U-Report, a platform to amplify the voices of young people and communities, is launched in Somalia

Mogadishu, Somalia, 14th May 2023: Somalia becomes the 94^th country to join the U-Report global movement, a social messaging platform that encourages young people and communities to speak out on issues that matter to them and amplifies their voices as actors of change in their communities.

This platform has been set up by UNICEF in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Health in Mogadishu and in Hargeisa with the Ministry of Employment, Social and Family Affairs (MESAF), the Ministry of Youth and University of Hargeisa.

Somalia is a youthful country with approximately 60% of the population  under the age of 25. Over 76,000 people have joined the community including people from minority clans and internally displaced communities who are participating in polls and receiving important information.

Humanitarian needs in Somalia are huge. According to the 2023 Humanitarian Needs Overview, 8.2 million people needs humanitarian assistance, 5.1 million of whom are children. Some  3.8 million people have been internally displaced by humanitarian crises and conflicts.  U-Report  provides a great opportunity for decision makers and humanitarian actors to engage with the affected populations  and understand better their needs and most effective ways of delivering support.

UNICEF is supporting the Federal Ministry of Health through the network of community mobilizers located across the country to scale up U-Report. In Hargeisa, youth champions have been trained to roll out U-Report through their online and offline networks.

U-Reporters have so far taken part in polls related to emergency response and preparedness towards detection, notification, and response to disease outbreaks. In Beletwyne, they have given feedback on the Minimum Response Package (MRP), a set of interventions that the humanitarian community has agreed is the barest minimum for assisting communities in need. UNICEF is using the feeback from U-Reporters to improve services for the communities.

U-Report Somalia shall be managed by steering committees with representation from young people in partnership with the ministries and focal persons from youth organizations. Together,  they will grow the platform, build capacity among partners towards taking greater ownership of the U-Report project activities and ensur relevance of the engagements done through U-Report.

How it works

U-Report Somalia is hosted by UNICEF and supports engagements across all sectors  such as child protection, nutrition, WASH, Health, Education, and Emergencies including Accountability to Affected Populations. Polls are sent out by SMS and WhatsApp to registered users around key issues and services and the responses are aggregated and visualized online for the public. The information collected is used to inform programmatic, humanitarian and advocacy priorities.

The launching of U-Report platform would not have been possible without the generous funding from the US Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance.