Management Response

: Somalia
: 2024 - 2025 , Somalia (CO)
: Somalia Country Portfolio Evaluation 2022-2025
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Somalia

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Management acknowledges the evaluation’s findings concerning the capacity limitations, programming challenges, and resource mobilisation constraints experienced by the UN Women Somalia Programme Presence during the previous Strategic Note period. The evaluation accurately highlights the misalignment between the expanding expectations placed on the office, particularly in its coordination and normative roles and the limited human and financial resources available to fulfil these responsibilities. These gaps have, at times, constrained the office’s ability to deliver on its mandate and ensure sustained programme outcomes fully. Management concurs with the recommendations and reaffirms its commitment to strengthening the Programme Presence through a comprehensive review of the staffing structure, enhanced access to technical expertise, and the development of a sustainable resource mobilisation and communications approach. Priority areas will include the recruitment of dedicated gender expertise, improved cross-thematic programming, and the expansion of joint programming efforts to promote coherence, scalability, and greater inclusion of marginalised populations. Furthermore, Management will collaborate closely with the Regional Office and headquarters to ensure that future programmatic and coordination responsibilities are realistically aligned with available capacities and that partners maintain a consistent and accurate understanding of UN Women’s role and comparative advantages. These measures are expected to contribute to a more strategically positioned, resilient, and effective Programme Presence capable of advancing gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls in Somalia.

: Approved
Recommendation: HUMAN RESOURCES CAPACITY AND STRATEGIC POSITIONING: UN Women Should Strive to Strengthen Its Human Resources Capacity in the Somalia Programme Presence to Ensure Strategic Positioning and Long-Term Programme Delivery
Management Response: Management acknowledges the findings regarding the need to strengthen the human resources capacity of the Somalia Programme Presence to ensure long-term programme delivery and stronger strategic positioning. Despite the identified staffing gaps, the office has continued to provide technical support and leverage its comparative advantage in normative and coordination work to the extent possible. Management agrees with the recommendation and is committed to working closely with the Regional Office and Headquarters to explore feasible options for enhancing human resource capacity. This will include reviewing the current organisational structure, identifying critical staffing and technical support needs, and assessing opportunities to strengthen operational efficiency. Management will also prioritise the development of a targeted resource mobilisation and communication strategy to support a more sustainable operational model. Furthermore, Management reaffirms the development of its SN Strategy, which is aligned with UN Women’s Global Strategic Plan 2026–2029 and the United Nations Cooperation Framework 2026–2030, positioning UN Women within the priorities of Somalia’s National Transformation Plan. This alignment is expected to create greater opportunities for resource mobilisation and thematic partnerships. The strategy emphasises strengthening inclusive and accountable governance, as well as supporting economic transformation and resilience, while ensuring that commitments remain proportionate to available resources. These actions will contribute to a more resilient, strategically positioned, and adequately resourced office capable of delivering impactful and sustainable results for women and girls in Somalia.
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Description: UN Women should strive to strengthen its human resources capacity in the Somalia Programme Presence to ensure strategic positioning and long-term programme delivery.
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Not applicable
Operating Principles: Capacity development
Organizational Priorities: Partnership
UNEG Criteria: Sustainability
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
To address the identified human resource and strategic positioning gaps, Management will collaborate with the Regional Office and Headquarters to assess capacity needs to review the staffing structure and operational model, and identify critical gaps and required positions. Country Program Manager 2026/12 Initiated While the Country Office has yet to undertake a formal functional review in coordination with the Regional Office and Headquarters, Somalia’s staff base has already expanded significantly, growing by 46% between December 2025 and September 2026. This growth reflects the increasing demands of programme delivery and the evolving operational context. To ensure that staffing is aligned with organizational priorities, a comprehensive HR plan has been developed to support implementation of the Strategic Note (SN) 2026–2030. The plan identifies the appropriate staffing mix and capacity requirements needed to deliver on the SN’s commitments, positioning the office to strengthen programme oversight, enhance partner engagement, and ensure compliance with corporate standards.
