Currently in 2016, one cannot help but notice riffling through the multitude of news sources that daily the refugee crisis in Syria has come to the forefront of the mainstream media’s focus and attention. Looking to this mass casualty to civilians causes one to think about the magnitude of problems that are driven from the crisis, of these a few main areas of concern come to mind: access to clean water, sustainable food, and adequate education for development. Yet while Syria is an example that we in the United States hear of most frequently with near twenty-four-hour news coverage through media such as CNN and MSNBC there needs to be attention given to the many other states that have suffered through long civil wars and drastic violence in their borders yet not addressed by the media. As of 2016, the Federal Republic of Somalia has been engaged in a decades long civil war since the early 1990s driven by political turmoil. Arising from this issue has come a series of problems causing a domino effect, the largest of which is the severe food insecurity causing catastrophic levels. Through this paper, I will examine the history of the food insecurity in Somalia through explaining the domino effect and its contributors, assess current policies in place by the United Nations through its organs as well as Non-Governmental Organizations, propose a solution to attempt and curtail the widespread famine, and lastly make suggestions on what alternative policies are best implemented to eradicate the food crisis in Somalia.
First understanding the history of this food insecurity crisis in Somalia, it is important to focus on three different categories of causality: political, social, and economic. Politically, the onset of a Civil War starting in 1991 had triggered political upheaval and contention between the state and radicals who had been opposed to the government and demanded change in the state thus calling for revolution. Shifting from this political base, economically corruption between state leadership and private sector businesses had led to a downturn in the level of production. Adding to this economic downfall is factoring in that Somalia has been in a long-lasting drought with the years 2015-2016 being the driest in the last sixty. Taking into consideration the climate being dry, crop yields were dramatically lowered, as well as with the central market of income being agriculture, farmers were now with less income than before this had added into the contributors when scarcity of food led to price increases, those who needed food were not making enough to afford the supply. Of utmost concern, the decentralization of education in 2015 within Somalia and Puntland had contributed greatly to the gross insecurity seen with the food supply. Shifting focus to the current policies in place in Somalia, the Somaliland Ministry of Education and Higher Education had passed a memorandum in 2015 that had called for a decentralization of the educational system, putting the locus of responsibility and decision making processes on local provincial districts to determine how best to allocate resources and provide the best for their respective districts. Under this policy, the decision makers have a more laissez faire approach without needing to have much intervention, but rather play the role of enforcement and making sure that the decentralization memoranda are followed thoroughly and that the outcomes of the documents are being achieved, and if not, then propose changes to secure the goals. Examining the decision behind this policy shift, the Somaliland Ministry of Education and Higher Education had made this change on the basis that due to the scarcity of resources, including: financial capacity, food supply, qualified educators, and geographic locations for schools; there would be a greater chance of eradicating problems and moving towards a more secure future through allowing individual districts to make the determination regarding resource allotment instead of the nationalized system that was in place. While this had been intended with a positive outcome, the problem that arises from this current policy is that through decentralizing education there loses a regulatory component that is necessary, especially in this food catastrophe. While the decentralization has placed greater responsibility and independence on individual districts, there is no longer a body that is able to oversee the curriculum that is being put in place within the schools, while resource allotment was important to consider there is now no longer a standardized mechanism of ensuring that educational benchmarks and objectives remain on par across the state. Specifically, an economic focus needs to be seen that in more economically sound regions, such as the urban areas around the capital of Mogadishu, outlying rural areas do not have the same ability to teach the same content with similar vigor. In relation to the education system comes another policy that is currently in place, the Targeted Supplementary Feeding Programme. Under the collaboration and cooperation between UNICEF and the World Food Programme the Targeted Supplementary Feeding Programme (TSFP) is a program that was designed to reach children who are suffering from mild to moderate malnutrition below age five, through assessing body measurements that are universally decided by the two bodies overseeing the program. Through providing nutritional supplements to mothers of children the WFP and UNICEF have been able to reach many, but still run into large problems causing a need for change to this policy. While similar programs such as the School Nutrition Program provide similar resources to school aged children through daily meals, the problem with these policies links back to the first policy of education, with the School Nutrition Programme only those that are actually in school are able to receive the benefits of this program, yet then number of children that are actually enrolled in school is substantially low, hovering around 45-50%. While the Targeted Supplemental Feeding Programme is narrowly limited to reach those in a finite set of qualifiers, the main one being under age five, while many children who are over age five also suffer from malnutrition and are not enrolled in school to benefit from the School Nutrition Programme. Lastly, UNICEF has aimed to eradicate the food crisis through providing aid packs with necessary and vital items including: nutrition supplements, water, and basic necessities to accessible areas. This policy while in theory sounds like a positive direction seeing that it does not directly impose limits on the targeted audience, the term “accessible” causes alarm for reform, as accessible in these matters often is limited to urban areas that are generally not in as dire of necessity as rural areas where infrastructure is completely non-existent rather than weak.
