This rapid assessment was used to find out the effect of drought on children and women in Somaliland to understand the gaps and challenges faced by children and women living in the areas affected by drought in order to develop a comprehensive response plan for the drought.
The rapid assessment was carried out from 15th to 17th February 2022 in rural areas of all the regions in Somaliland. The survey adopted a mixed research design for gathering qualitative and quantitative data from the respondents. It particularly used a cross-sectional survey design to garner data from a large number of respondents. It adopted a survey interview method and FGD for the implementation of the data collection procedure.
The rapid assessment was applied in an interview guide – encompassed closed-ended and open-ended items, and FGD guide tools for directing recording data from research participants. Trained enumerators conducted the survey interview using Mobile Tech but the FGDs researchers/social-workers with comprehensive research skills conducted it. The sampling approaches were stratified probability sampling and purposive non-probability sampling.
The sampling frame of the assessment was drawn from the PESS (UNFPA, 2014) and it was used in a sample size of 1,575, and 13 FGDs. The sample size was 1575 determined using an Online Sample Size Determination Calculator. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and the thematic analysis method. In further, research ethics were highly appreciated to safeguard the rights of respondents’ identities, integrity, and personal privacy as well as reporting the data as a block instead of highlighting individual cases.
From the analysis of the rapid assessment, the main findings are as follows Demographics – 29 percent of respondents were from the Maroodijeex, 19 percent were from Awdal, 20 percent were from Togdheer, 8 percent were from Saaxil, 15 percent were from Sanaag, and 9 percent were from Sool as well as their respective districts and villages – 78 percent of the respondents stated that they are pastoralists. Most of the people in the various regions were pastoralists, however, most agropastoralists are in the regions of Maroodijeex (10.25 percent), Awdal (7.08 percent), and Togdheer (5.16 percent). This is suggesting considering the appropriate support to each category of people.
- 55 percent of respondents were female while this is also important of the assessment as women can actually present how the drought affected them.
- 71 percent of respondents were never attended school this is because as the interview was targeted to the people in the rural areas, schools are not either available in their respective locations or the schooling system was established recently as the interviewed were only adults.
- Most of those who never attended schools were female (41.07 percent). The second most respondents stated that they attended primary schools (15.78 percent) yet more men attended primary schools than women. This is suggesting the need for extension of the educational system in the rural areas giving them appropriate support including building schools, parent awareness to enroll their children in schools, and particularly promoting girls’ education in the rural areas.
- Maroodijeex, Sanaag, and Sool regions are regions that women who never attended school are very high and much higher than the men; 18.41 percent,
10.47 percent, and 5.42 percent respectively as compared their counterparts’ men.
- 44 percent of the interviewed females and 41 percent males were married respectively which means as most of the respondents were responsible for families, they could truly reflect the effect of drought on their households, particularly children and women. The others were divorced, widowed, and single; 3.64 percent, 6.81 percent, and 4.83 percent respectively.
- 32 percent of the respondents were aged between 31 – 40 and 23 percent were aged between 41 – 50.
- 47.2 percent had female household heads including widowed, divorcee, and single females; 5.56 percent, 2.58 percent, and 1.19 percent respectively
Read the complete report HERE