Management will engage RO and HQ to mobilize targeted technical support, including temporary staffing salary-gap coverage, strengthen capacities in gender-responsive programming, RBM, resource mobilization, and cross-regional joint programming on areas such as WEE, WPS, and humanitarian action. Country Program Manager & Operations Manager 2026/12 Initiated The office has benefitted from support from other country offices including Malawi office on the annual review of the Gender Score Card, Operations Manager from Kenya to support when the OM was away on leave, Regional Coordination and Normative Specialist to support UNCT capacity building on gender marker and scorecard assessment, South Sudan WPS Specialist to support the writing of WPS, PBF and other resource mobilization proposals among others. The Country Office secured targeted technical support from HQ and the Regional Office to address critical staffing gaps and strengthen programme quality and delivery. This included HQ support for a Project Specialist (NPSA-11) – Humanitarian Action through SPF III, and a Gender and Localization Specialist (P-3) to strengthen capacities in gender-responsive programming and humanitarian action. In addition, the Office recruited a Programme Oversight and Quality Assurance Specialist (IPSA-10) and a UN Volunteer Programme Analyst (Gender Equality) to reinforce programme oversight, quality assurance, gender mainstreaming, results-based management, and technical support to programme implementation. The Office is also strengthening joint programming and cross-functional collaboration across WEE, WPS, and humanitarian action, including opportunities for joint initiatives with UNDP and UNTMIS (WPP phase II) and an AfDB-funded urban resilience project with UNHCR, IOM, FAO and UN-Habitat. To enhance resource mobilization, the Office has initiated donor mapping and established a resource mobilization task force to identify strategic funding opportunities, strengthen donor engagement, and support the coordinated positioning of the Country Office's pipeline.
Recommendation: SOMALIA PROGRAMME PRESENCE CAPACITIES: UN Women Somalia should devise sustainable strategies to recruit and retain the programme personnel required to implement long-term programmes. The office should consider recruiting gender equality expertise to contribute to the UNCT and other partners in advocating and advancing gender equality and the empowerment of women
Management Response: Management acknowledges the need for sustainable strategies to recruit and retain programme personnel to ensure effective long-term delivery in Somalia. It also recognises the importance of securing dedicated technical gender expertise to support UNCT processes and advance gender equality and women’s empowerment consistently. Management agrees with the recommendation and is committed to strengthening the Somalia Programme Presence through a more strategic and sustainable human-resources approach. In collaboration with the Regional Office and Headquarters, Management will review the current staffing structure to identify critical long-term capacity requirements. Discussions with the Regional Office on revising the office structure to better meet programme commitments have already been initiated.
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Description: UN Women Somalia should devise sustainable strategies to recruit and retain the programme personnel required to implement long-term programmes. The office should consider recruiting expertise in gender equality to contribute to the UNCT and other partners in advocating for and advancing gender equality and the empowerment of women.