Framework and Current Policy
Understanding the problems that have arisen from the current policies put in action by the United Nations through different bodies, as well as non-governmental organizations in the region, there is room for reconstruction and changes to fix the problems that were previously mentioned. When examining potential alternatives, I find that there are three main areas that need to be assessed, and ultimately prioritized in order to find the best solution that is both practical and sustainable, being one which will endure through time rather than fall apart shortly after its inception. These three categories are: economic change, social change, and political change. Of these categories, social change appears to be the easiest in terms of the level of engagement needed, where it will require high levels of citizen support, but does eliminate some of the more challenging parts of state corruption and political cronyism that presents a series of red flags. Looking first to the economic alternatives, one method is to secure microfinancing through organizations such as the Grameen Bank in order to secure funding for development. While development t
hrough microfinancing is often considered to be more for small businesses in developing states that are trying to secure a start-up fund, microfinancing options also can provide for the funding needed in education in order to have adequate resources available at all levels and in a wider geographic area. Through the opportunity of increased funding, this provides a positive aspect in the financial responsibility laying within those who take the loan out themselves, which could be a smaller group of individuals dedicated to the restoration of education systems and development for food and clean water infrastructure. Despite the positive elements of this alternative shifting the responsibility to the individuals, and thus limiting government interference, ultimately a major con comes from this proposed alternative, lack of regulation. While increasing individual responsibility is a positive step towards providing for food security, similar to the educational decentralization the problem ultimately is that there will be a lack of a central regulating body that is tasked with ensuring compliance with all rules, regulations, and requirements in order to best meet the goals that are to be set forth. By lacking a central regulatory body or system there is a greater susceptibility to deviating from the “designed” plan for how to utilize the funds effectively. Likewise, as failure to effectively manage and utilize funds comes into play there becomes a greater likelihood of money being misappropriated and not securing the resources that it was intended for. Moving focus to the international community’s role in this plan, as it currently is posed there would not be much room for the United Nations to play any real role besides just observe and oversee for any critical flaws. Despite the limited interaction of the United Nations as a whole, this alternative could call for greater oversight by subsidiary organs of the United Nations such as UNICEF and the World Food Programme to step in to ensure that any financing that is taken out is adequately covered and prepared for the procedures linked with payback. Additionally, increasing international transparency, organs such as the World Bank could step in with relationship to provide for a secure line of credit for the people of Somalia to rebuild failing infrastructure in the state.
