Solar panels at Dollow maternal child health centre, Dollow, Jubaland State. Photo credit: Tamarso.

22 October 2024, Mogadishu, Somalia – In 2023, the WHO Country Office in Somalia and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia launched Every Breath Counts, a collaborative initiative aimed at improving health service delivery for children suffering from pneumonia and diarrhoea, the two biggest health threats faced by children in Somalia. With a financial contribution of US$ 2 million from the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre, the project focused on equipping health facilities with solar power and oxygen supplies, biomedical equipment and essential medicines.

The solarization of 26 health facilities was central to the project. The Ministry of Health and Human Services guided the selection of facilities and WHO contracted a renewable energy company based in Mogadishu to spearhead the solarization efforts.

A panel for the solar system at Galkayo maternal child health centre, Puntland. Photo credit: Tamarso.Seventeen maternal and child health centres have been equipped with solar power systems, ensuring a green, sustainable and affordable supply of electricity. The project also facilitated the installation of solar systems in 9 referral hospitals, with the goal of ensuring a constant oxygen supply for critically ill patients in emergency rooms and inpatients needing oxygen therapy at both primary and secondary care levels.

The project includes a 5-year after-sales service agreement, with maintenance scheduled twice a year, and routine maintenance training for health facility staff, including hospital managers and operators.

Solar panels at Horseed maternal child health centre, Baidoa, Southwest State. Photo credit: TamarsoOnly 28% of health facilities in Somalia have access to reliable, uninterrupted electricity. Half of primary health care units in rural areas have either no electricity or an irregular supply. Services provided by primary health care centres, including deliveries, pediatric emergencies and vaccine administration, are severely affected. In remote areas, health care workers often depend on kerosene lamps for light when conducting surgical operations, cesarean-sections and treating critically ill patients. Children can also remain unvaccinated due to the lack of cold chain facilities for the transport and storage of vaccines.

By providing solar power and reliable oxygen supplies, the initiative is expected to reduce deaths caused by pneumonia and alleviate the referral burden on hospitals.

Stable power supplies promote the delivery of Somalia’s essential package of health services, including maternal care and vaccination programmes, and contribute to progress toward universal health coverage.

For more information, contact:

Myriam Haberecht, Resource Mobilization Officer
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Fouzia Bano, Communications Officer
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Polio champion Maryan Jama Du’ale retires after 2.5 decades

Maryam Jama Du’ale at her retirement farewell ceremony hosted by WHO Somalia in Hargeisa, Somaliland. Photo credit: WHO/WHO Somalia31 July 2024 – In April 1998, certified nurse and public health officer Maryan Jama Du’ale was invited to a workshop to get familiar with a new initiative: the National Polio Eradication Programme. She made an impression at the event, which was hosted by WHO and the health ministry of the self-declared administration of Somaliland. Within a few weeks, Maryan joined the programme as a district polio officer in Hargeisa, Somaliland.

Her role included setting up surveillance sites to search for poliovirus in children aged under 15 years. She was also tasked with supporting the implementation of polio vaccination campaigns in Somaliland and supervising her teams to quickly address any setbacks.

When Maryan began her work, Somalia was engulfed in a civil war, its health infrastructure was in ruins and vaccine-preventable diseases, such as polio, were rampant. Back then, many people in the country did not know that polio existed – even though Somalia confirmed 12 wild poliovirus (WPV) cases in 1998.

Like many other communities around the world, many people in Somalia were afraid of vaccination. Limited awareness of polio-related activities also meant that some were initially sceptical about the need to collect stool samples from children presenting with acute flaccid paralysis (AFP), a common symptom of poliomyelitis.

“Community members thought vaccination would stop childbirth or that it was against our religion,” explains Maryan. “It took us a lot of time and effort to help people to understand that polio vaccines are safe and rigorously tested before use. Vaccine acceptance is much better now, although we face other challenges, such as complexities in reaching children in insecure areas. However, most people now understand that we collect stool samples from children with AFP to test for poliovirus.”

Inspired by a child to eradicate polio

Group photo taken with retiree Maryan Jama Du’ale at her farewell ceremony. Photo credit: WHO/WHO SomaliaEarly on in her work, Maryan met a child who had been paralysed by WPV in the village of Qool-buulale, on the Somalia–Ethiopia border. It was a meeting that shaped the rest of her career.

“That first encounter with a child paralysed by polio moved me. It made me understand the importance and impact of our work. I saw first-hand how our work could prevent further spread of polioviruses and protect children from lifelong paralysis,” she says.