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Not applicable
Operating Principles: Alignment with strategy
Organizational Priorities: Operational activities
UNEG Criteria: Relevance
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
The office will engage with the Regional Office to adopt localised processes that streamline workflows and accelerate implementation, strengthening internal systems to enhance programme tracking, reporting, and learning in support of its contributions to the UNCT and national partners. Country Programme Manager 2026/12 Initiated An in-house learning plan is in place for 2026 to orient colleagues and strengthen internal capacity across key Programme, operations, coordination and accountability functions. The learning sessions started in August 2026 (held twice a month) with focus on familiarization of workflows, internal processes and procedures to enhance effective delivery of programs. Fraud risk training was delivered to staff in Mogadishu by the Regional Office Procurement Specialist, contributing to improved awareness of fraud prevention, risk mitigation and compliance requirements. Staff also went through procurement training led by the Regional Office Procurement Specialist. This has strengthened staff skills in procurement management. Partner induction trainings were conducted for implementing partners across programmes, including Women, Peace and Security, the Japan Supplementary Project and the AfDB Resilience Project, strengthening partner understanding of Programme expectations, compliance standards and delivery modalities. The office was granted a light Delegation of Authority, enabling the Country Programme to approve and sign commitments of up to USD 5,000. for procurement and USD 50,000 for invoices. This has supported more efficient decision-making and faster operational response. The office is working towards attaining a business unit which will facilitate UN Women Somalia to operate as a fully-fledged small-size type office. The office has remained compliant with the use of corporate systems, including GST, reinforcing good practice in business processes, transaction management and institutional accountability. To further improve Gender in Humanitarian Action coordination within humanitarian structures, localization specialist surge capacity was deployed with HQ support to embed the Women’s Advisory Board, identified through the mapping report, into relevant coordination structures. In UN system coordination, the Gender Theme Group and UN Women continue to strengthen the capacity of UN entities to apply accountability tools, including the Gender Equality Marker, the UNCT-SWAP Gender Equality Scorecard and gender analysis, thereby reinforcing system-wide accountability for gender equality and women’s empowerment. Gender Scorecard Assessment is currently ongoing to inform UNCT on how to improve collective commitments to advancing gender equality and women empowerment.
The office will collaborate with the RO HR team to develop and implement a staff welfare and retention plan, including strategies to recruit and retain staff, ensuring programme continuity. Country Programme Manager 2026/12 Initiated Somalia held a staff retreat in April of 2026 with sessions on staff well-being and conclusions on key wellbeing strategies. “NAC” declaration document was developed which was a concrete accountability framework to sustain that momentum on Communication & Accountability, Collaboration, Respect & Team Culture, Focused, Efficient & Smart Work Practices, Integrity, Confidentiality & Compliance AND Ownership, Growth & Representation. A review of the declaration was conducted in September with major improvements in each of the parameters. There has been great improvement ins recruitment of more staff including service contract –with the limitation that majority of the UN personnel are not staff contract holders due to positions being Programme/project based. In any case, UNW Somalia personnel are now 16 (10 female and 6 Male) in different contract type, 62% Female and 38% Male which is a 46% increase from 2025.
Subject to funding, the office will strengthen M&E capacities and systems, including considering the recruitment of dedicated gender-equality and M&E personnel, to generate high-quality programme outcome data Country Programme Manager 2026/12 Initiated Subject to funding, the Office will continue strengthening M&E capacities and systems, including consideration of recruiting dedicated gender equality and M&E personnel to generate high-quality programme outcome data. In this regard, the Office has already recruited a Programme Oversight and Quality Assurance Specialist (IPSA 10) to reinforce programme oversight, quality assurance, and results-based management. To build staff awareness and familiarity with the Strategic Note (SN) results framework, an indicator familiarization session was held in August, during which baselines and targets were reviewed and adjusted. In parallel, baseline studies are being undertaken for newly initiated projects to ensure robust measurement foundations—for example, the baseline survey for the Women, Peace and Protection Phase II programme. These measures collectively position the Office to strengthen accountability, improve evidence generation, and ensure that programme outcomes are tracked against the commitments of the SN 2026–2030.
Recommendation: PROGRAMMING: UN Women Somalia should enhance programming by better linking cross-thematic areas; continuing to implement joint programmes; increasing its focus on normative and coordination work to ensure scalability of outcomes; and increasing its reach to the most marginalized populations.
Management Response: Management acknowledges the recommendation to strengthen programming by improving cross-thematic linkages, expanding joint programming efforts, enhancing normative and coordination work, and increasing outreach to marginalised populations. The findings accurately reflect the evolving needs of the Somalia context and highlight areas where greater integration, coherence, and strategic focus will enhance the scalability and sustainability of results. Management agrees with the recommendation and is committed to deepening cross-thematic programming approaches that maximise synergies across women’s leadership, WPS, EVAW, and WEE portfolios. Management also reaffirms the importance of continued engagement in joint programmes to leverage the strengths and resources of the wider UN system. Furthermore, the office will prioritise strengthening its normative and coordination roles to ensure that programme results are scalable, evidence-based, and aligned with national and UN priorities.