Looking to a second economic alternative, the reallocation and redistricting of land to increase arable land is a potential solution that could work towards curtailing the insecurity of crops and livestock in Somalia. Briefly recapping the issue, due to a long lasting drought with the last two years being the driest, the amount of arable land that is open to farming has dramatically decreased, with fertile areas shrinking drastically over the last decade. In turn the shrinking of arable land has led to decreased crop production for both consumption and feed for livestock, thus causing a shortage of meat as well. From these problems, it is seen that an increase in arable land is a potential solution. While one cannot magically turn land arable, the problem has been that the land that is still farmable is not allocated properly, but instead remains off limits. Through this alternative policy, a potential positive that should be clearly seen is that there stands a chance for greater levels of agriculture and farming to take place, both providing for the needs as well as potentially allowing a surplus for trade to secure economic growth for the longer course of Somalia. One of the additional perks to this alternative is cost effectiveness in an already financially hindered state, the shifting of land distribution to include more arable land should cost little to no money at all, but instead should be just a reallocation of where farmlands are as opposed to other land zoned for additional usage. While the direct cost effectiveness of this solution is sound, indirectly there will be a major strain on resources from international bodies such as UNCIEF, WFP, UNWomen and OXFAM which all would dedicate a portion of their time, effort, and funds to educating citizens about newer and more sustainable agricultural methods that would provide a greater crop yield for a longer timeframe in order to attempt a remedy at the crisis that has been set in motion. Additionally, as with any farming there is always the potential for a poor crop yield or continued drought decommissioning the small amount of arable land that was left to grow on. In turn beyond potential for failed yields this will economically cause strife with the resources that were invested into this solution with a greater chance of there not being a positive outcome. Looking more closely at the international relationship that would be taking place, there would need to be a greater cooperation between UNICEF and the World Food Program in order to collaborate and provide the resources both financially and educationally to ensure that the actions taken were following best practice for what needed to be done. Currently this solution has been posed by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance, however with the longevity of the proposed plan, what needs to be taken into consideration is the potential for transition of responsibility to the UNDP as it will become a development based plan for the long term outcome rather than a short-term humanitarian relief program. Considering potential long-term implications, politically this idea is relatively sound as it does not require much assistance of the government or surrounding states to be party, however greater likelihood of economic ramifications are imminent as there will need to be a large amount of capital invested by the state as well as UNCIEF along with the World Food Program in order to first obtain the land, but secondly the amount of human resources that will need to be dedicated to this solution, including education of sustainable methods as well as equipment needed to keep the land arable and continuously farmable. This economic roadblock leads back to a potential consideration of alternative one, calling for greater levels of private funding through microfinancing in order to afford the mechanisms required to properly execute this alternative.
Shifting attention from economic solution to more socio-political, alternative three calls for the Somali government to recentralize its education ministry and the schooling across Somalia and Puntland. As previously mentioned the decentralization of education in Somalia was done under the pretense that there would be greater allocation of scarce resources to a wider range of actors if the Ministry of Education were to shift the locus of responsibility away from a central structure, and into the hands of individual regions and districts. While this was the intention, the decentralization of education has aggravated the problem of food insecurity further through lacking a universal mechanism to ensure standardization and compliance. Despite being a bit confusing that Somalia had decentralized, with the intention being for a better future, decentralization was in fact a negative factor in the food crisis. Examining the potential positives of this alternative, the first that needs to be seen is that through recentralizing the education system and calling for greater oversight over schools the gross enrolment rate is likely to rise from the abysmal forty-five percent it is currently sitting at as of the 2015 report by UNCIEF. Through increasing the gross enrolment rate, this puts more children back in the formal school system which now allows for them to be included in the World Food Program’s School Nutrition Program providing meals at school. By allowing children to be fed in school under this program there is a lower rate of child mortality as they are ensured to be meeting the required level of nutrients that should be consumed daily. Likewise, recentralization will provide access to education for all children in Somalia rather than just those who are in areas of access to resources and potential higher wealth. What n
eeds to be understood here is that there is still famine across Somalia, and that urban areas such as Mogadishu are not exempt from the peril, however are within a more accessible region to the United Nations and non-governmental organs that are able to provide humanitarian assistance more easily than to those rural areas seeing greater military control and hostility. However, while this alternative gives a greater long-term plan to eradicating insecurity through providing assistance in schools, and thus through education, ability to teach students methods and skills that will allow for them to have greater chances of life ahead of them, the immediate issues lead to some of the negatives of this plan. One main downfall to this plan, which I personally believe ought to be written off is that through recentralizing and reforming education, there is a lower number of children that can be put to work by families to farm the land and do other work that is essential to supporting the home. While I find this negative aspect to be one that should be disregarded, nevertheless it is important to address that this solution while seemingly sound for the future and providing the best chance of long-term growth does cause a bit of tension with the people of the state that view it as losing their workforce, which is often necessary to keep the family afloat. When lending consideration for the role that the international community will play, here seems to be one of the clearest cut methods to see UNCIEF as well as UNWomen working in conjunction with the Ministry of Education to reform the system and ensure that curricula for children is meeting standards of what should be taught to children in order to provide them the best future, as well as calls on women to be agents of change in assisting with educating their children, as well as potentially themselves seeking out higher education. Comparatively when stacked up to the previous alternatives suggested thus far, this holds the most ground as a viable option for real change. Likewise, the implications under this option are far fewer, while opening up greater opportunity economically and socio-politically. Currently the gender distribution of teachers in Somalia is predominately male, while women are often put off to the side from these careers; ultimately this shifts to the history of Somali education and can be attributed to the factor that many young women today were not given the same opportunity for education as their male counterparts were, and therefore limited from opportunities. Under this suggested alternative, not only are women holding greater chances of being employed as educators, but could be the subject of the education system, as they themselves are being provided greater opportunity and inclusion to be educated formally. Economically, recentralizing education and increasing the gross enrolment rate will drive a higher need for educators, here there should be found a greater chance for economic growth and independence as more positions open up allowing for financial stability, in turn providing more in order to buy food and slowly turn the insecurity around.
