8 March 2021 – Compassion. Service. Empathy. These are a few qualities that resonate with doctors and health workers around the world, and in Somalia. In Mogadishu, armed with these qualities, Dr Naima Abdulkarim, Public Health Emergency Officer for the World Health Organization (WHO) in Somalia, is braving several challenges to follow her dream to serve her community. 

“My mother worked as a nurse, and every time I saw her help children and women in our village, I used to say, ‘Mom, I want to be like you,’” said Dr Naima, who joined WHO Somalia in May 2019. 

Since then, she has been working closely with her team members, Government counterparts and other partners to prepare for and respond to health emergencies in the country.  

Making a difference in the fight against COVID-19  

Around a year ago, since the first case of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) was confirmed in Somalia, Dr Naima has been working at an isolation centre at the De Martino Hospital in Mogadishu. Her work includes providing support to the Federal Ministry of Health teams in conducting COVID-19 tests, contact tracing, capacity-building and case management. She is also supporting infection prevention and control efforts, collecting data and raising awareness of diseases like COVID-19 among the community. 

Dr Naima feels fortunate that she gets to live her dream every single day at work. One day, she explains, she received a call from one of the local community health workers supported by WHO and the Federal Government. The health worker informed her about a person – Mohamed*- who had some recent travel history, and was presenting with signs and symptoms of COVID-19 in a village. 

Unfortunately, Mohamed and his family hid from the community health worker, as they didn’t believe in COVID-19 and insisted it was just a common cold.  

Even though most routes to the village were closed due to security issues, Dr Naima set out to meet Mohamed. Covered with her personal protection gear, including a face mask and hand gloves, and with help from the local community, Dr Naima visited Mohamed’s family. From a safe distance, she explained to them the effects of COVID-19 and how to prevent it. She also explained how isolation could help them all from spreading the disease if it was indeed COVID-19. After a while, the family understood her message, and allowed Dr Naima to admit the patient in the isolation centre. After 3 days, Dr Naima received a call from Mohamed’s family – 2 more of their family members had similar symptoms that were not too serious. Now that they knew better, they managed to isolate themselves at home, they explained. 

When she checked on them after a few days, Dr Naima was pleased to note that Mohamed and his family members had recovered well and had avoided any further spread of the disease. 

Standing tall in the face of stereotypes

Dr Naima’s professional life doesn’t come without personal challenges. As she studied or discussed her ambitions, people were always trying to convince Dr Naima to change her mind about becoming a doctor.

“I have had to face a lot of questions and comments from people, like, ‘A woman will never be able to survive such a terrible emergency,’ or, ‘This is a man’s job,’” says Dr Naima, beaming as if to show she has proved them all wrong. 

Her passion for humanitarian work and helping her community has kept her strong and dedicated over time.

“If there was one thing I could change about my country,” says Dr Naima, “I would change people’s belief that women cannot learn and cannot do everything, because we can. We can do anything we put our hearts into, no matter where we live.”  

Mogadishu, 8 March 2021 – On 25 February 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) country office for Somalia and the SPIDER Center (based within University of Stockholm) signed a non-financial memorandum of understanding (MOU) to formalize a partnership that aims to develop an integrated and digital health information management system (HIMS) in Somalia. 

Somalia’s health system has been weakened by decades of conflict and recurring natural disasters. In particular, Somalia lacks a comprehensive HIMS capable of electronically collecting and sharing information from community to national level. While WHO continues to explore possibilities of establishing an integrated disease surveillance and reporting (IDSR) system in Somalia, the SPIDER Center, alongside the Federal Ministry of Health and health authorities in Puntland, Galmudug and Banaadir, launched a 3-year project entitled “Health Alliance for Digital Development and Action”. The aim of this project, funded by the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA), is to create and strengthen a HIMS in Puntland, Galmudug and Banaadir as a pilot project, which will then inform further development and expansion of such a system at national level across Somalia. 

It is within this context that WHO and SPIDER have agreed to collaborate on developing this HIMS, as well as an IDSR system in the country. An audit and needs assessment will be used to determine what the best HIMS may be for Somalia, after which partners will work towards developing harmonized Standard Operating Procedures for its development. As the United Nations’ lead technical agency for health, WHO will offer technical support to this project and facilitate the identification of local opportunities for resource support. Overall, this collaboration will help strengthen Somalia’s health system, and how health data is stored, thereby improving health for all.

“WHO remains committed to working with SPIDER to improve the data management system in Somalia. Data remain the key for informed public health decisions. This collaboration will be pivotal in improving the capacity of the health workers in the country to collect, collate and analyze health and nutrition data in a way that helps them to measure health outcome and impact. We are hopeful that this collaboration will help the country to build its own capacity to monitor and track progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals by systematically analyzing the available health information,” said Dr Mamunur Rahman Malik, the WHO Representative to Somalia. 

“This collaboration is a good starting point for engagement with key actors working to strengthen Somalia’s health system. An integrated HIMS ought to serve the needs of all actors in a health system. A multi-stakeholder approach is key to achieve consensus that creates a responsive and adaptable health system in Somalia. SPIDER and Stockholm University are happy to engage in these partnerships to consolidate resources required to realise the SDGs,” said Dr John Owuor, SPIDER’s director.

This MOU between WHO and SPIDER is part of a new, innovative partnership between WHO, Sweden and Somali health authorities, which aims to diminish persistent health problems by creating an independent National Institute of Health, as well as by modernizing the country’s HIMS. It is complementary to the MOU recently signed between WHO and the Public Health Agency of Sweden. 

Related links

An innovative and unique partnership: WHO, Sweden and Somalia work together to improve health outcomes for all Somalis

WHO and Public Health Agency of Sweden sign MoU to support establishment of National Institute of Health for Somalia

Case management training, Hudur Hospital, South West State, Somalia

10 February 2020 – In 2019, a joint mission consisting of inter-cluster and inter-ministerial officials visited Hudur Hospital, located in the Bakool region of South West State – a drought-prone area, with a total population of 350 000 hosting 23 000 displaced persons. The mission identified access to emergency and trauma health care services as critical gaps, in particular for Hudur’s displaced population, which was found to be in need of immediate life-saving and integrated health and nutrition services. The mission also found that the hospital lacked: key medical equipment, including a proper operating theatre; sufficient human resources; a functional referral system linked to primary care facilities in the region; and capacity to address communicable diseases and provide adequate obstetric care. As the only referral hospital for the entire Bakool region, there is much to be done to improve this important facility.

It is against this backdrop that the WHO country office in Somalia developed 2 complementary projects, including the “Emergency health response programme for vulnerable populations of Hudur” and “Emergency interventions supporting WHO’s activities for people with physical disabilities and victims of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in Hudur.” Together, these initiatives aim to provide lifesaving and integrated health and nutrition services to host communities and internally displaced persons (IDP), as well as support the provision of emergency obstetric and trauma care to pregnant women and other patients.

The projects also seek to support the construction of an outpatient unit, operating theatre and incinerator, as well as establish referral support for critical care, thereby creating linkages between primary and secondary health care facilities in Hudur town. To achieve this, WHO trained 30 health workers in disease outbreak detection, investigation and response, particularly through: use of the Early Warning and Response Network (EWARN) system; providing gender-sensitive emergency mental health and psychosocial services within the hospital; training health workers, youth and elders on de-stigmatization; procuring emergency medical supplies and equipment; and deploying emergency response mobile teams within Hudur and surrounding areas. WHO will also support the construction of an outpatient unit and operating theatre, hospital incinerator, installation of Solar Hybrid System as well as the development of rain water harvesting structures. Overall, the project targets 85 000 women and men in the host community and IDP camps, as well as 17 000 pregnant women and 7200 trauma patients.

The WHO expresses its sincere thanks to the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation for its generous support as part of these important projects and encourages other donors and partners to scale up support for Hudur Hospital, as the only referral hospital in the entire Bakool region.