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Description: UN Women Somalia should enhance programming by better linking cross-thematic areas; continuing to implement joint programmes; increasing its focus on normative and coordination work to ensure scalability of outcomes; and increasing its reach to the most marginalised populations.
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Not applicable
Operating Principles: Oversight/governance
Organizational Priorities: UN Coordination
UNEG Criteria: Impact, Human Rights, Gender equality
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Mapping out thematic engagement areas to identify synergies across portfolios and clarify UN Women’s comparative advantage, strengthening joint programming and promoting more coherent, integrated interventions. Country Program Manager & Program Specialists 2026/12 Initiated UN Women’s comparative advantage in Somalia lies in its ability to integrate Women, Peace and Security (WPS), Ending Violence Against Women (EVAW), Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE), and humanitarian action into a coherent programming approach that addresses the interconnected challenges facing women and girls. Women’s participation in peacebuilding and governance is strengthened when they are protected from violence and have access to sustainable economic opportunities, while economic empowerment reduces vulnerability to violence, displacement, and negative coping mechanisms. By linking women’s leadership and peacebuilding efforts with GBV prevention and response services, livelihood opportunities, and resilience-building interventions, UN Women generates mutually reinforcing outcomes that enhance women’s agency, protection, and socio-economic resilience. This integrated approach is further reinforced through the humanitarian-development-peace nexus, where UN Women ensures that women are not only beneficiaries of humanitarian assistance but also leaders in preparedness, response, recovery, and durable solutions processes. Through women-led organizations, peace networks, and community structures, humanitarian interventions contribute to social cohesion, conflict prevention, and long-term recovery, while peacebuilding efforts strengthen resilience and reduce humanitarian vulnerabilities. This positioning enables UN Women to bridge grassroots action with national policy reforms, ensuring that gender equality and women’s leadership remain central to humanitarian, peace, and development agendas. The Strategic Note operationalizes this integrated vision by promoting cross-portfolio collaboration, shared results, joint partnerships, and coordinated implementation across WPS, EVAW, WEE, and humanitarian programming. Rather than pursuing siloed interventions, UN Women adopts a holistic model that addresses the multiple dimensions of women’s empowerment simultaneously, maximizing impact and sustainability. This integrated framework also provides a strong basis for resource mobilization through the development of integrated programme documents and concept notes that combine women’s leadership, protection, economic resilience, and crisis recovery outcomes within a single investment case. By doing so, UN Women strengthens its ability to attract strategic funding, enhance joint programming, and deliver more coherent and transformative results, reinforcing its unique role within the UNCT, HCT, and broader partner landscape in Somalia. Furthermore, UN Women actively participates in four Joint Programmes: The Joint Rule of Law Initiative, the Joint Police Project, the Somali Joint Funded Project on Women, Peace and Protection (Phase II), and the Strengthening Urban Resilience of Displaced and Host Communities in Dolow Project. These initiatives span the thematic areas of Women, Peace and Security, Gender-Based Violence, and Economic Empowerment, gender responsive security sector reform with a strong emphasis on coherence and integrated, gender-responsive programming.