Lastly, the final suggested alternative to consider is for the United Nations to increase their transparency in the state and across the region externally. As mentioned earlier, one of the largest problems under the current policy action of providing aid packages to Somali families is that UNCIEF is focusing much of their attention and resources on accessible areas, these areas should be thought of in better terms as “highly trafficked”. While the policy that is in place by UNICEF does have a positive intention through providing aid, it falls short in its current wording by narrowing the scope of who it reaches. Under the suggested alternative, increasing UNICEF presence in less accessible areas will serve multiple purposes, primarily it will allow for aid and other forms of assistance to reach rural areas that are often underserviced by aid organizations, but secondly it will increase a sense of security and comfort to citizens in areas that are under rebel militant rule in the aftermath of the civil war, and continued violence intrastate. Likewise, increased visibility and transparency will potentially allow the inflow of resources to slowly rise as groups that blockade the import of humanitarian aid can be but under political pressure, as well as military pressure if the United Nations Security Council were to deploy peacekeepers in cooperation with UNICEF to ensure that aid was distributed to those most in need. Despite the best intentions that are set forth by increasing UNICEF visibility in the region, one of the largest downfalls to this option is that there could be an overdependence on the work of UNICEF and take away from the goal of independence that UNICEF is ultimately aiming for the state to have after providing assistance to help develop the system. Additionally, through having an increased UNICEF presence in more rural areas there can be a detriment to resource allocation, as those rebels that control the land and resources at the sight of UNCIEF can become more hostile and resilient, rather than willing to compromise and work with the directives suggested. When addressing the international role in this solution, clearly UNICEF will play a very active role as they work to expand their geographic assistance to include more rural areas in Somalia. However, unlike the other options this may call for greater accountability to the Security Council to need an authorization for peacekeepers in cooperation with UNICEF to ensure that their assistance and aid to areas of need are not being hindered or blockaded by rebellions who interfere with the aid. Lastly, assessing the potential implications of this alternative there stands a greater likelihood of political strife to rise as UNICEF makes their way into areas that are occupied by rebel groups that are hostile towards UN intervention and policies. Likewise, an increase in corruption can be found by the government limiting the access UNICEF has and driving the level of cronyism up as well by deterring the aid or misappropriating it to the wrong hands. Finally, economic implications can present themselves in the form of crop price fluctuation, with UNICEF in the country taking a more hands on approach, the price of crops is likely to fluctuate more drastically.
Recommendations
After seeing the flaws in the current policies that are in place in Somalia as well as considering a few options, I believe that one of the proposed alternatives mentioned in this paper is the best option to put forward in order to bring food security to Somalia, particularly towards the vulnerable group of children. When considering the best policy in order to bring security to children, my recommendation is for there to be a recentralization of the education system in Somalia for both young children and teenagers. When looking at all the potential solutions that can be considered, all of the proposed ideas do have some validity to them and potentially can lead to securing food resources, however this option came out the strongest when considering all of the pros and cons as well as implications, recentralization had provided far more pros than cons as well as the implications were indicative of growth for the state rather than failure as was a likelihood in many of the other solutions proposed. Additionally, this solution had been the most inclusive of both the state and international sphere through involvement from UNICEF as well as UNWomen to provide educational initiatives and objectives to be accomplished under a newly centralized Ministry of Education. Focusing on the suggested policy, it is important to consider a multitude of different elements, including: timing, financial and physical capital, as well as the role of the United Nations and its bodies step by step to implement this change.