For further details, please contact:

Mr Kyle DeFreitas
External Relations Officer
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Mogadishu, 4 February 2021 – Yesterday, the European Union (EU) launched a €5 million multi-year project to support the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Federal Government of Somalia to prevent further community spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and to strengthen the health services delivery across the country as Somalia’s health systems start recovering from the aftershock of the pandemic.

“We are grateful for our collaboration with WHO which has made all involved actors work as a team in this pandemic. In the path towards a prosperous and stable Somalia, COVID-19 should be seen as an opportunity to develop better public services and make Federal and States’ institutions work together in a more coordinated way,” said Nicolás Berlanga Martínez, EU Ambassador to Somalia. 

“In addition to saving lives and preventing the spread of COVID-19, this project will help us build a legacy for Somalia’s health systems,” said HE Dr Fawziya Abikar Nur, Minister of Health and Human Services, Federal Government of Somalia. “We are grateful to our partners, the EU and WHO, who are supporting us to reduce the burden and effects of deadly and communicable diseases, save lives of our community members, and make our health systems stronger and more effective.” 

“We are leaving no stone unturned. Together with the EU, and the Federal Government of Somalia, we are redoubling our efforts to ensure everyone, everywhere in this country is safe and protected from COVID-19 and other health threats. Building integrated disease surveillance systems and the capacity of health care workers on disease detection and surveillance will remain key to achieving the impact of the project. Strengthening coordination and operational capacity for risk communication, delivering people-centred primary health care services will ensure access and availability of health services for marginalized and vulnerable populations. This will contribute immensely for building blocks of the health systems,” said Dr Mamunur Rahman Malik, WHO Representative in Somalia.

The project, entitled ‘Emergency operational response to COVID-19 in Somalia to support the prevention of large-scale community spread through public health systems strengthening’, aims to contain and suppress the COVID-19 epidemic, and other disease outbreaks, in locations where signs of virus circulation and transmission continue. The project, which was signed in December 2020, will contribute to preventing large-scale community transmission of COVID-19 and further spread and/or resurgence of the virus, as well as other epidemic-prone diseases, while, also, helping health systems recover better and stronger. WHO and the Federal Ministry of Health will jointly implement the project.

Over a 3-year period, the project will support institution and capacity-building of the health workforce in the country, such as establishing integrated data management and surveillance system and launching a new services availability and readiness assessment (SARA) survey, which will consolidate information on all health facilities and services available across the country. This information will be useful to better understand how the project is having an impact on its beneficiaries by improving health and keeping them safe and protected.

A complementary EU-funded project for UN-Habitat, which aims at supporting preparedness, response and mitigation activities for reducing the negative impacts of COVID-19 on health, public hygiene and livelihoods was also launched at this event.

Note to editors

This new and vital multi-year partnership stems from a Bilateral Technical Coordination Mechanism previously established between WHO Somalia and the EU Delegation to Somalia, which sought to strengthen operational response capacities for COVID-19 and other health emergencies. Additionally, US$ 1.9 million was provided by the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO) to WHO in January 2020, in support of WHO’s COVID-19 preparedness and response operations in Somalia.

Related links

EU and WHO Somalia sign multi-year agreement to combat COVID-19 and strengthen health systems

WHO and EU unite to fight COVID-19 in Somalia

EU and WHO unite to deliver critical life-saving supplies to flood-affected areas in Somalia

European Union and WHO Somalia deliver more emergency hospital supplies

EU and WHO deliver emergency life-saving supplies to flood-affected areas in Somalia

Responding to Cyclone Gati in Puntland: immediate assistance needed for prevention of waterborne diseases

For further information, please contact:

Mr Kyle DeFreitas
External Relations & Resource Mobilization Officer
WHO Somalia
Mob: +254-782-501-324
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Ms Fouzia Bano
Communications Officer
WHO Somalia
Mob: +252-619-235-880
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Mr Vicente Sellés
Programme Manager/Liaison Officer
Delegation of the European Union to the Federal Republic of Somalia
Mob: +252-619-505-392
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