Reinforce UN Women’s normative and coordination role within the UNCT and UNHCT to enhance system-wide coherence, advance gender equality priorities, and improve the scalability and sustainability of results across sectors. Country Program Manager, program specialists 2026/12 Initiated UN Women Somalia continued to reinforce its normative and coordination role within the UN Country Team and humanitarian coordination architecture by advancing system-wide accountability for gender equality, strengthening the use of gender analysis and accountability tools, and supporting more coherent integration of gender equality priorities across development and humanitarian sectors. Somalia is undertaking the 2026 annual UNCT-SWAP Gender Equality Scorecard review, which is currently at the final stage of collating assessment findings and developing an action plan around the five indicators. This process is strengthening UNCT accountability and helping identify practical actions to improve system-wide performance on gender equality. UN Women Somalia also supported the socialization of the Gender Equality Acceleration Plan, including advocacy with UNCT senior leadership and the Gender Theme Group. This has helped reinforce shared commitment to gender equality priorities and promoted stronger leadership ownership of system-wide gender commitments. Through the Gender Theme Group, UN Women Somalia supported capacity strengthening for GTG members and the Monitoring, Evaluation, Data and Statistics Working Group on gender analysis, application of the Gender Equality Marker, and the UNCT-SWAP Gender Equality Scorecard. These efforts are improving the ability of UN entities to apply gender-responsive planning, monitoring and reporting tools more consistently. To strengthen Gender in Humanitarian Action coordination within humanitarian structures, localization specialist surge capacity was deployed with HQ support. This support is helping embed the Women’s Advisory Board, identified through the mapping report, into relevant coordination structures, including Area based coordination mechanisms, thereby improving the participation of women-led organizations and local women’s voices in humanitarian decision-making. UN Women Somalia oriented the UNCT on the importance of undertaking a Country Gender Equality Profile, which was endorsed as a key evidence-generation exercise. The terms of reference were shared widely with the Gender Theme Group, the Resident Coordinator’s Office and the Programme Management Team for input, with the process expected to commence in the fourth quarter of the year. This will support stronger gender analysis and evidence-informed programming across the UN system) In collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Family and Human Rights, UN Women is providing technical support to the Ministry in preparation for the launch of Somalia’s second National Action Plan, scheduled to coincide with the anniversary of UNSCR 1325(31st October 2026). This initiative underscores Somalia’s steadfast commitment to advancing the Women, Peace and Security agenda.
Expand outreach to marginalised populations by designing targeted interventions and partnering with traditional leaders, grassroots women’s organisations, and marginalised community networks to ensure inclusive participation and equitable access to opportunities. Program Specialists 2026/12 Initiated Within targeted projects of the Joint Rule of Law Initiative, the Somali Joint Funded Project on Women, Peace and Protection (Phase II), and the Strengthening Urban Resilience of Displaced and Host Communities in Dolow, UN Women expanded outreach through targeted interventions implemented in partnership with women-led CSOs, which facilitated engagement with informal justice providers, including traditional elders, religious leaders, justice actors, marginalized community members, and grassroots women. Through structured community dialogues, awareness-raising initiatives, and capacity-building activities, the intervention brought together women-led CSOs, grassroots women, communities, informal justice providers, and formal justice actors to promote gender equality, strengthen advocacy for women's rights, and increase awareness of barriers to justice. The dialogues also fostered commitments to enhance the inclusion and participation of women in informal justice processes. These efforts strengthened understanding of women's rights and gender equality, fostered collaboration between formal and informal justice actors, and contributed to more inclusive and equitable access to justice for women and girls.
