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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This Multi-Year Multi-Partner Protection and Solutions Strategy (the “Strategy”) covering 2020-2022 has been co-developed with Government authorities, partners, persons of concern (PoCs) and the UNHCR Regional Bureau. Its purpose is to pave the way towards achieving a clear shared set of objectives, while remaining broad enough to allow for flexibility given the fluid operational context.
This Strategy is accompanied by a Matrix that outlines baselines, expected impact and milestones for each year, tied to risks and mitigation measures.

Protection and solutions considerations will be injected into all areas of engagement with a focus on building the capacity of Government institutions and supporting them in their primary responsibility to protect and to seek long-term solutions to displacement. UNHCR Somalia remains committed to providing support to the Government towards the achievement of their four solutionscentred pledges made at the Global Refugee Forum in December 2019. UNHCR promotes national ownership and multi-stakeholder partnerships approach, as well as area-based, “whole-of-society” and “whole-of-Government” approaches, in line with the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework and Global Compact on Refugees.

UNHCR Somalia recognises that, in the face of decreasing funding, increasing needs in Somalia can be best addressed through enhanced and expanded partnerships. The Operation is committed to Delivering as One and is fully engaged in relevant coordination forums. It stands ready to support the possible new coordination forum on solutions under the architecture of the Government’s National Development Plan 9 (NDP-9). Partnerships with private sector and World Bank will be strengthened.
Committed to bridging the humanitarian-development-peace nexus, UNHCR Somalia will mobilise partners and other key stakeholders to advocate for the inclusion of all PoCs into existing national systems (including health, education and social protection), including through the UN Cooperation Framework which adopts and advances the objectives of NDP-9. Leveraging the Centrality of Protection Strategy will help to ensure system-wide commitment to protection as a collective responsibility of the entire Humanitarian Country Team (HCT), operationalised through the Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP).
This document lays out five strategic objectives focusing on areas where UNHCR and partners can make a difference based on expertise, capacity and lessons learned. They include the following:

1. By 2022, the domestication of the AU Convention for the Protection and Assistance of IDPs in Africa (Kampala Convention); enactment of the Refugee Act, Citizenship Bill and National Migration Policy (covering PoCs in mixed movements); accession to the 1954 and 1961 Stateless Conventions and the adoption of the National Durable Solutions Strategy will provide a strengthened legal and policy framework for the protection of refugees, returnees, IDPs and stateless persons. They will complement the IGAD Nairobi Declaration on Durable Solutions for Somali Refugees and Reintegration of Returnees in Somalia , the IGAD Djibouti Declaration on education for refugees, returnees and host communities and the IGAD Kampala Declaration on Jobs, Livelihoods, and Self-Reliance for Refugees, Returnees, and Host Communities. Programmatic interventions include advocacy, technical support to the development and implementation of legislation/policy, capacity building and strengthening coordination mechanisms on mixed movements.

2. Respond to the immediate needs of affected populations arising from various shocks using the UNHCR-(co)/led Clusters - Protection, NFI/Shelter and CCCM - in an accountable and timely manner. At the same time, transition to longer-term solutions by strengthening early warning mechanisms, anticipatory action and community-based protection, as well as through support to sustainable solutions to the cyclic floods/ drought.

3. Strengthen self-reliance and create better access to inclusive socio-economic opportunities by: Introducing the Graduation Approach; providing skills trainings; using business incubator approaches and integrated community-based protection/ livelihoods projects; building of national/ state capacity in urban planning functions with a focus on environmental sustainability and gender equality; creating access to micro-finance; supporting social capital; inclusion into social protection mechanisms.

4. Enhance durable solutions for PoCs: Support the development of the National Durable Solutions Strategy; together with Government and partners, help create conducive environments for refugees to voluntarily return in safety and dignity; Post Returns Monitoring; collaboration with Government and UNICEF to strengthen access to and inclusion of refugee children and youth to national education systems and re-integration of returnee children and youth to the same. Further, support linkage of refugee, returnee and IDP students to livelihood and employment opportunities to build resilience and self-reliance, explore the opportunities for strengthening partnership with development partners in that regard; strategic use of resettlement; strengthened engagement on complementary pathways; promotion of localsolutions for refugees and IDPs.

5. More than 15,000 individuals in Somalia are pending Mandate Refugee Status Determination (RSD). Clearing this backlog is not possible due to staffing and budgetary constraints, and such an approach would also not be in keeping with UNHCR’s 2015 RSD strategic directions. Only those in need of RSD to achieve solutions or protection benefits will be prioritised for RSD processing. RSD case processing might also be necessary in certain case profiles for which integrity concerns arise. The system will be made more efficient on the basis of clear prioritization criteria, with a strengthened community-based identification mechanism. The operation will migrate to the new proGres version 4 database.