Starting off examining the recentralization of education, it is essential to understand that this will not be an immediate change that can be expected to occur overnight
, but instead should be broken down into a multi-step process with different phases linked to different benchmark goals and objective. Ideally when looking at this concept, I believe that a five-year process is the most effective measure of time to ensure adequate implementation as well as compliance. Selecting a five-year timeline was especially selected as it allows for each year to meet a different component of benchmarks that ought to be reached. In year one, it is crucial for the Ministry of Education to first realign itself with a common mission and set of goals that they will outline as the benchmarks for the recentralization over the coming years. In this first year of step one, I would draw that there should be a strong presence by UNICEF as well as the UNDP to construct an efficient and effective development based system that is centralized around goals and values that are important especially to children that have been grossly impacted by the low gross enrolment rate since the decentralization. In the second year, schools need to begin to be reintegrated into the Ministry of Education with adequate training and hands-on skills being taught to educators, as well as ensure that qualified individuals are being hired and placed into regions that have the greatest need for education. When assessing the gender composition of educators, the field is relatively dominated by men, from this there arises a need for UN organizations such as UNWomen to play a part in taking steps to be more gender inclusive in educational appointments and hiring to ensure a fair balance of gender in the field. Ultimately with regard to the timeline component, I draw a similar model to the Sustainable Development Goals where each year different measures need to be set as goals, such as “2017-15% rural enrolment, 2018-25%, 2019-40%, etc.) where each of these years the bodies that are overseeing this recentralization can assess the effectiveness and if goals have been met or not. In the case that benchmarks are not being met annually for sustained growth, then retooling of ideas and mechanisms that are in use will need to be done finding flaws and where improvements can be made to be back on track. While the process needs to have a major role of the Somali government so that they are the agents of change, there likewise will need to be a major presence by UNICEF in order to work with the Ministry of Education in setting the goals and ensuring their implementation is followed through to meet the timeline goals. Additionally, the role of the UNDP will be critical in this recentralization and rebuilding period for Somali education as it redevelops itself into a new model that will reach to wider range of children. In conjunction with the UNDP, one of the most important linked bodies is the World Food Program. As previously mentioned, the World Food Program’s School Nutrition Program aims to provide nutrients and meals to children that are school age and enrolled in school in states where the program takes place. Through this measure to recentralize education in Somalia, the World Food Program will hold a large responsibility in cooperating and working with the Ministry of Education and Higher Education as well as other bodies such as UNCIEF and UNWomen to provide meals in school to children who are malnourished, but outside of the classroom need to include education for families. Shifting focus slightly, I wish to now focus a bit on education outside of the classroom. While the recentralization of education is mainly intended for the physical structure of schools and the formal education process, I believe it is necessary to extend education outside of the classroom into the private sector as well of the home. Looking at the home, education is not just done in the classroom but carries over to homes as well, thus drawing an importance for the education restructuring to include a component for families to be educated as well in order for their child to be learning both in and out of the classroom. When assessing the home component of education, the organization that I see the greatest level of involvement from would be UNWomen as oftentimes in Somalia, women are the homemakers and those that are tasked with the responsibility of educating and taking care of the children. While education is a task that should be shared amongst the family, I find the directive of UNWomen to also include a component of empowerment a necessary step to making this alternative a reality that can be implemented into practice. Addressing the home learning component, this would factor into the aforementioned timeline of the Ministry of Education, with the latter years of its reconstruction being dedicated to ensuring education is made into a long-term commitment that is understood by families and children alike to provide for the best future possible.
While the educational restructuring alternative presented sounds like a clear cut development idea, it is the best course of action to providing food security due to its linked programs in the early stages. As understood, recentralizing education will raise the gross enrolment rate, and in turn allow more children access to the World Food Program’s School Nutrition Program at first, while also allowing for continued development allowing greater opportunity for careers that allow income to be more secure and not cause food to be a questionable idea but rather an assured item available to all.