Progress and experiences of implementing an integrated disease surveillance and response system in Somalia; 2016–2023

IntroductionIn 2021, a regional strategy for integrated disease surveillance was adopted by member states of the World Health Organization Eastern Mediterranean Region. But before then, member states including Somalia had made progress in integration of their disease surveillance systems. We report on the progress and experiences of implementing an integrated disease surveillance and response system in Somalia between 2016 and 2023.MethodsWe reviewed 20 operational documents and identified key integrated disease surveillance and response system (IDSRS) actions/processes implemented between 2016 and 2023. We verified these through an anonymized online survey. The survey respondents also assessed Somalia’s IDSRS implementation progress using a standard IDS monitoring framework Finally, we interviewed 8 key informants to explore factors to which the current IDSRS implementation progress is attributed.ResultsBetween 2016 and 2023, 7 key IDSRS actions/processes were implemented including: establishment of high-level commitment; development of a 3-year operational plan; development of a coordination mechanism; configuring the District Health Information Software to support implementation among others. IDSRS implementation progress ranged from 15% for financing to 78% for tools. Reasons for the progress were summarized under 6 thematic areas; understanding frustrations with the current surveillance system; the opportunity occasioned by COVID-19; mainstreaming IDSRS in strategic documents; establishment of an oversight mechanism; staggering implementation of key activities over a reasonable length of time and being flexible about pre-determined timelines.DiscussionFrom 2016 to 2023, Somalia registered significant progress towards implementation of IDSRS. The 15 years of EWARN implementation in Somalia (since 2008) provided a strong foundation for IDSRS implementation. If implemented comprehensively, IDSRS will accelerate country progress toward establishment of IHR core capacities. Sustainable funding is the major challenge towards IDSRS implementation in Somalia. Government and its partners need to exploit feasible options for sustainable investment in integrated disease surveillance and response

Public preference for sustainable land use policies – Empirical results from multinomial logit model analysis

Public preferences for sustainable land use policy instruments and the motivations behind such preferences are important to make appropriate policies. Based on survey data (n = 309) from northeastern Somalia, we examined preferences for a set of land use policy instruments relative to no policy (i.e. the current status quo) and how cultural worldviews predict such preferences. We used a multinomial logit model to analyze the comparative evaluation of choices due to its interpretability and robustness to violations of normality. Overall, the results show that the respondents are likely to consent to all types of land use policy instruments relative to no policy and are more inclined to market-based and informational policy instruments. Specifically, preferences for regulatory policy instruments are positively associated with hierarchy and egalitarian worldviews and are negatively associated with fatalism and individualistic worldviews with only hierarchy and fatalism are significant. The market-based policy instrument is desirable to all cultural worldviews except fatalism, but only egalitarian and individual worldviews are significant. Preferences for informational policy instruments are positively associated with all cultural worldviews but only egalitarian worldviews showed a significant effect. Although there are some contradictions, these results are broadly consistent with the proposition of the cultural theory of risk. This study highlights that preferences for land use policies are heterogeneous with cultural worldviews mainly explaining the sources of this heterogeneity. It is evident that the respondents were willing to consent to land use policies relative to the status quo of no policy and indicates the need for concerted effort to reduce land degradation and deforestation in the country. We, therefore, recommend that policymakers incorporate the different ways that humans perceive and interpret social-environmental relations into policy decisions to achieve sustainable policy outcomes

Understanding young people’s perception toward forestation as a strategy to mitigate climate change in a post-conflict developing country

Understanding the perceptions of young people is a critical issue in the formulation and implementation of climate change mitigation strategies. Based on cognitive hierarchy theory, the present study aims to investigate the factors that motivate or hinder young people’s perception of forestation as a strategy to mitigate climate change in post-conflict Somalia. This study hypothesized a model in which climate change knowledge, risk perception and forest value orientations (anthropocentric/biocentric) influence attitude toward forestation and attitude, in turn, predicts behavioral intentions. We randomly surveyed students from three universities in three different regions of Somalia and collected 434 structured survey questionnaires. Using structural equation modeling, the results showed that climate change knowledge is a significant predictor of behavioral intention but not attitude toward forestation. The results also revealed that young people’s perception toward forestation as a strategy to mitigate climate change is significantly influenced by biocentric value orientation both directly and indirectly through attitude toward forestation. Contrary to previous studies, our results indicate that attitude partially mediates the relationship between biocentric value orientation and behavioral intentions and fully mediates the relationship between anthropocentric value orientation, risk perception and behavioral intentions, while it did not show any mediation results between climate change knowledge and behavioral intention. We found that the young people’s climate action or inaction is mainly shaped by climate change knowledge, biocentric value orientation, and attitude toward forestation. Finally, climate change mitigation efforts should avoid relying solely on attitude for behavioral decision-making formation and instead incorporate other factors into a more comprehensive framework

Value of cultural worldviews and message framing for the acceptability of sustainable land use zoning policies in post-conflict Somalia

Public acceptability is important for sustainable land use zoning policy to be successfully implemented. This study examined the effectiveness of tailoring messages with cultural worldviews to induce positive attitudes and improve public acceptability of sustainable land use zoning policy in a post-conflict setting. A total of 538 participants were randomly divided into three groups. Two were treatment groups and received promotional information about a hypothetical land use zoning policy, and one group was the control group and received no promotional information. The results indicate that information provision results in positive attitudes and higher public acceptability of land use zoning policy. Arguments that correspond to participants' cultural worldviews generated more positive attitudes and higher acceptability than arguments that conflict with their cultural worldviews. This study recommends targeting messages with peoples’ cultural worldviews as an effective strategy in inducing positive attitudes and higher acceptability for sustainable land use zoning policy in Somalia

Participation of civil society in decisions to mitigate environmental degradation in post-conflict societies: evidence from Somalia

The question of the degree to which participation by civil society contributes to environmental decisions in post-conflict societies has received little attention. This study sheds light on the extent to which degrees of participation contribute to environmental decision-making in the Puntland State of Somalia using questionnaire surveys. We found that active participation has the highest contribution to environmental decisions. Our findings also indicated that the most pressing forms of environmental degradation in Puntland, as perceived by the respondents, are land degradation, drought related to the scarcity of rainfall, and deforestation. This study recommends “environmental cooperation” built into the peace-building process as a clear-cut concept to tackle both environmental degradation and conflicts. At the core of this concept is active participation and collaboration between civil society and the government as a means of mitigating environmental degradation in post-conflict Somalia. This will result in favorable environmental conditions and sustainable peace