Blog

Somalia is situated in the most eastern tip of Africa known as the “Horn of Africa. “It has been the Gateway to Africa for business and trade for millennia. Somalia’s unique geographic location makes it a dynamic meeting place, where East meets West and North melts into South. Somalia is bordered by its historic trading partners; Kenya in the South-west, Ethiopia in the North-west and Djibouti and the Red Sea to the North. The vast Indian Ocean waves meet Somalia’s long coastline to the East and South.

Somalia’s wondrous equatorial forest is seamlessly joined by the white sand beaches of the Indian Ocean as one travels toward the South of the country. With a landmass of 637,000 Sq km and the longest coastline in all of Africa, Somalia is more than twice the size of Italy, but with less than one-third of the latter’s population.  
​
Somalia has turned the corner from recent turmoil and is ready to resume its historical role as the Gateway and Business Centre of Africa and the Indian Ocean, and the Red Sea corridor.  

Somalia has nearly 2,000 miles of coastland, giving it an ideal vantage point of all trade that passes from the Western Hemisphere to the Eastern Hemisphere through the Indian Ocean. Shipping cargo goes from the Mediterranean through the Suez Canal into the Red Sea, where it must then pass through the Strait of Bab-el-Man-deb before it can enter the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean.   

The people   

Somalia’s population of over 12.3 million people and two million Diaspora living across the globe are a homogeneous society that shares a common ethnicity, religion, and language. The Somalis traditional way of life is mainly nomadic pastoralism, although there are sedentary communities in the riverine and inter-riverine. The Somali have systematically stretched their mercantile culture to their neighbors. Today’s multilingual descendants of their pastoralist and farmer forefathers have continued the business tradition and are now Telecom Operators, Logistics and Supply siders, Multi-Lingual and Multiculturalists, and Farmers and Livestock traders. Over 70 per cent of the Somali population is under 35, with most of them having attained advanced academic and vocational education and training. They are multi-skilled and ready for all manner of employment opportunities. Somalia is now ready to share its abundant opportunities with your investment dollars.  

Over 2 million global citizens

Somalia is a country of entrepreneurs with over 2 million Diaspora members living across the world. The active Diaspora, in partnership with local firms, communities and individuals, are spearheading the economic recovery of the country with the expertise, skills, experience and capital they acquired in their time abroad. International research shows that a majority in this group intend to return to Somalia to invest. For this, they require modern banking, housing, education, infrastructure, technological and professional service support to make long-term investments more profitable. This is a great opportunity for Investors to enter into partnership with this influential and successful group driving forward change and prosperity in Somalia.  

A growing economy  

According to the World Bank.  As of September 13, 2018 - Somalia’s economy is projected to grow at an annual rate of 3–4 percent, according to the third Somalia Economic Update (SEU) published by the World Bank. Titled “Rapid Growth in Mobile Money: Stability or Vulnerability?” the SEU assesses Somalia’s vibrant mobile money market, and provides concrete recommendations for introducing mobile money regulation that can boost a secure system for widespread financial inclusion.

The social impact of investment
​
Investing in a country recovering from conflict will reduce the chances of it returning to war, so any funds placed in the country can have a huge social and political impact. Early investors in a post conflict country will encounter fewer competitors and will gain the so called first mover advantage. A small amount of finance can go a long way in Somalia, thanks to relatively low costs and the country’s relative poverty.

​Prolonged conflict and instability have impacted on the mental and psychological well-being of the Somali people. It is estimated that one in three Somalis has been affected by some kind of mental illness, a prevalence which is higher than in other low-income and war-torn countries.
​
According to the Word Health Organization, as of 2017 there were only five mental health centers in the whole of Somalia, with just three psychiatrists working at those facilities. Mental health has been an underfunded and neglected sector in Somalia with lack of funds due to poor allocation of resources by the donor community as well as by the public health local authorities. The entire burden of the mentally ill is left to the family and thus to the local communities, causing a cost to the whole society in terms of development and resources.

Cultural Stigma Related to Mental Illnesses
​
Many Somalis with mental illness are socially isolated. The pain of this isolation is felt intensely because Somali culture is traditionally communal and family oriented. While a person with mental illness may be ostracized from the community, their fear of stigma may be even more powerful. Whether the ostracism is created by the community or self-imposed due to anticipated negative responses, the social isolation creates a profound worsening of the mental illness. This social isolation can be very disorienting and can make the process of healing very difficult. In fact, even without prior mental health problems, isolation from the community alone can contribute to the development of depression. The situation of the mentally ill people is worsened by the fact that Somalis believe that once a person becomes mentally ill, he/she will never recover. A Somali proverb says that a mentally challenged person can only improve but never recover (nin waashay wuu ladnaaday mooyee wuu bogsaday maleh).
​
 ISIR Consulting works to achieve specific results for our clients - results that ultimately improve people's lives.

ISIR Consulting recognizes a shared responsibility to protect and maintain our planet. We are committed to reducing our ecological footprints on the globe by engaging our communities and clients through preservation, conservation, and waste reduction practices. 