Develop long-term, results-focused, cross-thematic programmes that enhance integration across thematic areas, include clear sustainability and exit strategies, and align with national systems to strengthen ownership and long-term impact. Program specialists 2026/12 Initiated In collaboration with the Regional Office, the Country Office is developing longer-term, results-oriented, cross-thematic programmes that integrate UN Women’s portfolios and advance sustainable outcomes. These include three-year Humanitarian Action and Durable Solutions programming and a two-year Women, Peace and Security programme designed to address the interconnected drivers of vulnerability, exclusion, gender inequality, displacement, and conflict beyond fragmented, short-term interventions. Aligned with Somalia’s National Transformation Plan, the UNSDCF—particularly its transformative governance and economic transformation outcomes—and the UN Women Somalia Strategic Note, the programmes connect WPS, WEE, EVAW, humanitarian action, resilience, and durable solutions. By linking women’s leadership and participation with protection, livelihoods, social cohesion, humanitarian response, and resilience, they address immediate needs and structural barriers to gender equality and women’s empowerment. Sustainability, institutionalization, and national ownership are embedded through exit strategies that progressively transfer capacities, systems, and responsibilities to national and local institutions. Partnerships with MoFHRD, FMS ministries, SODMA, SNBS, Jubaland’s Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation, and other sector institutions strengthen capacities, coordination, data and monitoring, policy implementation, and accountability. They also integrate gender-responsive approaches into national planning, humanitarian coordination, disaster risk management, statistics, and sectoral programmes, while reinforcing women-led organizations, community structures, and local institutions to sustain results beyond individual projects. The Country Office is also developing integrated programme documents and concept notes that combine thematic outcomes within a single investment framework. This strengthens coherence, joint programming, and value for money while responding to donor interest in nexus, resilience, and systems-based approaches. Demonstrating how women’s leadership, peacebuilding, protection, economic empowerment, humanitarian response, and durable solutions jointly advance sustainable peace and development positions UN Women to mobilize strategic, flexible, multi-year funding. To secure predictable, long-term resources, the Country Office has intensified engagement with development partners and financing institutions. Concept notes and proposals have been submitted to the Somalia Joint Fund, UN Trust Fund for , UNTF on Human Security, and Islamic Development Bank, with preparations underway for the next cycle of Japan’s Grant Assistance for Grassroots Human Security Projects. These efforts seek to diversify funding, reduce reliance on short-term financing, and sustain transformative results for women and girls while strengthening national ownership and institutional sustainability.
Recommendation: RESOURCE MOBILIZATION: UN Women Somalia should invest in resource mobilization and communication by strengthening its relationships with current donors and building relationships with potential donors.
Management Response: Management acknowledges the recommendation to strengthen resource mobilisation and communication efforts to secure sustainable funding for UN Women Somalia’s programs. Management agrees that deepening engagement with existing donors while cultivating relationships with new and emerging partners is essential for long-term programme continuity and expansion. Strengthening communication, visibility, and evidence-based storytelling will also be prioritised to better demonstrate results and attract diversified funding. Management is committed to working with the Regional Office and headquarters to enhance resource mobilisation capacity and ensure that donor engagement is strategic, coordinated, and aligned with the country office’s priorities.
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Description: UN Women Somalia should invest in resource mobilization and communication by strengthening its relationships with current donors and building relationships with potential donors
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Not applicable
Operating Principles: Alignment with strategy
Organizational Priorities: Operational activities
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness, Sustainability, Impact, Gender equality
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Management, in collaboration with the Regional Office, will conduct a comprehensive resource-mobilization assessment, including rapid donor mapping and funding analysis, to identify both traditional and non-traditional partners and inform a sustainable resource-mobilization strategy for Somalia. Country Program Manager 2026/12 Initiated The Strategic Note was socialized with women-led, women’s rights, youth-led, and disability organizations. Their feedback on UN Women’s priority areas was taken into consideration and will help shape both the Strategic Note and related programmes. Plans are also underway to engage donors and the private sector on Strategic Note. A donor mapping exercise, including both a narrative analysis and a matrix, has been completed by the Country Office. A Resource Mobilization Strategy is being developed to ensure the Country Office is equipped with a framework to strengthen partnerships with the public and private sectors to support mobilization of adequate levels of predictable and flexible funding to achieve the proposed results in the Strategic Note (SN).
