WUNRN
SOMALI WOMEN & CHILDREN
Internal Displacement Monitoring
Centre
SOMALIA: MASSIVE DISPLACEMENT &
HUMANITARIAN NEED
A PROFILE OF THE INTERNAL DISPLACEMENT
SITUATION
29 JULY, 2008
"The vast majority of
Internally Displaced Persons (IDP's) in Somalia lack access to water and
sanitation facilities, and basic services such as health centres and
schools....The World Food Programme warned that Somalia was 'sinking deeper
into an abyss' with a lack of security hampering humanitarian access in some
areas and with over a million people displaced - March 2008....Child
malnutrition has been at critical levels for months.....UNICEF in February 2008
reported that some 90,000 children could die in the next few months due to
inadequate funding for nutrition, water and sanitation programmes.....Amnesty
International reported in May 2008, incidents of attacks, rape, assault, and
extortion directed at internally displaced people....The UN Independent Expert
on the Situation of Human Rights in Somalia, reported in March 2008, that
internally displaced people in Somalia were subjected to threats, intimidation,
looting, assault and sexual- and gender-based violence."
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March 7, 2008
GIRLS' EDUCATION WILL SHAPE PROGRESS
FOR SOMALIA, SAYS UNICEF
Girls attend class at a UNICEF-assisted school in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia. UNICEF/ HQ07-0049/Michael Kamber
Though the past 10 years have seen a threefold increase in the number of girls enrolled in school in Somalia only one girl in four gets a primary education.
“This is a situation that must change rapidly,” says UNICEF Representative for Somalia, Christian Balslev-Olesen, “because the education of girls will shape the progress we want to see for Somalia in terms of peace and development.”
His comments come as the world prepares to commemorate International Women’s Day on 8 March. According to UNICEF much more must be done - and faster - to achieve the Millennium Development Goals of gender parity and 100 per cent enrolment of girls in primary school.
“The education of girls is paramount in the fight against poverty; against infant, child and maternal mortality and national under-development,” says Balslev-Olesen, “However, if wide-spread, large-scale resources are allocated to girls’ education it would make a tremendous difference to the progress that Somalia can make in terms of recovery and reconciliation.”
With some of the worst school enrolment rates in the world, a recent Primary Education Survey of Somalia conducted by UNICEF shows girls’ gross enrolment at 25 per cent, while boys’ gross enrolment is 37 per cent. At present, only some 121,000 Somali girls attend primary school. By 2009, UNICEF wants to see that figure increase by at least 50,000.
Although UNICEF’s work over the years with communities, local authorities and partners has yielded results in getting more children into school - especially girls – UNICEF wants local authorities and the international community to invest much more in Somalia’s education sector.
Seventeen years without a central government in Somalia has resulted in an education system that lacks a national education policy, copes with inadequate infrastructure and equipment and relies mostly on low-qualified volunteer teachers.
UNICEF in Somalia is helping Somali girls to complete their primary schooling by addressing several of the factors that dissuade them from going to school, including poor sanitation facilities. Therefore, its flagship ‘Go to School’ programme not only provides school spaces, teacher training and teaching and learning materials but also provides schools with water, sanitation and hygiene education, health care and life-skills to create child-friendly environments where females are encouraged and supported in their learning.
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