a Secretariat team in Nairobi. Contact lists for the JNA coordination team as well as JNA cluster leaders and technical experts can be accessed on the JNA’s website: Somalia JNA Contact Information The Joint Planning Committee (JPC) has strategic oversight of the JNA. It comprises the UN Resident Coordinator, two additional UN Agencies, the World Bank, the European Commission, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the League of Arab States, the African Union, a representative of the NGO Consortium, and the Somali Donor Group (represented by Sweden, Italy and the UK), and 12 committee members from the TFG. Drawing on experience with other needs assessments, and in view of the importance of ensuring Somali ownership, a small coordination support group (CSG) has been set up to provide operational oversight of the JNA, while the JPC will have strategic oversight of the JNA process. This CSG has eight members, including representatives from Somalia, the World Bank, the UN, donors financing the JNA, IGAD, the International Finance Corporation (of the World Bank), as well as the co-hosts of the donors’ conference (Sweden and Italy), and the NGO consortium. General In the last two years, needs assessment exercises were conducted in Iraq, Liberia, Haiti and Sudan. Building on previous experience, the UN and World Bank, with GTZ, has developed a Practical Guide to Multilateral Needs Assessment in Post-Conflict Situations, with tools for applications and lessons learned from past exercises. This information, as well as the documentation for previous needs assessment missions and details of the Somali JNA clusters, can be accessed on the JNA website: Documentation and Data Resource Centre. This summary overview has been compiled using text and information provided by the Somali JNA website: www.somali-jna.org