The available health facilities, which were inadequate and far apart, could not address emerging cases and the need to provide vaccines.

“When we heard about polio cases, we often had to use donkey carts or camels to transport vaccines to reach remote villages or mountains. When a case was reported near the border, we would cross all kinds of terrain to reach children,” adds Maryan.

Over her career, Maryan and her teams helped ensure children received polio vaccinations and other health services. They did this with the help of dedicated medical doctors and trained health volunteers, and through social mobilization and outreach campaigns, among other strategies, backed by partners.

Owing to these immense efforts, the National Polio Eradication Programme made significant progress. Four years after the immunization programme was established, Somalia interrupted transmission of WPV, in 1998. Later, Somalia confirmed and closed a couple of imported WPV1 outbreaks, from 2005 to 2007 and from 2013 to 2014.

WHO Somalia Communication Officer Khadar Hared is pictured with Maryan Jama Du’ale after interviewing the polio champion about her experiences in Hargeisa. Photo credit: WHO/WHO SomaliaThe last time Maryan saw a child with WPV in Somaliland was in 2017 in Burco, Togdheer. In October 2017, however, Somalia confirmed an outbreak of variant poliovirus, which occurs in places where children have low immunity. Although Somalia has closed WPV and variant polio outbreaks before, the variant poliovirus that was detected in 2017 is still smouldering in the country. Maryan firmly believes Somalia will end this outbreak soon too.

“Witnessing that our collective efforts, alongside the government and partners, had contributed to stopping poliovirus spread, time and again, continuously filled me with immense pride and happiness,” adds Maryan.

Passing on the baton after 26 years of service

Gradually, by earning communities’ trust and working to expand the programme over the years, Maryan rose through the ranks to become a state polio eradication officer. In this role, she managed eradication efforts across Somaliland. She retired in January 2024, after 26 years of exemplary service.

Maryan’s story reveals the power of resilience and the unwavering commitment of the health workforce to end polio in Somalia, even amid great adversity.

Somalia has made great progress in rolling out COVID-19 vaccination and these efforts will be sustained as part of the Big Catch-up, a global WHO initiative to boost access to immunization. Photo credit: WHO/I. Taxta16 July 2024 – Since COVID-19 was first detected in Somalia in March 2020, the country has made remarkable progress in limiting its spread and rolling out COVID-19 vaccination. Thanks to support from partners including WHO Somalia, almost 50% of Somalia’s population is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, as at 30 March 2024.

But more must be done to protect Somalia from COVID-19 and to leverage the existing gains to strengthen immunization and the health system more broadly.

One such initiative is the Somalia COVID-19 Emergency Vaccination Project, which has been central to the COVID-19 vaccination efforts to date and is set to continue until September 2025. The Federal Government of Somalia implements the project through the Ministry of Health and WHO Somalia, with financial support from the World Bank.

Since July 2023, the project has supported Ministry of Health efforts to expand the coverage of COVID-19 vaccines and strengthen essential immunization services across Somalia. A crucial part of this work is strengthening the organizational capacity of the National Medicine Regulatory Authority (NMRA), as well as Somalia’s surveillance system for immunization.

To date, the project has supported the following efforts.

The administration of over 12 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines. As a result, 49.7% of Somalia’s population are fully vaccinated. This includes 60% of all internally displaced people in the country and 8% of the nomadic populations.

Surveillance of adverse events following immunization (AEFI) has been integrated into the existing health information management system.

Training of trainers on AEFI surveillance has been delivered to 267 health workers (60% female).

Building of NMRA’s organizational capacity, which has included development of a training plan; a study tour of Kenya and Uganda, to learn from their respective national regulatory authorities for medicines; and regular supportive meetings between NMRA and WHO.

Training on AEFI surveillance in Puntland, Somalia. Photo credit: WHO SomaliaThe Somalia COVID-19 Emergency Vaccination Project is expected to help the country achieve its target of fully vaccinating 70% of the population against COVID-19 by end 2024.

Over the next 14 months, to September 2025, the project will integrate COVID-19 vaccination within the Big Catch-up. This global WHO initiative aims to reinstate and enhance access to childhood immunization, which was disrupted worldwide during the COVID-19 emergency.

Dr Renee Van de Weerdt, WHO Representative to Somalia, said: “WHO has a long history of working with the Government of Somalia to improve access to routine immunizations that save lives. Since the start of the pandemic, we have stepped up our collaboration to improve surveillance and response capacities and then to ensure equitable access to COVID-19 vaccination.”

