Displaced populations and urban poor no longer left behind

The Somalia Durable Solutions Initiative (DSI), launched in early 2016 by the UN and led by the Federal Government of Somalia,

“[The Somalia Durable Solutions initiative] is a collective framework aligned to the National Development Plan and aims to design, fund and implement durable solutions in a coherent and coordinated way. It is also meant to collectively guide approaches and programming on durable solutions, and to support the capacity of government at federal, state and local levels to provide durable solutions for the internally displaced, returning refugees and their host communities."

Based on the Nairobi Declaration and Action Plan on Somali refugees, the DSI is also recognized as the main framework for the pro-motion of long term reintegration of refugee returnees in Somalia and the implementation of the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF). While the DSI approaches its three-year mark since its launch, and after seven missions by the Special Advisor on Internal Displace-ment, a review of the DSI, its achievements and bottlenecks is war-ranted as the UN leadership is undergoing a transition. The following sections would like to propose a vision and a set of options to achieve a situation whereby Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and refugees are no longer left behind, they are empowered to rebuild their lives (both socially and economically) and are able to join main-stream society.