Pilot
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT PILOT
The piloting of the Daadihiye citizen engagement concept is ongoing in Mogadishu. The first phase of the pilot is the research component focusing on information gathering and collecting views from citizens in the 17 districts across Mogadishu. The field data collection will engage 2,500 citizens through one-to-one interviews.
OBJECTIVES OF THE CITIZEN ENGAGEMENT PILOT
The interviews explored the challenges faced by the communities, the perspectives of citizens with regard to service delivery, and their interaction with local government. The objectives of the pilot research were:
To understand the social, economic, and environmental challenges experienced by residents of Mogadishu and whether services to address these challenges were accessible to people. To understand how citizens interacted with local government and whether avenues to engage communities to set priorities on service delivery existed.
- To understand the social, economic, and environmental challenges experienced by residents of Mogadishu and whether services to address these challenges are accessible to people.
- To understand how citizens’ interact with local government and whether avenues to engage communities to set priorities on service delivery exist.
EXPECTED RESULTS OF THE PILOT
The Daadihiye pilot provided baseline data to inform the design of our citizen engagement concept and the expansion of Daadihiye to other areas within Somalia. Additionally, it provided evidence of how Somali citizens wanted to be engaged by different stakeholders in improving service delivery and participation in government decision-making.
TRAINING SOCIAL WORKERS TO UNDERTAKE THE RESEARCH
RAAGSAN engaged 10 social work graduates from various universities for the pilot project. This enabled them to have first-hand interactions with communities and helped them better understand community challenges in the future as social workers.
HOW FINDINGS WILL SHAPE NEXT STEPS FOR DAADIHIYE
The citizen engagement pilot project provided a glimpse at the realities of local citizen engagement in terms of social, economic, and environmental challenges. It highlighted issues related to service provision and the interaction of communities with the government. The pilot research provided a basis for the scale-up of the Daadihiye project to other parts of Somalia and shaped engagements between government and citizens by providing evidence-driven solutions on how citizens could be meaningfully engaged to bridge the gap between policymakers and people in Somalia. Additionally, the information gathered provided best practices and lessons learned for more direct dialogue and engagement between government and citizens to promote social accountability and create strong, informed, and connected communities
