Somalia: The Midnimo Project’s experiment in integrated humanitarian, development and peacebuilding programming on durable solutions
The first of its kind in Somalia, the Midnimo (Unity) project began in December 2016 as a joint project between the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and UN- Habitat to strengthen local governance, find durable solutions for IDPs and refugee returnees, and improve social cohesion through integrated humanitarian, development and peacebuilding programming. The UN Peacebuilding Fund and the UN Trust Fund for Human Security supported the project’s diverse set of district-level activities in urban areas for displacement affected communities in Jubaland and South West States (Midnimo). After this positive initial phase, Midnimo expanded to Hirshabelle and Galmudug States in 2018 (Midnimo II), with UN Development Programme (UNDP) as an additional partner and a greater emphasis on gender considerations across the project as a whole.
Sudan: Internally displaced persons informing durable solutions action plans
In late 2016, the Durable Solutions Working Group launched a pilot project to develop area-based durable solutions plans of action in two parts of Darfur: Um Dukhun, a rural location in Central Darfur, and El Fasher, an urban location in North Darfur. Rather than establishing a national durable solutions strategy, local- level plans of action would be used to develop joint humanitarian-development- peacebuilding programmes addressing the needs of a displacement-affected community as a whole using an “area-based approach”, be that area an informal settlement, a neighbourhood, village or town, and not just programmes for IDPs or refugee returnees alone. The hope is that the project will ultimately contribute to the international community’s wider efforts to develop collective outcomes at national level and will lead to the establishment of a national durable solutions strategy.