Eight million tons of plastic dumped into oceans each year, killing marine life and entering the human food chain.
​
Discarded plastic is one of the biggest environmental threats facing the planet, the UN said in a report on Tuesday to mark World Environment Day.

​The UN report, Single-Use Plastics: A Roadmap for Sustainability, said rules limiting the use of plastic bags have helped in places such as Morocco, Rwanda and parts of China - sometimes significantly.
​
"Our world is swamped by harmful plastic waste," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a speech. "Micro-plastics in the seas now outnumber stars in our galaxy. "If present trends continue, by 2050 our oceans will have more plastic than fish." Globally, eight million tons of plastic is dumped into the ocean every year, killing marine life and entering the human food chain, according to the UN Environment Program.

The use of children in hostilities is not a new phenomenon. Nearly 20 years ago, the report of the expert of the Secretary-General on the impact of armed conflict on children, known as the Machel Report brought to international attention the extent and consequences of recruitment and use of children by armed forces and armed groups. Even today, the recruitment of children largely takes place in situations of conflict, though terrorist and violent extremist groups are by no means the only ones perpetrating such grave violations against children.
 
The involvement of terrorist and violent extremist groups entails numerous new challenges for States. First, prevention has become particularly complex, as evidenced by the innovative methods of propaganda and recruitment employed specifically by such groups.

​This is a primary concern to efforts to effectively tackle a security threat while, at the same time, limiting the victimization of such children. Secondly, because of their association with terrorism-related activities, which are classified in international and national law as serious offences, an increasing number of children come into contact with national authorities, in particular with justice authorities. In this context, the questions range from the applicable international legal framework to the legal status of the children and the competent authorities and procedures to deal with them. Such children are commonly regarded as a security risk and subsequently exposed to further violations of their rights.

​Courtesy of UNODC

Download full report: ​http://bit.ly/2FjmVj5​

Somalia’s poor national health was exacerbated by state collapse; health security has long eluded the vast majority of Somalis. Many parts of the country’s health system collapsed or never existed before to state dissolution in 1991. Public health and the standard of healthcare services in Somalia are among the worst in Sub-Saharan Africa.
​
In a country where around three-quarters of the population lives under US$2 per day, financial hardship is one of the key reasons why Somalis do not access or seek health services. Somalia also falls far below the minimum global expectation of the doctor/patient ratio. Currently, there are only four doctors, nurses or midwives for every 10 000 people in Somalia. In addition, one out of every 12 women dies due to causes related to pregnancy, and 1 out of every 7 Somali children dies under the age of 5.
 
A total of three 20ft containers filled with medical supplies and equipment was distributed to several community clinics in Mogadishu by the World Mobilization Somalia and Action Medeor in partnership with ISIR Consulting and SOFORD, a non-governmental organization in Mogadishu.
 
Medina hospital is one of the two largest referral hospitals in the city that treats several hundred war-wounded patients and expectant mothers every month and is focused more on trauma and emergency services. To ensure the safety of patients, renowned physicians provided free health exams to patients in an exam site set up at the hospital.
 
Our support for Somalia’s health system will continue. Partnership agreements with local authorities and non-governmental organizations are the primary way health services are supported in Somalia.

Impact of the civil war on traditional governance institutions since 1991, traditional elders played a critically important role in mediating and regulating the interactions within and between local communities. While this was also the case under the government, their role extended significantly to fill the vacuum of authority created by the collapse of the state and the ensuing civil war and lawlessness. However the conflict dynamics in south-central Somalia also created powerful clan-based faction leaders who undermined the authority of the traditional clan leaders.

The top-down approach employed in internationally-sponsored peace processes reinforced this through their focus on armed faction leaders as primary interlocutors and “representatives” of their clan constituencies. Reconciliations relating to power-sharing emerged during and after the civil war period, focusing on formation or control of the local or regional administrations and strategic resources. The high stakes and number of players involved mean these initiatives present significant challenges to mediation.
​
ISIR Consulting intends to be catalytic, which means that we are trying out risky approaches towards peacebuilding in central Somalia.

After more than two decades of conflict, one generation of Somalia’s children lost the opportunity for formal education and other benefits of a stable childhood.​ Somalia has one of the world’s lowest enrollment rates for primary school-aged children – only 30 percent of children are in school and only 40 percent of these are girls. Further, only 18 percent of children in rural households are in school.
​
​Extremely high rates of poverty in communities across Somalia make it difficult for parents to afford school fees. In many areas, parents are required to pay for their children’s education, and poverty remains the main reason they give for not sending their children to school.
​
ISIR Consulting realizes that the future belongs to the nation that best educates its people. We support a project that equips schools in Somalia with science lab equipment and supplies to improve the education quality and student achievement.

​At ISIR Consulting, we understand the importance of having up-to-date science lab equipment supplies at schools as science is different from any other subject and to understand its concepts, one has to look beyond the books and conventional classroom teaching.

 ISIR Consulting provides cutting edge research solutions and in-depth analysis to our clients on diverse issues spanning the political, socio-economic and structural contexts in Somalia and the Horn of Africa Region.

With strong operational experience, robust program management skills, rapid response capabilities, and a network of local expertise, ISIR Consulting helps humanitarian objectives in Somalia.