Develop and implement tailored engagement strategies, including customised donor visits, visibility events, and virtual engagements, while showcasing results and maintaining strong compliance standards. Country Program Manager and Program Specialists 2026/12 Initiated To strengthen partnerships and resource mobilization, the Country Office uses a tailored donor-engagement approach combining field evidence, targeted visibility, high-level advocacy, and strong compliance. Guided by the Strategic Note Communications and Visibility Plan, this approach showcases results and value for money while positioning UN Women as a trusted partner for long-term investment across the humanitarian-development-peace nexus. A key example was the virtual donor visit held on 14 October 2025 across Mogadishu, Baidoa, and Kismayo, involving UN Women’s Regional and Somalia Country Offices, NAPAD, Jubaland’s Ministry of Family and Human Rights Development, SoDMA’s Gender Expert, and the Embassy of Japan, the principal donor of the LEAP flagship programme. Live interactions and testimonials from VSLA, TVET, and Social Norm Change participants demonstrated results in women’s economic empowerment, resilience, protection, and recovery while meeting donor visibility and reporting requirements. The engagement strengthened donor confidence and the UN Women–Japan partnership and helped unlock a USD 350,000 opportunity through the JSB TICAD window. A Donor Strategic Note Socialization Event is planned for October to deepen donor relationships and identify investments aligned with national priorities and donor interests. The Strategic Note has also been socialized with women-led, women’s rights, youth-led, and disability organizations, whose feedback will inform its priorities and related programmes; engagement with donors and the private sector is also planned. Building on this experience, the Country Office is institutionalizing a diversified model of customized donor missions, regular virtual field visits, thematic visibility events, and targeted advocacy linked to flagship initiatives. Quarterly missions to Federal Member States give donors first-hand exposure to results and facilitate engagement with government counterparts, women-led organizations, and beneficiaries across WPS, WEE, EVAW, humanitarian action, and durable solutions. Strategic processes and knowledge products—including the WPS Country Strategy, the national WEE strategy under development with the Regional Office, and support to national policy and coordination processes—also provide platforms to demonstrate UN Women’s thought leadership, normative mandate, and contribution to national priorities, systems, capacities, and policy frameworks. To sustain donor confidence, the Country Office emphasizes compliance, accountability, and timely results reporting through robust monitoring, regular donor updates, visibility plans, human-interest stories, communications products, and evidence-based reporting. This combination of tailored engagement, strategic communications, quality delivery, and compliance is strengthening partnerships, expanding the donor base, and supporting multi-year resources for transformative results for women and girls in Somalia.
Explore options for hiring dedicated communications personnel to enhance visibility, strengthen storytelling, and improve the presentation of UN Women Somalia’s achievements and impact. Country Program Manager 2026/12 Initiated To strengthen visibility, strategic communications, and donor engagement, the Country Office is planning to recruit a National UN Volunteer (UNV) Communications Specialist dedicated to enhancing advocacy and visibility for UN Women’s work in Somalia. The position will address existing capacity gaps in communications and provide focused support for documenting, packaging, and disseminating programme results across all thematic areas, including Women, Peace and Security (WPS), Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE), Ending Violence Against Women (EVAW), humanitarian action, and durable solutions. The Communications Officer will play a central role in strengthening storytelling and showcasing UN Women’s impact by developing high-quality human-interest stories, success stories, beneficiary testimonials, multimedia products, visibility materials, and digital content that highlight transformative results for women and girls. The position will also support the implementation of the Strategic Note Communications and Visibility Plan, ensuring consistent messaging, increased public awareness, and stronger visibility of donor contributions and programme achievements across national and international platforms. In addition, the role will strengthen UN Women’s digital presence and outreach through proactive engagement on social media and online platforms. This includes leveraging platforms such as the UNSO Facebook page and other UN and partner communication channels to amplify key messages, promote advocacy campaigns, share programme results, and increase public engagement with gender equality and women’s empowerment initiatives. Enhanced collaboration with UN communications networks will further position UN Women as a leading voice on gender equality, women’s rights, peacebuilding, and resilience in Somalia. The dedicated communications capacity will also support resource mobilization efforts by producing compelling evidence of impact for donors and partners, including visibility products for donor missions, virtual visits, strategic events, and funding proposals. By strengthening communications, visibility, and knowledge management, the Office will be better positioned to demonstrate results, amplify women’s voices, build strategic partnerships, and enhance the presentation of UN Women Somalia’s achievements and contribution to national and UN development priorities.