“It is heartening to see the strong results of this collaboration,” she continued. “Not only is the target of fully vaccinating 70% of the Somali population within reach, but systems have been built to ensure that Somalia is better prepared to face the next health emergency. We express our gratitude to the funders who have made this work possible, particularly the World Bank, as well as to the Government of Somalia for leading this initiative.”

For more information, please contact:

Madinur Saydahmat, Partnerships Officer, WHO Somalia
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Fouzia Bano, Communications Officer, WHO Somalia
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Related links

WHO’s response to COVID-19 in Somalia

Health for all is Somalia’s answer to COVID-19 and future threats to health (who.int)

USAID support leads to 47% of eligible Somalis being vaccinated against COVID-19

Dr Uday Raj Naidu Canchi Bhoopal (pictured in the middle), a WHO subnational Health Cluster coordinator, joins the Health Cluster strategic advisory group in a humanitarian fund allocation review exercise for partners in Jubaland. Photo credit: WHO/WHO Somalia3 July 2024, Mogadishu, Somalia – Ms Fatima Abdirazak Ahmed joined WHO in Somalia at the beginning of 2024 as a subnational Health Cluster coordinator in Hirshabelle state. Having just finished a meeting with 15 Health Cluster partners, she heads to the office of Hirshabelle State Ministry of Health. Here, she will brief and discuss with the Director-General the ongoing efforts of the Health Cluster to reach vulnerable and underserved communities with health services during the measles and cholera outbreaks across the state. Health Cluster partners thus play a crucial role in the collection and reporting of disease surveillance data.

Dr Uday Raj Naidu Canchi Bhoopal is a subnational Health Cluster coordinator based in Kismayo, Jubaland. He leads regular Health Cluster meetings to coordinate partners’ actions on humanitarian response, from provision of supplies to service delivery, particularly for measles and cholera outbreak response. He also coordinates critical training for Health Cluster partners. Recently, he facilitated training for 12 health professionals, from various health facilities, on clinical management of severe acute malnutrition with medical complications, and cholera case management. The latter gave health workers the knowledge and practical skills to manage cholera cases appropriately and promote infection prevention and control in cholera treatment units in line with globally recognized practices and protocols.

Along with Fatima and Naidu, 5 more state-level Health Cluster coordinators are deployed across Somalia to ensure subnational coordination among partners and with state ministries of health. These subnational Health Cluster coordinators play a pivotal role in emergency response – for example, understanding demand and coordinating the provision of essential supplies – and in health system strengthening. For instance, they promote the use of the Somalia Essential Package of Health Services (EPHS) as a harmonized standard for health service delivery and outbreak response efforts.

Importantly, the Health Cluster coordinators also work with the other clusters, including the Food Security, Nutrition, WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) and Protection clusters. This coordination enables integrated responses to people in need of humanitarian assistance.

In Somalia, the Health Cluster comprises 81 partners: 28 international non-governmental organizations (NGOs), 42 national NGOs, 4 United Nations agencies, 3 donors, 3 observers and a single national authority. It is co-led by WHO and Save the Children.

Initially, only the national-level Health Cluster Coordination structure was in place. WHO was able to recruit 7 subnational Health Cluster coordinators (4 international and 3 national staff) thanks to funding support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA). Having a well-functioning subnational Health Cluster structure supports operational coordination much closer to the affected population and better adapted to its specific needs, enabling true localization.

Since the subnational Health Cluster coordinators were deployed, the regular Health Cluster coordination meetings have fostered stronger coordination and collaboration among health actors. The impact of the new coordinators’ efforts was showcased at a recent meeting of the Somalia Health Partner Group (SHPG). At the meeting, Erna van Goor, National Health Cluster Coordinator, based in Mogadishu, presented to the donors and partners illustrative maps produced and monitored by the Health Cluster. These maps show the locations and functionality of health facilities and current availability of health services across the country. This presentation vividly demonstrated the complexities and triumphs of the work of the Health Cluster and its coordinators, which was highly valued by humanitarian and development actors for their essential role in preventing duplication of efforts, monitoring service availability and quality, and addressing the health needs of the most vulnerable populations. 

For more information, please contact 

Erna van Goor, National Health Cluster Coordinator, WHO Somalia
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Madinur Saydahmat, Partnerships Officer, WHO Somalia
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